ON 3-CHOOSABILITY OF PLANE GRAPHS WITHOUT 6-,7- AND 9-CYCLES

The choice number of a graph G,denoted by X1(G),is the minimum number k such that if a list of k colors is given to each vertex of G,there is a vertex coloring of G where each vertex receives a color from its own list no matter what the lists are. In this paper,it is showed that X1 (G)≤3 for each plane graph of girth not less than 4 which contains no 6-, 7- and 9-cycles.     

On a graph packing conjecture by Bollobás,Eldridge and Catlin

Two graphs G ₁ and G ₂ of order n pack if there exist injective mappings of their vertex sets into [n], such that the images of the edge sets are disjoint. In 1978, Bollobás and Eldridge, and independently Catlin, conjectured that if (Δ(G ₁) + 1)(Δ(G ₂) + 1) ≤ n + 1, then G ₁ and G ₂ pack. Towards this conjecture, we show that for Δ(G ₁),Δ(G ₂) ≥ 300, if (Δ(G ₁) + 1)(Δ(G ₂) + 1) ≤ 0.6n + 1, then G ₁ and G ₂ pack. This is also an improvement, for large maximum degrees, over the classical result by Sauer and Spencer that G ₁ and G ₂ pack if Δ(G ₁)Δ(G ₂) < 0.5n. This work was supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0400498. The work of the second author was also partly supported by NSF grant DMS-0650784 and grant 05-01-00816 of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. The work of the third author was supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0652306.     

Path extendable graphs

A pathP in a graphG is said to beextendable if there exists a pathP’ inG with the same endvertices asP such thatV(P)⊆V (P’) and |V(P’)|=|V(P)|+1. A graphG ispath extendable if every nonhamiltonian path inG is extendable. We investigate the extent to which known sufficient conditions for a graph to be hamiltonian-connected imply the extendability of paths in the graph. Several theorems are proved: for example, it is shown that ifG is a graph of orderp in which the degree sum of each pair of non-adjacent vertices is at leastp+1 andP is a nonextendable path of orderk inG thenk≤(p+1)/2 and 〈V (P)〉≅K _k orK _k −e. As corollaries of this we deduce that if δ(G)≥(p+2)/2 or if the degree sum of each pair of nonadjacent vertices inG is at least (3p−3)/2 thenG is path extendable, which strengthen results of Williamson [13].     

Canonical edge-colourings of locally finite graphs

A variety of results on edge-colourings are proved, the main one being the following: ifG is a graph without loops or multiple edges and with maximum degree Δ=Δ(G), and if ν is a given integer 1≦ν≦Δ(G), thenG can be given a proper edge-colouring with the coloursc ₁, ...,c _Δ+1 with the additional property that any edge colouredc _μ with μ≧ν is on a vertex which has on it edges coloured with at least ν − 1 ofc ₁, ...,c _v .     

A sufficient degree condition for a graph to contain all trees of size <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>

The Erdős-Sós conjecture says that a graph G on n vertices and number of edges e(G) > n(k− 1)/2 contains all trees of size k. In this paper we prove a sufficient condition for a graph to contain every tree of size k formulated in terms of the minimum edge degree ζ(G) of a graph G defined as ζ(G) = min{d(u) + d(v) − 2: uv ∈ E(G)}. More precisely, we show that a connected graph G with maximum degree Δ(G) ≥ k and minimum edge degree ζ(G) ≥ 2k − 4 contains every tree of k edges if d _G (x) + d _G (y) ≥ 2k − 4 for all pairs x, y of nonadjacent neighbors of a vertex u of d _G (u) ≥ k.     

List Coloring of Random and Pseudo-Random Graphs

choice number of a graph G is the minimum integer k such that for every assignment of a set S(v) of k colors to every vertex v of G, there is a proper coloring of G that assigns to each vertex v a color from S(v). It is shown that the choice number of the random graph G(n, p(n)) is almost surely whenever . A related result for pseudo-random graphs is proved as well. By a special case of this result, the choice number (as well as the chromatic number) of any graph on n vertices with minimum degree at least in which no two distinct vertices have more than common neighbors is at most . Received: October 13, 1997     

Total Colorings Of Degenerate Graphs

A total coloring of a graph G is a coloring of all elements of G, i.e. vertices and edges, such that no two adjacent or incident elements receive the same color. A graph G is s-degenerate for a positive integer s if G can be reduced to a trivial graph by successive removal of vertices with degree ≤s. We prove that an s-degenerate graph G has a total coloring with Δ+1 colors if the maximum degree Δ of G is sufficiently large, say Δ≥4s+3. Our proof yields an efficient algorithm to find such a total coloring. We also give a lineartime algorithm to find a total coloring of a graph G with the minimum number of colors if G is a partial k-tree, that is, the tree-width of G is bounded by a fixed integer k.     

