Crossing graphs of fiber-complemented graphs

Fiber-complemented graphs form a vast non bipartite generalization of median graphs. Using a certain natural coloring of edges, induced by parallelism relation between prefibers of a fiber-complemented graph, we introduce the crossing graph of a fiber-complemented graph G as the graph whose vertices are colors, and two colors are adjacent if they cross on some induced 4-cycle in G. We show that a fiber-complemented graph is 2-connected if and only if its crossing graph is connected. We characterize those fiber-complemented graphs whose crossing graph is complete, and also those whose crossing graph is chordal.     

The bondage numbers of graphs with small crossing numbers

The bondage number b(G) of a nonempty graph G is the cardinality of a smallest edge set whose removal from G results in a graph with domination number greater than the domination number γ(G) of G. Kang and Yuan proved b(G)?8 for every connected planar graph G. Fischermann, Rautenbach and Volkmann obtained some further results for connected planar graphs. In this paper, we generalize their results to connected graphs with small crossing numbers.     

Preperfect graphs

We say that a vertexx of a graph is predominant if there exists another vertexy ofG such that either every maximum clique ofG containingy containsx or every maximum stable set containingx containsy. A graph is then called preperfect if every induced subgraph has a predominant vertex. We show that preperfect graphs are perfect, and that several well-known classes of perfect graphs are preperfect. We also derive a new characterization of perfect graphs.     

On graphs whose star sets are (co-)cliques

In this paper we study graphs all of whose star sets induce cliques or co-cliques. We show that the star sets of every tree for each eigenvalue are independent sets. Among other results it is shown that each star set of a connected graph G with three distinct eigenvalues induces a clique if and only if G=K_1,2 or K_2,…,2. It is also proved that stars are the only graphs with three distinct eigenvalues having a star partition with independent star sets.     

Distance spectra and distance energy of integral circulant graphs

The distance energy of a graph G is a recently developed energy-type invariant, defined as the sum of absolute values of the eigenvalues of the distance matrix of G. There was a vast research for the pairs and families of non-cospectral graphs having equal distance energy, and most of these constructions were based on the join of graphs. A graph is called circulant if it is Cayley graph on the circulant group, i.e. its adjacency matrix is circulant. A graph is called integral if all eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix are integers. Integral circulant graphs play an important role in modeling quantum spin networks supporting the perfect state transfer. In this paper, we characterize the distance spectra of integral circulant graphs and prove that these graphs have integral eigenvalues of distance matrix D. Furthermore, we calculate the distance spectra and distance energy of unitary Cayley graphs. In conclusion, we present two families of pairs (G₁,G₂) of integral circulant graphs with equal distance energy - in the first family G₁ is subgraph of G₂, while in the second family the diameter of both graphs is three.     

Series-parallel graphs are windy postman perfect

The windy postman problem is the NP-hard problem of finding the minimum cost of a tour traversing all edges of an undirected graph, where the cost of an edge depends on the direction of traversal. Given an undirected graph G, we consider the polyhedron O(G) induced by a linear programming relaxation of the windy postman problem. We say that G is windy postman perfect if O(G) is integral. There exists a polynomial-time algorithm, based on the ellipsoid method, to solve the windy postman problem for the class of windy postman perfect graphs. By considering a family of polyhedra related to O(G), we prove that series-parallel graphs are windy postman perfect, therefore solving a conjecture of Win.     

Minimal non-1-planar graphs

A graph is 1-planar if it can be drawn on the plane so that each edge is crossed by no more than one other edge. A non-1-planar graph G is minimal if the graph G-e is 1-planar for every edge e of G. We prove that there are infinitely many minimal non-1-planar graphs (MN-graphs). It is known that every 6-vertex graph is 1-planar. We show that the graph K₇-K₃ is the unique 7-vertex MN-graph.     

Star complements and exceptional graphs

Let G be a finite graph of order n with an eigenvalue μ of multiplicity k. (Thus the μ-eigenspace of a (0,1)-adjacency matrix of G has dimension k.) A star complement for μ in G is an induced subgraph G-X of G such that |X|=k and G-X does not have μ as an eigenvalue. An exceptional graph is a connected graph, other than a generalized line graph, whose eigenvalues lie in [-2,∞). We establish some properties of star complements, and of eigenvectors, of exceptional graphs with least eigenvalue −2.     

