An improvement to the Hilton-Zhao vertex-splitting conjecture

For a simple graph G, denote by n, $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)$, and ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ its order, maximum degree, and chromatic index, respectively. A graph G is edge-chromatic critical if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }(G)+1$ and ${\chi }^{\prime }(H)<{\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ for every proper subgraph H of G. Let G be an n-vertex connected regular class 1 graph, and let $G^{?}$ be obtained from G by splitting one vertex of G into two vertices. Hilton and Zhao in 1997 conjectured that $G^{?}$ must be edge-chromatic critical if $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)>n/3$, and they verified this when $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)\ge \frac{n}{2}(\sqrt{7}?1)\approx 0.82n$. In this paper, we prove it for $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)\ge 0.75n$.     

Regular characters of classical groups over complete discrete valuation rings

Let $\mathfrak{o}$ be a complete discrete valuation ring with finite residue field $\mathsf{k}$ of odd characteristic, and let G be a symplectic or special orthogonal group scheme over $\mathfrak{o}$. For any $?\in \mathbb{N}$ let $G^{?}$ denote the ?-th principal congruence subgroup of $\mathbf{G}(\mathfrak{o})$. An irreducible character of the group $\mathbf{G}(\mathfrak{o})$ is said to be regular if it is trivial on a subgroup $G^{?+1}$ for some ?, and if its restriction to $G^{?}/G^{?+1}?\mathrm{Lie}(\mathbf{G})(\mathsf{k})$ consists of characters of minimal $\mathbf{G}({\mathsf{k}}^{\mathrm{alg}})$-stabilizer dimension. In the present paper we consider the regular characters of such classical groups over $\mathfrak{o}$, and construct and enumerate all regular characters of $\mathbf{G}(\mathfrak{o})$, when the characteristic of $\mathsf{k}$ is greater than two. As a result, we compute the regular part of their representation zeta function.     

Endomorphisms and cores of quadratic forms graphs in odd characteristic

A graph G is called a pseudo-core if every endomorphism of G is either an automorphism or a colouring. A graph G is a core if every endomorphism of G is an automorphism. Let ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ be the finite field with q elements where q is a power of an odd prime number. The quadratic forms graph, denoted by $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ where $n\ge 2$, has all quadratic forms on ${\mathbb{F}}_q^n$ as vertices and two vertices f and g are adjacent whenever $\mathrm{rk}(f-g)=1$ or 2. We prove that every $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ is a pseudo-core. Further, when n is even, $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ is a core. When n is odd, $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$ is not a core. On the other hand, we completely determine the independence number of $\mathrm{Quad}(n,q)$.     

Flow number and circular flow number of signed cubic graphs

Let $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )$ and ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )$ denote the flow number and the circular flow number of a flow-admissible signed graph $(G,\sigma )$, respectively. It is known that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G)=?{\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G)?$ for every unsigned graph G. Based on this fact, in 2011 Raspaud and Zhu conjectured that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )?{\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )<1$ holds also for every flow-admissible signed graph $(G,\sigma )$. This conjecture was disproved by Schubert and Steffen using graphs with bridges and vertices of large degree. In this paper we focus on cubic graphs, since they play a crucial role in many open problems in graph theory. For cubic graphs we show that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )=3$ if and only if ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )=3$ and if $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )\in \{4,5\}$, then $4\le {\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )\le \mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )$. We also prove that all pairs of flow number and circular flow number that fulfil these conditions can be achieved in the family of bridgeless cubic graphs and thereby disprove the conjecture of Raspaud and Zhu even for bridgeless signed cubic graphs. Finally, we prove that all currently known flow-admissible graphs without nowhere-zero 5-flow have flow number and circular flow number 6 and propose several conjectures in this area.     

A uniform bound of reducibility index of good parameter ideals for certain class of modules

Let $(R,\mathfrak{m})$ be a Noetherian local ring and M a finitely generated R-module. The invariants $\mathrm{p}(M)$ and $\mathrm{sp}(M)$ of M were introduced in [3] and [17] in order to measure the non-Cohen–Macaulayness and the non-sequential-Cohen–Macaulayness of M, respectively. Let $M=D_0?D_1?\dots ?D_k$ be the filtration of M such that $D_i$ is the largest submodule of M of dimension less than $\dim ?D_{i?1}$ for all $i\le k$ and $\mathrm{p}(D_k)\le 1$. In this paper we prove that if $\mathrm{sp}(M)\le 1$, then there exists a constant c such that ${\mathrm{ir}}_M(\mathfrak{q}M)\le c$ for all good parameter ideals $\mathfrak{q}$ of M with respect to this filtration. Here ${\mathrm{ir}}_M(\mathfrak{q}M)$ is the reducibility index of $\mathfrak{q}$ on M. This is an extension of the main results of [19], [20], [24].     

On base sizes for primitive groups of product type

Let $G?\mathrm{Sym}(\mathrm{\Omega })$ be a finite permutation group and recall that the base size of G is the minimal size of a subset of Ω with trivial pointwise stabiliser. There is an extensive literature on base sizes for primitive groups, but there are very few results for primitive groups of product type. In this paper, we initiate a systematic study of bases in this setting. Our first main result determines the base size of every product type primitive group of the form $L?P?\mathrm{Sym}(\mathrm{\Omega })$ with soluble point stabilisers, where $\mathrm{\Omega }={\mathrm{\Gamma }}^k$, $L?\mathrm{Sym}(\mathrm{\Gamma })$ and $P?S_k$ is transitive. This extends recent work of Burness on almost simple primitive groups. We also obtain an expression for the number of regular suborbits of any product type group of the form $L?P$ and we classify the groups with a unique regular suborbit under the assumption that P is primitive, which involves extending earlier results due to Seress and Dolfi. We present applications on the Saxl graphs of base-two product type groups and we conclude by establishing several new results on base sizes for general product type primitive groups.     

The reconstruction conjecture for finite simple graphs and associated directed graphs

In this paper, we study the Reconstruction Conjecture for finite simple graphs. Let Γ and ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\prime }$ be finite simple graphs with at least three vertices such that there exists a bijective map $f:V(\mathrm{\Gamma })\to V({\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\prime })$ and for any $v\in V(\mathrm{\Gamma })$, there exists an isomorphism ${?}_v:\mathrm{\Gamma }?v\to {\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\prime }?f(v)$. Then we define the associated directed graph $\stackrel{?}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=\stackrel{?}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}(\mathrm{\Gamma },{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\prime },f,{\{{?}_v\}}_{v\in V(\mathrm{\Gamma })})$ with two kinds of arrows from the graphs Γ and ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\prime }$, the bijective map f and the isomorphisms ${\{{?}_v\}}_{v\in V(\mathrm{\Gamma })}$. By investigating the associated directed graph $\stackrel{?}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}$, we study when are the two graphs Γ and ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{\prime }$ isomorphic.     

GE2-rings and a graph of unimodular rows

For a commutative ring A we consider a related graph, $\mathrm{\Gamma }(A)$, whose vertices are the unimodular rows of length 2 up to multiplication by units. We prove that $\mathrm{\Gamma }(A)$ is path-connected if and only if A is a ${\mathrm{GE}}_2$-ring, in the terminology of P. M. Cohn. Furthermore, if $Y(A)$ denotes the clique complex of $\mathrm{\Gamma }(A)$, we prove that $Y(A)$ is simply connected if and only if A is universal for ${\mathrm{GE}}_2$. More precisely, our main theorem is that for any commutative ring A the fundamental group of $Y(A)$ is isomorphic to the group $K_2(2,A)$ modulo the subgroup generated by symbols.