Total domination of graphs and small transversals of hypergraphs

The main result of this paper is that every 4-uniform hypergraph on n vertices and m edges has a transversal with no more than (5n + 4m)/21 vertices. In the particular case n = m, the transversal has at most 3n/7 vertices, and this bound is sharp in the complement of the Fano plane. Chvátal and McDiarmid [5] proved that every 3-uniform hypergraph with n vertices and edges has a transversal of size n/2. Two direct corollaries of these results are that every graph with minimal degree at least 3 has total domination number at most n/2 and every graph with minimal degree at least 4 has total domination number at most 3n/7. These two bounds are sharp.     

Hypergraphs and abstract polygons

The notion of a graph has recently been generalized to include structures called hypergraphs which have two or more vertices per edge. A hypergraph is called 2-settled if each pair of distinct vertices is contained in at most one edge. A connected 2-settled hypergraph which has at least two edges through each vertex might be called an abstract polygon. Lemma: Every abstract polygon contains a cycle. Shephard and Coxeter have examined certain abstract polygons called regular complex polygons, each of which is denoted by a symbol p {q} r where there are p vertices on each edge and r edges through each vertex. Theorem: The girth of the non-starry regular complex polygon p {q} r is q. Thus, the number q is finally given a simple combinatoric interpretation.     

An efficient implementation of a quasi-polynomial algorithm for generating hypergraph transversals and its application in joint generation

Given a finite set V, and a hypergraph H⊆2^V, the hypergraph transversal problem calls for enumerating all minimal hitting sets (transversals) for H. This problem plays an important role in practical applications as many other problems were shown to be polynomially equivalent to it. Fredman and Khachiyan [On the complexity of dualization of monotone disjunctive normal forms, J. Algorithms 21 (1996) 618-628] gave an incremental quasi-polynomial-time algorithm for solving the hypergraph transversal problem. In this paper, we present an efficient implementation of this algorithm. While we show that our implementation achieves the same theoretical worst-case bound, practical experience with this implementation shows that it can be substantially faster. We also show that a slight modification of the original algorithm can be used to obtain a stronger bound on the running time.More generally, we consider a monotone property π over a bounded n-dimensional integral box. As an important application of the above hypergraph transversal problem, pioneered by Bioch and Ibaraki [Complexity of identification and dualization of positive Boolean functions, Inform. and Comput. 123 (1995) 50-63], we consider the problem of incrementally generating simultaneously all minimal subsets satisfying π and all maximal subsets not satisfying π, for properties given by a polynomial-time satisfiability oracle. Problems of this type arise in many practical applications. It is known that the above joint generation problem can be solved in incremental quasi-polynomial time via a polynomial-time reduction to a generalization of the hypergraph transversal problem on integer boxes. In this paper we present an efficient implementation of this procedure, and present experimental results to evaluate our implementation for a number of interesting monotone properties π.     

Upper bound on the order of τ-critical hypergraphs

The right order of magnitude for the maximal number of vertices in an r-uniform τ-critical hypergraph H is achieved by obtaining an upper bound of O(τ(H)^r?1).     

The strong chromatic number of partial triple systems

A strong colouring of a hypergraph is an assignment of colours to its vertices so that no two vertices in a hyperedge have the same colour. We establish that strong colouring of partial triple systems is NP-complete, even when the number of colours is any fixed k≥3. In contrast, an efficient algorithm is given for strong colouring of maximal partial triple systems. Observations in this algorithm underpin a complete determination of the spectrum of strong chromatic numbers for maximal partial triple systems.     

Lines in hypergraphs

One of the De Bruijn-Erd?s theorems deals with finite hypergraphs where every two vertices belong to precisely one hyperedge. It asserts that, except in the perverse case where a single hyperedge equals the whole vertex set, the number of hyperedges is at least the number of vertices and the two numbers are equal if and only if the hypergraph belongs to one of simply described families, near-pencils and finite projective planes. Chen and Chvátal proposed to define the line uv in a 3-uniform hypergraph as the set of vertices that consists of u, v, and all w such that {u;v;w} is a hyperedge. With this definition, the De Bruijn-Erd?s theorem is easily seen to be equivalent to the following statement: If no four vertices in a 3-uniform hypergraph carry two or three hyperedges, then, except in the perverse case where one of the lines equals the whole vertex set, the number of lines is at least the number of vertices and the two numbers are equal if and only if the hypergraph belongs to one of two simply described families. Our main result generalizes this statement by allowing any four vertices to carry three hyperedges (but keeping two forbidden): the conclusion remains the same except that a third simply described family, complements of Steiner triple systems, appears in the extremal case.     

