ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Kautz graph

A Kautz graph is like a game of connect-the-dots. Imagine you have a bunch of dots, and you want to draw lines to connect them in a certain way. But this isn't just any way – you want to connect them in a specific pattern that makes a pretty picture.

In a Kautz graph, the dots are called vertices and the lines that connect them are called edges. The pattern that the edges form is based on a special sequence of numbers, called a de Bruijn sequence.

A de Bruijn sequence is a sequence of 0s and 1s that contains every possible sequence of 0s and 1s of a certain length exactly once. Think of it like having all the possible combinations of a certain set of letters, but without any duplicates.

So in a Kautz graph, the vertices represent these sequences and the edges connect them in a specific way. The result is a pretty pattern that mathematicians like to study and use in various applications, like computer networks and coding theory.

But don't worry, you don't have to be a mathematician to appreciate the beauty of a Kautz graph! Just think of it as a fancy way to connect some dots and make a cool picture.