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Exercise 1687Combinatorics › Graph theoryL1Added 3 Nov 2026

Hall's marriage theorem (statement)

#Hall#marriage#matching

Statement

State Hall's marriage theorem for bipartite graphs.

Hint

For a bipartite graph G=(X,Y;E)G=(X,Y;E), there is a matching saturating XX iff for every S⊆XS\subseteq X, ∣N(S)∣≥∣S∣|N(S)|\ge|S|.

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Solution

Theorem. A bipartite graph G=(X,Y;E)G=(X,Y;E) has a matching that saturates every vertex of XX iff for every S⊆XS\subseteq X, ∣N(S)∣≥∣S∣|N(S)|\ge|S|.

Example. Kn,nK_{n,n} satisfies the condition (∣N(S)∣=∣Y∣=n≥∣S∣|N(S)|=|Y|=n\ge|S|), so it has a perfect matching.

Non-example. Triangle a,b,ca,b,c with bipartition X={a}X=\{a\}, Y={b,c}Y=\{b,c\}: trivially satisfiable. But X={a,b}X=\{a,b\} in C4C_4 minus an edge: if S={a,b}S=\{a,b\} and N(S)={c}N(S)=\{c\} (only one neighbor), condition fails.

Conclusion. Hall's condition is necessary and sufficient.