A short proof of w1n (Hom(C2r+1, Kn+2)) = 0 for all n and A graph colouring theorem by Babson and Kozlov

We show that the n-th power of the first Stiefel-Whitney class of the ℤ₂-action on the graph complex Hom(C _2r+1, K _n+2) is zero, confirming a conjecture by Babson and Kozlov. This yields a considerably simplified proof of their graph colouring theorem, which is also known as the Lovsz conjecture. This research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within the European graduate program “ Combinatorics, Geometry, and Computation” (No. GRK 588/2)     

The equivariant topology of stable Kneser graphs

The stable Kneser graph SG_n,k, n?1, k?0, introduced by Schrijver (1978) [19], is a vertex critical graph with chromatic number k+2, its vertices are certain subsets of a set of cardinality m=2n+k. Björner and de Longueville (2003) [5] have shown that its box complex is homotopy equivalent to a sphere, Hom(K₂,SG_n,k)?Sk. The dihedral group D2m acts canonically on SG_n,k, the group C₂ with 2 elements acts on K₂. We almost determine the (C₂×D2m)-homotopy type of Hom(K₂,SG_n,k) and use this to prove the following results.The graphs SG_2s,4 are homotopy test graphs, i.e. for every graph H and r?0 such that Hom(SG_2s,4,H) is (r−1)-connected, the chromatic number χ(H) is at least r+6.If k∉{0,1,2,4,8} and n?N(k) then SG_n,k is not a homotopy test graph, i.e. there are a graph G and an r?1 such that Hom(SG_n,k,G) is (r−1)-connected and χ(G)<r+k+2.     

Hom complexes and hypergraph colorings

Babson and Kozlov (2006) [2] studied Hom-complexes of graphs with a focus on graph colorings. In this paper, we generalize Hom-complexes to r-uniform hypergraphs (with multiplicities) and study them mainly in connection with hypergraph colorings. We reinterpret a result of Alon, Frankl and Lovász (1986) [1] by Hom-complexes and show a hierarchy of known lower bounds for the chromatic numbers of r-uniform hypergraphs (with multiplicities) using Hom-complexes.     

Homotopy groups of Hom complexes of graphs

The notion of ×-homotopy from [Anton Dochtermann, Hom complexes and homotopy theory in the category of graphs, European J. Combin., in press] is investigated in the context of the category of pointed graphs. The main result is a long exact sequence that relates the higher homotopy groups of the space Hom_∗(G,H) with the homotopy groups of Hom_∗(G,HI). Here Hom_∗(G,H) is a space which parameterizes pointed graph maps from G to H (a pointed version of the usual Hom complex), and HI is the graph of based paths in H. As a corollary it is shown that πi(Hom_∗(G,H))≅_×[G,ΩiH], where ΩH is the graph of based closed paths in H and _×[G,K] is the set of ×-homotopy classes of pointed graph maps from G to K. This is similar in spirit to the results of [Eric Babson, Hélène Barcelo, Mark de Longueville, Reinhard Laubenbacher, Homotopy theory of graphs, J. Algebraic Combin. 24 (1) (2006) 31-44], where the authors seek a space whose homotopy groups encode a similarly defined homotopy theory for graphs. The categorical connections to those constructions are discussed.     

Using equivariant obstruction theory in combinatorial geometry

A significant group of problems coming from the realm of combinatorial geometry can be approached fruitfully through the use of Algebraic Topology. From the first such application to Kneser's problem in 1978 by Lovász [L. Lovász, Knester's conjecture, chromatic number of distance graphs on the sphere, Acta. Sci. Math (Szeged) 45 (1983) 317-323] through the solution of the Lovász conjecture [E. Babson, D. Kozlov, Proof of Lovasz conjecture, Annals of Mathematics (2) (2004), submitted for publication; C. Schultz, A short proof of for all n and a graph colouring theorem by Babson and Kozlov, 2005, arXiv: math.AT/0507346v2], many methods from Algebraic Topology have been developed. Specifically, it appears that the understanding of equivariant theories is of the most importance. The solution of many problems depends on the existence of an elegantly constructed equivariant map. A variety of results from algebraic topology were applied in solving these problems. The methods used ranged from well known theorems like Borsuk-Ulam and Dold theorem to the integer/ideal-valued index theories. Recently equivariant obstruction theory has provided answers where the previous methods failed. For example, in papers [R.T. ?ivaljevi?, Equipartitions of measures in R⁴, arXiv: math.0412483, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., submitted for publication] and [P. Blagojevi?, A. Dimitrijevi? Blagojevi?, Topology of partition of measures by fans and the second obstruction, arXiv: math.CO/0402400, 2004] obstruction theory was used to prove the existence of different mass partitions. In this paper we extract the essence of the equivariant obstruction theory in order to obtain an effective general position map scheme for analyzing the problem of existence of equivariant maps. The fact that this scheme is useful is demonstrated in this paper with three applications:

