Octrees with near optimal cost for ray-shooting

Predicting and optimizing the performance of ray shooting is a very important problem in computer graphics due to the severe computational demands of ray tracing and other applications, e.g., radio propagation simulation. Aronov and Fortune were the first to guarantee an overall performance within a constant factor of optimal in the following model of computation: build a triangulation compatible with the scene, and shoot rays by locating origin and traversing until hit is found. Triangulations are not a very popular model in computer graphics, but space decompositions like kd-trees and octrees are used routinely. Aronov et al. in [B. Aronov, H. Brönnimann, A.Y. Chang, Y.-J. Chiang, Cost prediction for ray shooting, in: Proc. 18th Annu. ACM Sympos. Comput. Geom., ACM, New York, 2002, pp. 293–302; Computational Geometry, submitted for publication] developed a cost measure for such decompositions, and proved it to reliably predict the average cost of ray shooting.

In this paper, we address the corresponding optimization problem on octrees with the same cost measure as the optimizing criterion. More generally, we solve the generalization for generalized octrees in any d dimensions with scenes made up of (d−1)-dimensional simplices. We give a construction of trees which yields cost O(M), where M is the infimum of the cost measure on all trees. Sometimes, a balance condition is important (informally, balanced trees ensures that adjacent leaves have similar size): we also show that rebalancing does not affect the cost by more than a constant multiplicative factor. These are the first and only known results that provide performance guarantees on the approximation factor for 3-dimensional ray shooting with this realistic model of computation. Our results have been validated experimentally by Aronov et al. in [B. Aronov, H. Brönnimann, A.Y. Chang, Y.-J. Chiang, Cost-driven octree construction schemes: an experimental study, in: Proc. of 19th Annu. ACM Sympos. Comput. Geom., ACM, New York, 2003, pp. 227–236; Computational Geometry 21 (1–2) (2005) 127–148].     

Eulerian subgraphs containing given edges

For an integer l0, define to be the family of graphs such that if and only if for any edge subset XE(G) with |X|l, G has a spanning eulerian subgraph H with XE(H). The graphs in are known as supereulerian graphs. Let f(l) be the minimum value of k such that every k-edge-connected graph is in . Jaeger and Catlin independently proved f(0)=4. We shall determine f(l) for all values of l0. Another problem concerning the existence of eulerian subgraphs containing given edges is also discussed, and former results in [J. Graph Theory 1 (1977) 79–84] and [J. Graph Theory 3 (1979) 91–93] are extended.     

Testing the diameter of graphs

We propose a general model for testing graph properties, which extends and simplifies the bounded degree model of Goldreich and Ron [Property Testing in Bounded Degree Graphs, Proc. 31st Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 1997, pp. 406–415.] In this model, we present a family of algorithms that test whether the diameter of a graph is bounded by a given parameter D, or is ?‐far from any graph with diameter at most β(D). The function β(D) ranges between D+4 and 4D+2, depending on the algorithm. All our algorithms run in time polynomial in 1/?. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. 20: 165–183, 2002     

A generalization of Fiedler's lemma and some applications

In a previous paper [M. Robbiano, E.A. Martins, and I. Gutman, Extending a theorem by Fiedler and applications to graph energy, MATCH Commun. Math. Comput. Chem. 64 (2010), pp. 145–156], a lemma by Fiedler was used to obtain eigenspaces of graphs, and applied to graph energy. In this article Fiedler's lemma is generalized and this generalization is applied to graph spectra and graph energy.     

An algorithm for constructing star-shaped drawings of plane graphs

A straight-line planar drawing of a plane graph is called a convex drawing if every facial cycle is drawn as a convex polygon. Convex drawings of graphs is a well-established aesthetic in graph drawing, however not all planar graphs admit a convex drawing. Tutte [W.T. Tutte, Convex representations of graphs, Proc. of London Math. Soc. 10 (3) (1960) 304–320] showed that every triconnected plane graph admits a convex drawing for any given boundary drawn as a convex polygon. Thomassen [C. Thomassen, Plane representations of graphs, in: Progress in Graph Theory, Academic Press, 1984, pp. 43–69] gave a necessary and sufficient condition for a biconnected plane graph with a prescribed convex boundary to have a convex drawing.In this paper, we initiate a new notion of star-shaped drawing of a plane graph as a straight-line planar drawing such that each inner facial cycle is drawn as a star-shaped polygon, and the outer facial cycle is drawn as a convex polygon. A star-shaped drawing is a natural extension of a convex drawing, and a new aesthetic criteria for drawing planar graphs in a convex way as much as possible. We give a sufficient condition for a given set A of corners of a plane graph to admit a star-shaped drawing whose concave corners are given by the corners in A, and present a linear time algorithm for constructing such a star-shaped drawing.     

