# Independent set (graph theory)

The nine blue vertices form a maximum independent set for the Generalized Petersen graph GP(12,4).

In graph theory, an independent set, stable set, coclique or anticlique is a set of vertices in a graph, no two of which are adjacent. That is, it is a set ${\displaystyle S}$ of vertices such that for every two vertices in ${\displaystyle S}$, there is no edge connecting the two. Equivalently, each edge in the graph has at most one endpoint in ${\displaystyle S}$. The size of an independent set is the number of vertices it contains. Independent sets have also been called internally stable sets.[1]

A maximal independent set is an independent set that is not a proper subset of any other independent set.

A maximum independent set is an independent set of largest possible size for a given graph ${\displaystyle G}$. This size is called the independence number of ${\displaystyle G}$, and denoted ${\displaystyle \alpha (G)}$.[2] The problem of finding such a set is called the maximum independent set problem and is an NP-hard optimization problem. As such, it is unlikely that there exists an efficient algorithm for finding a maximum independent set of a graph.

Every maximum independent set also is maximal, but the converse implication does not necessarily hold.

## Properties

### Relationship to other graph parameters

A set is independent if and only if it is a clique in the graph’s complement, so the two concepts are complementary. In fact, sufficiently large graphs with no large cliques have large independent sets, a theme that is explored in Ramsey theory.

A set is independent if and only if its complement is a vertex cover.[3] Therefore, the sum of the size of the largest independent set ${\displaystyle \alpha (G)}$ and the size of a minimum vertex cover ${\displaystyle \beta (G)}$ is equal to the number of vertices in the graph.

A vertex coloring of a graph ${\displaystyle G}$ corresponds to a partition of its vertex set into independent subsets. Hence the minimal number of colors needed in a vertex coloring, the chromatic number ${\displaystyle \chi (G)}$, is at least the quotient of the number of vertices in ${\displaystyle G}$ and the independent number ${\displaystyle \alpha (G)}$.

In a bipartite graph with no isolated vertices, the number of vertices in a maximum independent set equals the number of edges in a minimum edge covering; this is Kőnig's theorem.

### Maximal independent set

An independent set that is not a proper subset of another independent set is called maximal. Such sets are dominating sets. Every graph contains at most 3n/3 maximal independent sets,[4] but many graphs have far fewer. The number of maximal independent sets in n-vertex cycle graphs is given by the Perrin numbers, and the number of maximal independent sets in n-vertex path graphs is given by the Padovan sequence.[5] Therefore, both numbers are proportional to powers of 1.324718..., the plastic number.