(A)

a “half-page” proof of the Lovász conjecture due to Babson and Kozlov [E. Babson, D. Kozlov, Proof of Lovasz conjecture, Annals of Mathematics (2) (2004), submitted for publication] (one of two key ingredients is Schultz' map [C. Schultz, A short proof of for all n and a graph colouring theorem by Babson and Kozlov, 2005, arXiv: math.AT/0507346v2]),

(B)

a generalization of the result of V. Makeev [V.V. Makeev, Equipartitions of continuous mass distributions on the sphere an in the space, Zap. Nauchn. Sem. S.-Petersburg (POMI) 252 (1998) 187-196 (in Russian)] about the sphere S² measure partition by 3-planes (Section 3), and

(C)

the new (a,b,a), class of 3-fan 2-measures partitions (Section 3).

These three results, sorted by complexity, share the spirit of analyzing equivariant maps from spheres to complements of arrangements of subspaces.     

Set Partition Complexes

The Hom complexes were introduced by Lovász to study topological obstructions to graph colorings. The vertices of Hom(G,K _n ) are the n-colorings of the graph G, and a graph coloring is a partition of the vertex set into independent sets. Replacing the independence condition with any hereditary condition defines a set partition complex. We show how coloring questions arising from, for example, Ramsey theory can be formulated with set partition complexes. It was conjectured by Babson and Kozlov, and proved by Čukić and Kozlov, that Hom(G,K _n ) is (n−d−2)-connected, where d is the maximal degree of a vertex of G. We generalize this to set partition complexes.     

On the topological lower bound for the multichromatic number

In 1976, Stahl [14] defined the m-tuple coloring of a graph G and formulated a conjecture on the multichromatic number of Kneser graphs. For m=1 this conjecture is Kneser’s conjecture, which was proved by Lovász in 1978 [10]. Here we show that Lovász’s topological lower bound given in this way cannot be used to prove Stahl’s conjecture. We obtain that the strongest index bound only gives the trivial m⋅ω(G) lower bound if m≥|V(G)|. On the other hand, the connectivity bound for Kneser graphs is constant if m is sufficiently large. These findings provide new examples of graphs showing that the gaps between the chromatic number, the index bound and the connectivity bound can be arbitrarily large.     

A lower bound on the number of removable ears of 1-extendable graphs

Let G be a 1-extendable graph distinct from K₂ and C_2n. A classical result of Lovász and Plummer (1986) [5, Theorem 5.4.6] states that G has a removable ear. Carvalho et al. (1999) [3] proved that G has at least Δ(G) edge-disjoint removable ears, where Δ(G) denotes the maximum degree of G. In this paper, the authors improve the lower bound and prove that G has at least m(G) edge-disjoint removable ears, where m(G) denotes the minimum number of perfect matchings needed to cover all edges of G.     

On the existence of two non-neighboring subgraphs in a graph

Does there exist a functionf(r, n) such that each graphG with _Z (G)≧f(r, n) contains either a complete subgraph of orderr or else two non-neighboringn-chromatic subgraphs? It is known thatf(r, 2) exists and we establish the existence off(r, 3). We also give some interesting results about graphs which do not contain two independent edges.     

Shadows and intersections in vector spaces

We prove a vector space analog of a version of the Kruskal-Katona theorem due to Lovász. We apply this result to extend Frankl's theorem on r-wise intersecting families to vector spaces. In particular, we obtain a short new proof of the Erd?s-Ko-Rado theorem for vector spaces.     

Dissections, Hom-complexes and the Cayley trick

We show that certain canonical realizations of the complexes Hom(G,H) and Hom₊(G,H) of (partial) graph homomorphisms studied by Babson and Kozlov are, in fact, instances of the polyhedral Cayley trick. For G a complete graph, we then characterize when a canonical projection of these complexes is itself again a complex, and exhibit several well-known objects that arise as cells or subcomplexes of such projected Hom-complexes: the dissections of a convex polygon into k-gons, Postnikov's generalized permutohedra, staircase triangulations, the complex dual to the lower faces of a cyclic polytope, and the graph of weak compositions of an integer into a fixed number of summands.     

Exponents of 2-coloring of symmetric digraphs

A 2-coloring (G₁,G₂) of a digraph is 2-primitive if there exist nonnegative integers h and k with h+k>0 such that for each ordered pair (u,v) of vertices there exists an (h,k)-walk in (G₁,G₂) from u to v. The exponent of (G₁,G₂) is the minimum value of h+k taken over all such h and k. In this paper, we consider 2-colorings of strongly connected symmetric digraphs with loops, establish necessary and sufficient conditions for these to be 2-primitive and determine an upper bound on their exponents. We also characterize the 2-colored digraphs that attain the upper bound and the exponent set for this family of digraphs on n vertices.     