Ihara's zeta function for periodic graphs and its approximation in the amenable case

In this paper, we give a more direct proof of the results by Clair and Mokhtari-Sharghi [B. Clair, S. Mokhtari-Sharghi, Zeta functions of discrete groups acting on trees, J. Algebra 237 (2001) 591-620] on the zeta functions of periodic graphs. In particular, using appropriate operator-algebraic techniques, we establish a determinant formula in this context and examine its consequences for the Ihara zeta function. Moreover, we answer in the affirmative one of the questions raised in [R.I. Grigorchuk, A. ?uk, The Ihara zeta function of infinite graphs, the KNS spectral measure and integrable maps, in: V.A. Kaimanovich, et al. (Eds.), Proc. Workshop, Random Walks and Geometry, Vienna, 2001, de Gruyter, Berlin, 2004, pp. 141-180] by Grigorchuk and ?uk. Accordingly, we show that the zeta function of a periodic graph with an amenable group action is the limit of the zeta functions of a suitable sequence of finite subgraphs.     

On the mean number of encryptions for tree-based broadcast encryption schemes

The challenge of stateless-receiver broadcast encryption lies in minimizing storage and the number of encryptions while maintaining system security. Tree-based key distribution schemes offer the best known trade-off between the two parameters. Examples include the complete subtree scheme [D. Wallner, et al., Internet draft, http://www.ietf.org/ID.html [10]; C.K. Wong, et al., in: Proc. SIGCOMM, 1998, pp. 68–79 [11]], the subset difference scheme [D. Naor, et al., in: CRYPTO 2001, Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., vol. 2139, 2001, pp. 41–62 [7]], and the layered subset difference scheme [D. Halevy, A. Shamir, in: CRYPTO 2002, Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., vol. 2442, 2002, pp. 47–60 [5]]. We introduce generating functions for this family of schemes, which lead to analysis of the mean number of encryptions over all privileged sets of users. We also derive the mean number of encryptions when the number of privileged users is fixed. We expect that the techniques introduced as well as the results in this work will find applications in related areas.     

Optimally super-edge-connected transitive graphs

Let X=(V,E) be a connected regular graph. X is said to be super-edge-connected if every minimum edge cut of X is a set of edges incident with some vertex. The restricted edge connectivity λ′(X) of X is the minimum number of edges whose removal disconnects X into non-trivial components. A super-edge-connected k-regular graph is said to be optimally super-edge-connected if its restricted edge connectivity attains the maximum 2k−2. In this paper, we define the λ′-atoms of graphs with respect to restricted edge connectivity and show that if X is a k-regular k-edge-connected graph whose λ′-atoms have size at least 3, then any two distinct λ′-atoms are disjoint. Using this property, we characterize the super-edge-connected or optimally super-edge-connected transitive graphs and Cayley graphs. In particular, we classify the optimally super-edge-connected quasiminimal Cayley graphs and Cayley graphs of diameter 2. As a consequence, we show that almost all Cayley graphs are optimally super-edge-connected.     

Minimally non-Pfaffian graphs

We consider the question of characterizing Pfaffian graphs. We exhibit an infinite family of non-Pfaffian graphs minimal with respect to the matching minor relation. This is in sharp contrast with the bipartite case, as Little [C.H.C. Little, A characterization of convertible (0,1)-matrices, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 18 (1975) 187–208] proved that every bipartite non-Pfaffian graph contains a matching minor isomorphic to K_3,3. We relax the notion of a matching minor and conjecture that there are only finitely many (perhaps as few as two) non-Pfaffian graphs minimal with respect to this notion.We define Pfaffian factor-critical graphs and study them in the second part of the paper. They seem to be of interest as the number of near perfect matchings in a Pfaffian factor-critical graph can be computed in polynomial time. We give a polynomial time recognition algorithm for this class of graphs and characterize non-Pfaffian factor-critical graphs in terms of forbidden central subgraphs.     