Extremal clique coverings of complementary graphs

Letcc(G) (resp. cp(G)) be the least number of complete subgraphs needed to cover (resp. partition) the edges of a graphG. We present bounds on max {cc(G)+cc(Ḡ)}, max {cp(G)+cp(Ḡ)}, max {cc(G)cc(Ḡ)} and max {cp(G)cp(Ḡ)} where the maxima are taken over all graphsG onn vertices and Ḡ is the complement ofG inK _n . Several related open problems are also given.     

Partition conditions and vertex-connectivity of graphs

It was proved ([5], [6]) that ifG is ann-vertex-connected graph then for any vertex sequencev ₁, ...,v _n ≠V(G) and for any sequence of positive integersk ₁, ...,k _n such thatk ₁+...+k _n =|V(G)|, there exists ann-partition ofV(G) such that this partition separates the verticesv ₁, ...,v(n), and the class of the partition containingv _i induces a connected subgraph consisting ofk _i vertices, fori=1, 2, ...,n. Now fix the integersk ₁, ...,k _n . In this paper we study what can we say about the vertex-connectivity ofG if there exists such a partition ofV(G) for any sequence of verticesv ₁, ...,v _n ≠V(G). We find some interesting cases when the existence of such partitions implies then-vertex-connectivity ofG, in the other cases we give sharp lower bounds for the vertex-connectivity ofG.     

On graphs with the largest Laplacian index

Let G be a connected simple graph on n vertices. The Laplacian index of G, namely, the greatest Laplacian eigenvalue of G, is well known to be bounded above by n. In this paper, we give structural characterizations for graphs G with the largest Laplacian index n. Regular graphs, Hamiltonian graphs and planar graphs with the largest Laplacian index are investigated. We present a necessary and sufficient condition on n and k for the existence of a k-regular graph G of order n with the largest Laplacian index n. We prove that for a graph G of order n ⩾ 3 with the largest Laplacian index n, G is Hamiltonian if G is regular or its maximum vertex degree is Δ(G) = n/2. Moreover, we obtain some useful inequalities concerning the Laplacian index and the algebraic connectivity which produce miscellaneous related results. The first author is supported by NNSF of China (No. 10771080) and SRFDP of China (No. 20070574006). The work was done when Z. Chen was on sabbatical in China.     

On the sum of the reciprocals of cycle lengths in sparse graphs

For a graphG let ℒ(G)=Σ{1/k contains a cycle of lengthk}. Erdős and Hajnal [1] introduced the real functionf(α)=inf {ℒ (G)|E(G)|/|V(G)|≧α} and suggested to study its properties. Obviouslyf(1)=0. We provef (k+1/k)≧(300k logk)⁻¹ for all sufficiently largek, showing that sparse graphs of large girth must contain many cycles of different lengths.     

An upper bound for the adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge chromatic number of a graph

A proper k-edge coloring of a graph G is called adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge coloring if there is no 2-colored cycle in G and the color set of edges incident to u is not equal to the color set of edges incident to υ, where uυ ∈ E(G). The adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge chromatic number of G, denoted by χ′ _aa (G), is the minimal number of colors in an adjacent vertex distinguishing acyclic edge coloring of G. In this paper we prove that if G(V, E) is a graph with no isolated edges, then χ′ _aa (G) ≤ 32Δ. Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (3ZS051-A25-025)     

Forest-Like Permutations

Given a permutation , construct a graph G _π on the vertex set {1, 2,..., n} by joining i to j if (i) i < j and π(i) < π(j) and (ii) there is no k such that i < k < j and π(i) < π(k) < π(j). We say that π is forest-like if G _π is a forest. We first characterize forest-like permutations in terms of pattern avoidance, and then by a certain linear map being onto. Thanks to recent results of Woo and Yong, these show that forest-like permutations characterize Schubert varieties which are locally factorial. Thus forest-like permutations generalize smooth permutations (corresponding to smooth Schubert varieties). We compute the generating function of forest-like permutations. As in the smooth case, it turns out to be algebraic. We then adapt our method to count permutations for which G _π is a tree, or a path, and recover the known generating function of smooth permutations. Received March 27, 2006     