On the Burkard-Hammer condition for hamiltonian split graphs

A graph G=(V,E) is called a split graph if there exists a partition V=I∪K such that the subgraphs of G induced by I and K are empty and complete graphs, respectively. In 1980, Burkard and Hammer gave a necessary but not sufficient condition for hamiltonian split graphs with |I|<|K|. In this paper, we show that the Burkard-Hammer condition is also sufficient for the existence of a Hamilton cycle in a split graph G such that 5≠|I|<|K| and the minimum degree δ(G)?|I|-3. For the case 5=|I|<|K|, all split graphs satisfying the Burkard-Hammer condition but having no Hamilton cycles are also described.     

On the nullity of tricyclic graphs

The nullity of a graph G, denoted by η(G), is the multiplicity of the eigenvalue zero in its spectrum. It is known that η(G)?n-2 if G is a simple graph on n vertices and G is not isomorphic to nK₁. The extremal graphs attaining the upper bound n-2 and the second upper bound n-3 have been obtained. In this paper, the graphs with nullity n-4 are characterized. Furthermore the tricyclic graphs with maximum nullity are discussed.     

The energy of random graphs

In 1970s, Gutman introduced the concept of the energy E(G) for a simple graph G, which is defined as the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of G. This graph invariant has attracted much attention, and many lower and upper bounds have been established for some classes of graphs among which bipartite graphs are of particular interest. But there are only a few graphs attaining the equalities of those bounds. We however obtain an exact estimate of the energy for almost all graphs by Wigner’s semi-circle law, which generalizes a result of Nikiforov. We further investigate the energy of random multipartite graphs by considering a generalization of Wigner matrix, and obtain some estimates of the energy for random multipartite graphs.     

On the 2-rainbow domination in graphs

The concept of 2-rainbow domination of a graph G coincides with the ordinary domination of the prism G□K₂. In this paper, we show that the problem of deciding if a graph has a 2-rainbow dominating function of a given weight is NP-complete even when restricted to bipartite graphs or chordal graphs. Exact values of 2-rainbow domination numbers of several classes of graphs are found, and it is shown that for the generalized Petersen graphs GP(n,k) this number is between ⌈4n/5⌉ and n with both bounds being sharp.     

On perturbations of almost distance-regular graphs

In this paper we show that certain almost distance-regular graphs, the so-called h-punctually walk-regular graphs, can be characterized through the cospectrality of their perturbed graphs. A graph G with diameter D is called h-punctually walk-regular, for a given h≤D, if the number of paths of length ? between a pair of vertices u,v at distance h depends only on ?. The graph perturbations considered here are deleting a vertex, adding a loop, adding a pendant edge, adding/removing an edge, amalgamating vertices, and adding a bridging vertex. We show that for walk-regular graphs some of these operations are equivalent, in the sense that one perturbation produces cospectral graphs if and only if the others do. Our study is based on the theory of graph perturbations developed by Cvetkovi?, Godsil, McKay, Rowlinson, Schwenk, and others. As a consequence, some new characterizations of distance-regular graphs are obtained.     

Power domination in graphs

The problem of monitoring an electric power system by placing as few measurement devices in the system as possible is closely related to the well-known domination problem in graphs. In 1998, Haynes et al. considered the graph theoretical representation of this problem as a variation of the domination problem. They defined a set S to be a power dominating set of a graph if every vertex and every edge in the system is monitored by the set S (following a set of rules for power system monitoring). The power domination number γ_P(G) of a graph G is the minimum cardinality of a power dominating set of G. In this paper, we present upper bounds on the power domination number for a connected graph with at least three vertices and a connected claw-free cubic graph in terms of their order. The extremal graphs attaining the upper bounds are also characterized.     

Heterochromatic tree partition numbers for complete bipartite graphs

An r-edge-coloring of a graph G is a surjective assignment of r colors to the edges of G. A heterochromatic tree is an edge-colored tree in which any two edges have different colors. The heterochromatic tree partition number of an r-edge-colored graph G, denoted by t_r(G), is the minimum positive integer p such that whenever the edges of the graph G are colored with r colors, the vertices of G can be covered by at most p vertex-disjoint heterochromatic trees. In this paper we give an explicit formula for the heterochromatic tree partition number of an r-edge-colored complete bipartite graph K_m,n.     