Computing homotopic shortest paths in the plane

We address the problem of computing homotopic shortest paths in the presence of obstacles in the plane. Problems on homotopy of paths received attention very recently [Cabello et al., in: Proc. 18th Annu. ACM Sympos. Comput. Geom., 2002, pp. 160–169; Efrat et al., in: Proc. 10th Annu. European Sympos. Algorithms, 2002, pp. 411–423]. We present two output-sensitive algorithms, for simple paths and non-simple paths. The algorithm for simple paths improves the previous algorithm [Efrat et al., in: Proc. 10th Annu. European Sympos. Algorithms, 2002, pp. 411–423]. The algorithm for non-simple paths achieves O(log²n) time per output vertex which is an improvement by a factor of O(n/log²n) of the previous algorithm [Hershberger, Snoeyink, Comput. Geom. Theory Appl. 4 (1994) 63–98], where n is the number of obstacles. The running time has an overhead O(n²⁺) for any positive constant . In the case k<n²⁺, where k is the total size of the input and output, we improve the running to O((n+k+(nk)^2/3)log^O(1)n).     

若干联图的邻点可区别-点边全染色

设G(V,E)是简单图,k是正整数.从V(G)∪E(G)到{1,2,…,k}的映射f被称作G的邻点可区别-点边全染色,当且仅当:■uv∈E(G),f(u)≠f(uv),f(v)≠f(uv),■uv∈E(G),C(u)≠C(v),且称最小的数k为G的邻点可区别-点边全色数.其中C(u)={f(u)}∪{f(uv)|uv∈E(G)},研究了一些联图的邻点可区别-点边全染色法,得到了它们的色数.     

On a relation between the domination number and a strongly connected bidirection of an undirected graph

As a generalization of directed and undirected graphs, Edmonds and Johnson [J. Edmonds, E.L. Johnson, Matching: A well-solved class of linear programs, in: R. Guy, H. Hanani, N. Sauer, J. Schönheim (Eds.), Combinatorial Structures and their Applications, Gordon and Breach, New York, 1970, pp. 88-92] introduced bidirected graphs. A bidirected graph is a graph each arc of which has either two positive end-vertices (tails), two negative end-vertices (heads), or one positive end-vertex (tail) and one negative end-vertex (head). We extend the notion of directed paths, distance, diameter and strong connectivity from directed to bidirected graphs and characterize those undirected graphs that allow a strongly connected bidirection. Considering the problem of finding the minimum diameter of all strongly connected bidirections of a given undirected graph, we generalize a result of Fomin et al. [F.V. Fomin, M. Matamala, E. Prisner, I. Rapaport, Bilateral orientations in graphs: Domination and AT-free classes, in: Proceedings of the Brazilian Symposium on Graphs, Algorithms and Combinatorics, GRACO 2001, in: Electronics Notes in Discrete Mathematics, vol. 7, Elsevier Science Publishers, 2001] about directed graphs and obtain an upper bound for the minimum diameter which depends on the minimum size of a dominating set and the number of bridges in the undirected graph.     

A forbidden subgraph characterization of line-polar bipartite graphs

A graph is polar if the vertex set can be partitioned into A and B in such a way that the subgraph induced by A is a complete multipartite graph and the subgraph induced by B is a disjoint union of cliques. Polar graphs are a common generalization of bipartite, cobipartite, and split graphs. However, recognizing polar graphs is an NP-complete problem in general. This led to the study of the polarity of special classes of graphs such as cographs and chordal graphs, cf. Ekim et al. (2008) [7] and [5]. In this paper, we study the polarity of line graphs and call a graph line-polar if its line graph is polar. We characterize line-polar bipartite graphs in terms of forbidden subgraphs. This answers a question raised in the fist reference mentioned above. Our characterization has already been used to develop a linear time algorithm for recognizing line-polar bipartite graphs, cf. Ekim (submitted for publication) [6].     

Uniquely pairable graphs

The concept of a k-pairable graph was introduced by Z. Chen [On k-pairable graphs, Discrete Mathematics 287 (2004), 11-15] as an extension of hypercubes and graphs with an antipodal isomorphism. In the present paper we generalize further this concept of a k-pairable graph to the concept of a semi-pairable graph. We prove that a graph is semi-pairable if and only if its prime factor decomposition contains a semi-pairable prime factor or some repeated prime factors. We also introduce a special class of k-pairable graphs which are called uniquely k-pairable graphs. We show that a graph is uniquely pairable if and only if its prime factor decomposition has at least one pairable prime factor, each prime factor is either uniquely pairable or not semi-pairable, and all prime factors which are not semi-pairable are pairwise non-isomorphic. As a corollary we give a characterization of uniquely pairable Cartesian product graphs.     

On Subgraphs in Distance-Regular Graphs

Terwilliger [15] has given the diameter bound d (s – 1)(k – 1) + 1 for distance-regular graphs with girth 2s and valency k. We show that the only distance-regular graphs with even girth which reach this bound are the hypercubes and the doubled Odd graphs. Also we improve this bound for bipartite distance-regular graphs. Weichsel [17] conjectures that the only distance-regular subgraphs of a hypercube are the even polygons, the hypercubes and the doubled Odd graphs and proves this in the case of girth 4. We show that the only distance-regular subgraphs of a hypercube with girth 6 are the doubled Odd graphs. If the girth is equal to 8, then its valency is at most 12.     