Minimum size transversals in uniform hypergraphs

A set of vertices in a hypergraph which meets all the edges is called a transversal. The transversal number τ(H)$\tau \left(H\right)$ of a hypergraph H$H$ is the minimum cardinality of a transversal in H$H$. A classical greedy algorithm for constructing a transversal of small size selects in each step a vertex which has the largest degree in the hypergraph formed by the edges not met yet. The analysis of this algorithm (by Chvátal and McDiarmid (1992)  [3]) gave some upper bounds for τ(H)$\tau \left(H\right)$ in a uniform hypergraph H$H$ with a given number of vertices and edges. We discuss a variation of this greedy algorithm. Analyzing this new algorithm, we obtain upper bounds for τ(H)$\tau \left(H\right)$ which improve the bounds by Chvátal and McDiarmid.     

Partitions of graphs into coverings and hypergraphs into transversals

A covering of a multigraphG is a subset of edges which meet all vertices ofG. Partitions of the edges ofG into coveringsC ₁,C ₂, ...,C _k are considered. In particular we examine how close the cardinalities of these coverings may be. A result concerning matchings is extended to the decomposition into coverings. Finally these considerations are generalized to the decompositions of the vertices of a hypergraph into transversals (a transversal is a set of vertices meeting all edges of the hypergraph).     

On the number of minimal transversals in 3-uniform hypergraphs

We prove that the number of minimal transversals (and also the number of maximal independent sets) in a 3-uniform hypergraph with n vertices is at most cⁿ, where c≈1.6702. The best known lower bound for this number, due to Tomescu, is adⁿ, where d=10^1/5≈1.5849 and a is a constant.     

Ordering uniform supertrees by their spectral radii

A supertree is a connected and acyclic hypergraph. For a hypergraph H, the maximal modulus of the eigenvalues of its adjacency tensor is called the spectral radius of H. By applying the operation of moving edges on hypergraphs and the weighted incidence matrix method, we determine the ninth and the tenth k-uniform supertrees with the largest spectral radii among all k-uniform supertrees on n vertices, which extends the known result.     

On Turan hypergraphs

Let α(H) be the stability number of a hypergraph H = (X, $\text{E}$). T(n, k, α) is the smallest q such that there exists a k-uniform hypergraph H with n vertices, q edges and with α(H) ? α. A k-uniform hypergraph H, with n vertices, T(n, k, α) edges and α(H) ?α is a Turan hypergraph. The value of T(n, 2, α) is given by a theorem of Turan. In this paper new lower bounds to T(n, k, α) are obtained and it is proved that an infinity of affine spaces are Turan hypergraphs.     

Wagner's theorem for Torus graphs

Wagner's theorem (any two maximal plane graphs having p vertices are equivalent under diagonal transformations) is extended to maximal torus graphs, graphs embedded in the torus with a maximal set of edges present. Thus any maximal torus graph having p vertices may be diagonally transformed into any other maximal torus graph having p vertices. As with Wagner's theorem, a normal form representing an intermediate stage in the above transformation is displayed. This result, along with Wagner's theorem, may make possible constructive characterizations of planar and toroidal graphs, through a wholly combinatorial definition of diagonal transformation.     

On the Heterochromatic Number of Hypergraphs Associated to Geometric Graphs and to Matroids

The heterochromatic number h _c (H) of a non-empty hypergraph H is the smallest integer k such that for every colouring of the vertices of H with exactly k colours, there is a hyperedge of H all of whose vertices have different colours. We denote by ν(H) the number of vertices of H and by τ(H) the size of the smallest set containing at least two vertices of each hyperedge of H. For a complete geometric graph G with n ≥ 3 vertices let H = H(G) be the hypergraph whose vertices are the edges of G and whose hyperedges are the edge sets of plane spanning trees of G. We prove that if G has at most one interior vertex, then h _c (H) = ν(H) ? τ(H) + 2. We also show that h _c (H) = ν(H) ? τ(H) + 2 whenever H is a hypergraph with vertex set and hyperedge set given by the ground set and the bases of a matroid, respectively.     

The existence of regular self-complementary 3-uniform hypergraphs

A k-uniform hypergraph with vertex set V and edge set E is called t-subset-regular if every t-element subset of V lies in the same number of elements of E. In this paper we show that a 1-subset-regular self-complementary 3-uniform hypergraph with n vertices exists if and only if n≥5 and n is congruent to 1 or 2 modulo 4.     