Paths of homomorphisms from stable Kneser graphs

We denote by SG _n,k the stable Kneser graph (Schrijver graph) of stable n-subsets of a set of cardinality 2n+k. For k≡3 (mod 4) and n≥2 we show that there is a component of the χ-colouring graph of SG _n,k which is invariant under the action of the automorphism group of SG _n,k . We derive that there is a graph G with χ(G)=χ(SG _n,k ) such that the complex Hom(SG _n,k ,G) is non-empty and connected. In particular, for k≡3 (mod 4) and n≥2 the graph SG _n,k is not a test graph.     

A Characterization for reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces

Let G(t, s) be the Green's functions associated with N, a differential operator restricted to certain boundary conditions. Define (u, v)_N = (Nu, v)_L2. It is shown that the reproducing kernel Hilbert space generated by G is the same as the Hilbert-space completion with respect to ∥ · ∥_N of the set of real valued functions which are in C²ⁿ and satisfy the boundary conditions. The concept of Sobolev spaces is used in the proof and examples are given.     

Bipartite rainbow numbers of matchings

Given two graphs G and H, let f(G,H) denote the maximum number c for which there is a way to color the edges of G with c colors such that every subgraph H of G has at least two edges of the same color. Equivalently, any edge-coloring of G with at least rb(G,H)=f(G,H)+1 colors contains a rainbow copy of H, where a rainbow subgraph of an edge-colored graph is such that no two edges of it have the same color. The number rb(G,H) is called the rainbow number ofHwith respect toG, and simply called the bipartite rainbow number ofH if G is the complete bipartite graph K_m,n. Erd?s, Simonovits and Sós showed that rb(K_n,K₃)=n. In 2004, Schiermeyer determined the rainbow numbers rb(K_n,K_k) for all n≥k≥4, and the rainbow numbers rb(K_n,kK₂) for all k≥2 and n≥3k+3. In this paper we will determine the rainbow numbers rb(K_m,n,kK₂) for all k≥1.     

Dual graph homomorphism functions

For any two graphs F and G, let hom(F,G) denote the number of homomorphisms F→G, that is, adjacency preserving maps V(F)→V(G) (graphs may have loops but no multiple edges). We characterize graph parameters f for which there exists a graph F such that f(G)=hom(F,G) for each graph G.The result may be considered as a certain dual of a characterization of graph parameters of the form hom(.,H), given by Freedman, Lovász and Schrijver [M. Freedman, L. Lovász, A. Schrijver, Reflection positivity, rank connectivity, and homomorphisms of graphs, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 20 (2007) 37-51]. The conditions amount to the multiplicativity of f and to the positive semidefiniteness of certain matrices N(f,k).     

A characterization of Delsarte’s linear programming bound as a ratio bound

It is well known that the ratio bound is an upper bound on the stability number α(G) of a regular graph G. In this note it is proved that, if G is a graph whose edge is a union of classes of a symmetric association scheme, the Delsarte’s linear programming bound can alternatively be stated as the minimum of a set of ratio bounds. This result follows from a recently established relationship between a set of convex quadratic bounds on α(G) and the number ?′(G), a well known variant of the Lovász theta number, which was introduced independently by Schrijver [A. Schrijver, A comparison of the Delsarte and Lovász bounds, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 25 (1979) 425-429] and McEliece et al. [R.J. McEliece, E.R. Rodemich, H.C. Rumsey Jr, The Lovász bound and some generalizations, J. Combin. Inform. System Sci. 3 (1978) 134-152].     

Mixing rank-one actions of locally compact Abelian groups

Using techniques related to the (C,F)-actions we construct explicitly mixing rank-one (by cubes) actions T of G=Rd₁×Zd₂ for any pair of non-negative integers d₁, d₂. It is also shown that h(Tg)=0 for each g∈G.     

Edge-deletable IM-extendable graphs with minimum number of edges

A graph G is induced matching extendable, shortly IM-extendable, if every induced matching of G is included in a perfect matching of G. For a nonnegative integer k, a graph G is called a k-edge-deletable IM-extendable graph, if, for every F⊆E(G) with |F|=k, G−F is IM-extendable. In this paper, we characterize the k-edge-deletable IM-extendable graphs with minimum number of edges. We show that, for a positive integer k, if G is ak-edge-deletable IM-extendable graph on 2n vertices, then |E(G)|≥(k+2)n; furthermore, the equality holds if and only if either G≅K_k+2,k+2, or k=4r−2 for some integer r≥3 and G≅C₅[N_2r], where N_2r is the empty graph on 2r vertices and C₅[N_2r] is the graph obtained from C₅ by replacing each vertex with a graph isomorphic to N_2r.