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Reference.org
Peripheral cycle
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<p>In <a href="/facts/Graph_theory/VVPCd4TX">graph theory</a>, a peripheral cycle (or peripheral circuit) in an <a href="/facts/Undirected_graph/kw3eIBUe">undirected graph</a> is, intuitively, a <a href="/facts/Cycle_(graph_theory)/Is44edrv">cycle</a> that does not separate any part of the graph from any other part. Peripheral cycles (or, as they were initially called, peripheral polygons, because <a href="/facts/Tutte/8VbfbzU6">Tutte</a> called cycles "polygons") were first studied by Tutte (1963), and play important roles in the characterization of <a href="/facts/Planar_graph/plREagr9">planar graphs</a> and in generating the <a href="/facts/Cycle_space/NeWx2guT">cycle spaces</a> of nonplanar graphs. </p>