Hypergraphs with large transversal number and with edge sizes at least four

Let H be a hypergraph on n vertices and m edges with all edges of size at least four. The transversal number τ(H) of H is the minimum number of vertices that intersect every edge. Lai and Chang [An upper bound for the transversal numbers of 4-uniform hypergraphs, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 1990, 50(1), 129–133] proved that τ(H) ≤ 2(n+m)/9, while Chvátal and McDiarmid [Small transversals in hypergraphs, Combinatorica, 1992, 12(1), 19–26] proved that τ(H) ≤ (n + 2m)/6. In this paper, we characterize the connected hypergraphs that achieve equality in the Lai-Chang bound and in the Chvátal-McDiarmid bound.     

On the number of hamiltonian cycles in a maximal planar graph

We consider the problem of the minimum number of Hamiltonian cycles that could be present in a Hamiltonian maximal planar graph on p vertices. In particular, we construct a p-vertex maximal planar graph containing exactly four Hamiltonian cycles for every p ≥ 12. We also prove that every 4-connected maximal planar graph on p vertices contains at least p/(log₂ p) Hamiltonian cycles.     

The diagonal hypergraph of a matrix (bipartite graph)

Let A be an n x n matrix of 0's and 1's (a bipartite graph). The diagonal hypergraph of A is the hypergraph whose vertices correspond to the 1's (edges) of A and whose edges correspond to the positive diagonals (1-factors) of A. The numerical invariants of this hypergraph are investigated.     

Coloring mixed hypertrees

A mixed hypergraph is a triple (V,C,D) where V is its vertex set and C and D are families of subsets of V, called C-edges and D-edges, respectively. For a proper coloring, we require that each C-edge contains two vertices with the same color and each D-edge contains two vertices with different colors. The feasible set of a mixed hypergraph is the set of all k's for which there exists a proper coloring using exactly k colors. A hypergraph is a hypertree if there exists a tree such that the edges of the hypergraph induce connected subgraphs of the tree.We prove that feasible sets of mixed hypertrees are gap-free, i.e., intervals of integers, and we show that this is not true for precolored mixed hypertrees. The problem to decide whether a mixed hypertree can be colored by k colors is NP-complete in general; we investigate complexity of various restrictions of this problem and we characterize their complexity in most of the cases.     

A class of vertex-transitive digraphs,II

(1). We determine the number of non-isomorphic classes of self-complementary circulant digraphs with pq vertices, where p and q are distinct primes. The non-isomorphic classes of these circulant digraphs with pq vertices are enumerated. (2). We also determine the number of non-isomorphic classes of self-complementary, vertex-transitive digraphs with a prime number p vertices, and the number of self-complementary strongly vertex-transitive digraphs with p vertices. The non-isomorphic classes of strongly vertex-transitive digraphs with p vertices are also enumerated.     

Distinguishing-Transversal in Hypergraphs and Identifying Open Codes in Cubic Graphs

The open neighborhood N(v) of a vertex v in a graph G is the set of vertices adjacent to v in G. A graph is twin-free (or open identifiable) if every two distinct vertices have distinct open neighborhoods. A separating open code in G is a set C of vertices such that \({N(u) \cap C \neq N(v) \cap C}\) for all distinct vertices u and v in G. An open dominating set, or total dominating set, in G is a set C of vertices such that \({N(u) \cap C \ne N(v) \cap C}\) for all vertices v in G. An identifying open code of G is a set C that is both a separating open code and an open dominating set. A graph has an identifying open code if and only if it is twin-free. If G is twin-free, we denote by \({\gamma^{\rm IOC}(G)}\) the minimum cardinality of an identifying open code in G. A hypergraph H is identifiable if every two edges in H are distinct. A distinguishing-transversal T in an identifiable hypergraph H is a subset T of vertices in H that has a nonempty intersection with every edge of H (that is, T is a transversal in H) such that T distinguishes the edges, that is, \({e \cap T \neq f \cap T}\) for every two distinct edges e and f in H. The distinguishing-transversal number \({\tau_D(H)}\) of H is the minimum size of a distinguishing-transversal in H. We show that if H is a 3-uniform identifiable hypergraph of order n and size m with maximum degree at most 3, then \({20\tau_D(H) \leq 12n + 3m}\) . Using this result, we then show that if G is a twin-free cubic graph on n vertices, then \({\gamma^{\rm IOC}(G) \leq 3n/4}\) . This bound is achieved, for example, by the hypercube.