Global Connectivity And Expansion: Long Cycles and Factors In f-Connected Graphs

Given a function f : ℕ→ℝ, call an n-vertex graph f-connected if separating off k vertices requires the deletion of at least f(k) vertices whenever k≤(n−f(k))/2. This is a common generalization of vertex connectivity (when f is constant) and expansion (when f is linear). We show that an f-connected graph contains a cycle of length linear in n if f is any linear function, contains a 1-factor and a 2-factor if f(k)≥2k+1, and contains a Hamilton cycle if f(k)≥2(k+1)². We conjecture that linear growth of f suffices to imply hamiltonicity.     

High Connectivity Keeping Sets In <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-Connected Graphs

It is proved that for every positive integer k, every n-connected graph G of sufficiently large order contains a set W of k vertices such that G—W is (n-2)-connected. It is shown that this does not remain true if we add the condition that G(W) is connected.     

Distance Sequences In Locally Infinite Vertex-Transitive Digraphs

We prove that the out-distance sequence {f⁺(k)} of a vertex-transitive digraph of finite or infinite degree satisfies f⁺(k+1)≤f⁺(k)² for k≥1, where f⁺(k) denotes the number of vertices at directed distance k from a given vertex. As a corollary, we prove that for a connected vertex-transitive undirected graph of infinite degree d, we have f(k)=d for all k, 1≤k<diam(G). This answers a question by L. Babai.     

Some results on R 2-edge-connectivity of even regular graphs

Let G be a connected k(≥3)-regular graph with girth g. A set S of the edges in G is called an Rredge-cut if G-S is disconnected and comains neither an isolated vertex nor a one-degree vertex. The R2-edge-connectivity of G, denoted by λ^n(G), is the minimum cardinality over all R2-edge-cuts, which is an important measure for fault-tolerance of computer interconnection networks. In this paper, λ^n(G)=g(2k-2) for any 2k-regular connected graph G (≠K5) that is either edge-transitive or vertex-transitive and g≥5 is given.     

Equipartition of mass distributions by hyperplanes

We consider the problem of determining the smallest dimensiond=Δ(j, k) such that, for anyj mass distributions inR ^d , there arek hyperplanes so that each orthant contains a fraction 1/2 ^k of each of the masses. The case Δ(1,2)=2 is very well known. The casek=1 is answered by the ham-sandwich theorem with Δ(j, 1)=j. By using mass distributions on the moment curve the lower bound Δ(j, k)≥j(2 ^k −1)/k is obtained. We believe this is a tight bound. However, the only general upper bound that we know is Δ(j, k)≤j2 ^k−1. We are able to prove that Δ(j, k)=⌈j(^2k−1/k⌉ for a few pairs (j, k) ((j, 2) forj=3 andj=2 ⁿ withn≥0, and (2, 3)), and obtain some nontrivial bounds in other cases. As an intermediate result of independent interest we prove a Borsuk-Ulam-type theorem on a product of balls. The motivation for this work was to determine Δ(1, 4) (the only case forj=1 in which it is not known whether Δ(1,k)=k); unfortunately the approach fails to give an answer in this case (but we can show Δ(1, 4)≤5). This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-9118874.     

The Sigma Chromatic Number of a Graph

For a nontrivial connected graph G, let ${c: V(G)\to {{\mathbb N}}}For a nontrivial connected graph G, let c: V(G)? \mathbb N{c: V(G)\to {{\mathbb N}}} be a vertex coloring of G, where adjacent vertices may be colored the same. For a vertex v of G, let N(v) denote the set of vertices adjacent to v. The color sum σ(v) of v is the sum of the colors of the vertices in N(v). If σ(u) ≠ σ(v) for every two adjacent vertices u and v of G, then c is called a sigma coloring of G. The minimum number of colors required in a sigma coloring of a graph G is called its sigma chromatic number σ(G). The sigma chromatic number of a graph G never exceeds its chromatic number χ(G) and for every pair a, b of positive integers with a ≤ b, there exists a connected graph G with σ(G) = a and χ(G) = b. There is a connected graph G of order n with σ(G) = k for every pair k, n of positive integers with k ≤n if and only if k ≠ n − 1. Several other results concerning sigma chromatic numbers are presented.