Bounds on total domination in claw-free cubic graphs

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a total dominating set, denoted by TDS, of G if every vertex of G is adjacent to some vertex in S (other than itself). The minimum cardinality of a TDS of G is the total domination number of G, denoted by γ_t(G). If G does not contain K_1,3 as an induced subgraph, then G is said to be claw-free. It is shown in [D. Archdeacon, J. Ellis-Monaghan, D. Fischer, D. Froncek, P.C.B. Lam, S. Seager, B. Wei, R. Yuster, Some remarks on domination, J. Graph Theory 46 (2004) 207-210.] that if G is a graph of order n with minimum degree at least three, then γ_t(G)?n/2. Two infinite families of connected cubic graphs with total domination number one-half their orders are constructed in [O. Favaron, M.A. Henning, C.M. Mynhardt, J. Puech, Total domination in graphs with minimum degree three, J. Graph Theory 34(1) (2000) 9-19.] which shows that this bound of n/2 is sharp. However, every graph in these two families, except for K₄ and a cubic graph of order eight, contains a claw. It is therefore a natural question to ask whether this upper bound of n/2 can be improved if we restrict G to be a connected cubic claw-free graph of order at least 10. In this paper, we answer this question in the affirmative. We prove that if G is a connected claw-free cubic graph of order n?10, then γ_t(G)?5n/11.     

Decompositions for edge-coloring join graphs and cobipartite graphs

An edge-coloring is an association of colors to the edges of a graph, in such a way that no pair of adjacent edges receive the same color. A graph G is Class 1 if it is edge-colorable with a number of colors equal to its maximum degree Δ(G). To determine whether a graph G is Class 1 is NP-complete [I. Holyer, The NP-completeness of edge-coloring, SIAM J. Comput. 10 (1981) 718-720]. First, we propose edge-decompositions of a graph G with the goal of edge-coloring G with Δ(G) colors. Second, we apply these decompositions for identifying new subsets of Class 1 join graphs and cobipartite graphs. Third, the proposed technique is applied for proving that the chromatic index of a graph is equal to the chromatic index of its semi-core, the subgraph induced by the maximum degree vertices and their neighbors. Finally, we apply these decomposition tools to a classical result [A.J.W. Hilton, Z. Cheng, The chromatic index of a graph whose core has maximum degree 2, Discrete Math. 101 (1992) 135-147] that relates the chromatic index of a graph to its core, the subgraph induced by the maximum degree vertices.     

A characterization of graphs with rank 4

The rank of a graph G is defined to be the rank of its adjacency matrix. In this paper, we consider the following problem: What is the structure of a connected graph with rank 4? This question has not yet been fully answered in the literature, and only some partial results are known. In this paper we resolve this question by completely characterizing graphs G whose adjacency matrix has rank 4.     

Unoriented Laplacian maximizing graphs are degree maximal

A connected graph is said to be unoriented Laplacian maximizing if the spectral radius of its unoriented Laplacian matrix attains the maximum among all connected graphs with the same number of vertices and the same number of edges. A graph is said to be threshold (maximal) if its degree sequence is not majorized by the degree sequence of any other graph (and, in addition, the graph is connected). It is proved that an unoriented Laplacian maximizing graph is maximal and also that there are precisely two unoriented Laplacian maximizing graphs of a given order and with nullity 3. Our treatment depends on the following known characterization: a graph G is threshold (maximal) if and only if for every pair of vertices u,v of G, the sets N(u)?{v},N(v)?{u}, where N(u) denotes the neighbor set of u in G, are comparable with respect to the inclusion relation (and, in addition, the graph is connected). A conjecture about graphs that maximize the unoriented Laplacian matrix among all graphs with the same number of vertices and the same number of edges is also posed.     

Strongly self-dual graphs

We present a class of graphs whose adjacency matrices are nonsingular with integral inverses, denoted h-graphs. If the h-graphs G and H with adjacency matrices M(G) and M(H) satisfy M(G)^-1=SM(H)S, where S is a signature matrix, we refer to H as the dual of G. The dual is a type of graph inverse. If the h-graph G is isomorphic to its dual via a particular isomorphism, we refer to G as strongly self-dual. We investigate the structural and spectral properties of strongly self-dual graphs, with a particular emphasis on identifying when such a graph has 1 as an eigenvalue.