BEST Theorem - Precise Statement

Precise Statement

Let G = (V, E) be a directed graph. An Eulerian circuit is a directed closed path which visits each edge exactly once. In 1736, Euler showed that G has an Eulerian circuit if and only if G is connected and the indegree is equal to outdegree at every vertex. In this case G is called Eulerian. We denote these in- and out-degree of a vertex v by deg(v).

The BEST theorem states that the number ec(G) of Eulerian circuits in a connected Eulerian graph G is given by this formula:


\operatorname{ec}(G) = t_w(G) \prod_{v\in V} \bigl(\deg(v)-1\bigr)!

Here tw(G) is the number of arborescences, which are trees directed towards the root at a fixed vertex w in G. The number tw(G) can be computed as a determinant, by the version of the matrix tree theorem for directed graphs. It is a property of Eulerian graphs that tv(G) = tw(G) for every two vertices v and w in a connected Eulerian graph G.

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