New constructions of hypohamiltonian and hypotraceable graphs

A graph G is hypohamiltonian/hypotraceable if it is not hamiltonian/traceable, but all vertex‐deleted subgraphs of G are hamiltonian/traceable. All known hypotraceable graphs are constructed using hypohamiltonian graphs; here we present a construction that uses so‐called almost hypohamiltonian graphs (nonhamiltonian graphs, whose vertex‐deleted subgraphs are hamiltonian with exactly one exception, see [15]). This construction is an extension of a method of Thomassen [11]. As an application, we construct a planar hypotraceable graph of order 138, improving the best‐known bound of 154 [8]. We also prove a structural type theorem showing that hypotraceable graphs possessing some connectivity properties are all built using either Thomassen's or our method. We also prove that if G is a Grinbergian graph without a triangular region, then G is not maximal nonhamiltonian and using the proof method we construct a hypohamiltonian graph of order 36 with crossing number 1, improving the best‐known bound of 46 [14].     

Obstructions to chordal circular-arc graphs of small independence number

A blocking quadruple (BQ) is a quadruple of vertices of a graph such that any two vertices of the quadruple either miss (have no neighbours on) some path connecting the remaining two vertices of the quadruple, or are connected by some path missed by the remaining two vertices. This is akin to the notion of asteroidal triple used in the classical characterization of interval graphs by Lekkerkerker and Boland [Klee, V., What are the intersection graphs of arcs in a circle?, American Mathematical Monthly 76 (1976), pp. 810–813.].In this note, we first observe that blocking quadruples are obstructions for circular-arc graphs. We then focus on chordal graphs, and study the relationship between the structure of chordal graphs and the presence/absence of blocking quadruples.Our contribution is two-fold. Firstly, we provide a forbidden induced subgraph characterization of chordal graphs without blocking quadruples. In particular, we observe that all the forbidden subgraphs are variants of the subgraphs forbidden for interval graphs [Klee, V., What are the intersection graphs of arcs in a circle?, American Mathematical Monthly 76 (1976), pp. 810–813.]. Secondly, we show that the absence of blocking quadruples is sufficient to guarantee that a chordal graph with no independent set of size five is a circular-arc graph. In our proof we use a novel geometric approach, constructing a circular-arc representation by traversing around a carefully chosen clique tree.     

Triangle-free strongly circular-perfect graphs

Zhu [X. Zhu, Circular-perfect graphs, J. Graph Theory 48 (2005) 186-209] introduced circular-perfect graphs as a superclass of the well-known perfect graphs and as an important χ-bound class of graphs with the smallest non-trivial χ-binding function χ(G)≤ω(G)+1. Perfect graphs have been recently characterized as those graphs without odd holes and odd antiholes as induced subgraphs [M. Chudnovsky, N. Robertson, P. Seymour, R. Thomas, The strong perfect graph theorem, Ann. Math. (in press)]; in particular, perfect graphs are closed under complementation [L. Lovász, Normal hypergraphs and the weak perfect graph conjecture, Discrete Math. 2 (1972) 253-267]. To the contrary, circular-perfect graphs are not closed under complementation and the list of forbidden subgraphs is unknown.We study strongly circular-perfect graphs: a circular-perfect graph is strongly circular-perfect if its complement is circular-perfect as well. This subclass entails perfect graphs, odd holes, and odd antiholes. As the main result, we fully characterize the triangle-free strongly circular-perfect graphs, and prove that, for this graph class, both the stable set problem and the recognition problem can be solved in polynomial time.Moreover, we address the characterization of strongly circular-perfect graphs by means of forbidden subgraphs. Results from [A. Pêcher, A. Wagler, On classes of minimal circular-imperfect graphs, Discrete Math. (in press)] suggest that formulating a corresponding conjecture for circular-perfect graphs is difficult; it is even unknown which triangle-free graphs are minimal circular-imperfect. We present the complete list of all triangle-free minimal not strongly circular-perfect graphs.     

2-连通半无爪图的最长圈

A graph G is called quasi-claw-free if it satisfies the property:d(x,y)=2 there exists a vertex u∈N(x)∩N(y)such that N[u]■N[x]∪N[y].In this paper,we show that every 2-connected quasi-claw-free graph of order n with G■F contains a cycle of length at least min{3δ+2,n},where F is a family of graphs.