k‐Kings in k‐Quasitransitive Digraphs

Let D be a digraph with vertex set and arc set . A vertex x is a k‐king of D, if for every , there is an ‐path of length at most k. A subset N of is k‐independent if for every pair of vertices , we have and ; it is l‐absorbent if for every there exists such that . A ‐kernel of D is a k‐independent and l‐absorbent subset of . A k‐kernel is a ‐kernel. A digraph D is k‐quasitransitive, if for any path of length k, x₀ and are adjacent. In this article, we will prove that a k‐quasitransitive digraph with has a k‐king if and only if it has a unique initial strong component and the unique initial strong component is not isomorphic to an extended ‐cycle where each has at least two vertices. Using this fact, we show that every strong k‐quasitransitive digraph has a ‐kernel.     

Circular Chromatic Indices of Regular Graphs

The circular chromatic index of a graph G, written , is the minimum r permitting a function such that whenever e and are adjacent. It is known that for any , there is a 3‐regular simple graph G with . This article proves the following results: Assume is an odd integer. For any , there is an n‐regular simple graph G with . For any , there is an n‐regular multigraph G with .     

A Combined Logarithmic Bound on the Chromatic Index of Multigraphs

For a multigraph G, the integer round‐up of the fractional chromatic index provides a good general lower bound for the chromatic index . For an upper bound, Kahn 1996 showed that for any real there exists a positive integer N so that whenever . We show that for any multigraph G with order n and at least one edge, ). This gives the following natural generalization of Kahn's result: for any positive reals , there exists a positive integer N so that + c whenever . We also compare the upper bound found here to other leading upper bounds.     

Anti‐Ramsey Problems for t Edge‐Disjoint Rainbow Spanning Subgraphs: Cycles,Matchings, or Trees

We seek the maximum number of colors in an edge‐coloring of the complete graph not having t edge‐disjoint rainbow spanning subgraphs of specified types. Let , , and denote the answers when the spanning subgraphs are cycles, matchings, or trees, respectively. We prove for and for . We prove for and for . We also provide constructions for the more general problem in which colorings are restricted so that colors do not appear on more than q edges at a vertex.     

Biembedding a Steiner Triple System With a Hamilton Cycle Decomposition of a Complete Graph

We construct a face two‐colourable, blue and green say, embedding of the complete graph in a nonorientable surface in which there are blue faces each of which have a hamilton cycle as their facial walk and green faces each of which have a triangle as their facial walk; equivalently a biembedding of a Steiner triple system of order n with a hamilton cycle decomposition of , for all and . Using a variant of this construction, we establish the minimum genus of nonorientable embeddings of the graph , for where and .     

Orientable Hamilton Cycle Embeddings of Complete Tripartite Graphs II: Voltage Graph Constructions and Applications

In an earlier article the authors constructed a hamilton cycle embedding of in a nonorientable surface for all and then used these embeddings to determine the genus of some large families of graphs. In this two‐part series, we extend those results to orientable surfaces for all . In part II, a voltage graph construction is presented for building embeddings of the complete tripartite graph on an orientable surface such that the boundary of every face is a hamilton cycle. This construction works for all such that p is prime, completing the proof started by part I (which covers the case ) that there exists an orientable hamilton cycle embedding of for all , . These embeddings are then used to determine the genus of several families of graphs, notably for and, in some cases, for .     

Transversals in Trees

The total embedding polynomial of a graph G is the bivariate polynomial where is the number of embeddings, for into the orientable surface , and is the number of embeddings, for into the nonorientable surface . The sequence is called the total embedding distribution of the graph G; it is known for relatively few classes of graphs, compared to the genus distribution . The circular ladder graph is the Cartesian product of the complete graph on two vertices and the cycle graph on n vertices. In this article, we derive a closed formula for the total embedding distribution of circular ladders.     

Eigenvalues of ‐Free Graphs and the Connectivity of Their Independence Complexes

Let G be a graph on n vertices, with maximal degree d, and not containing as an induced subgraph. We prove:

• 1.
• 2.

Here is the maximal eigenvalue of the Laplacian of G, is the independence complex of G, and denotes the topological connectivity of a complex plus 2. These results provide improved bounds for the existence of independent transversals in ‐free graphs.     

Improper Coloring of Sparse Graphs with a Given Girth,II: Constructions

A graph G is ‐colorable if can be partitioned into two sets and so that the maximum degree of is at most j and of is at most k. While the problem of verifying whether a graph is (0, 0)‐colorable is easy, the similar problem with in place of (0, 0) is NP‐complete for all nonnegative j and k with . Let denote the supremum of all x such that for some constant every graph G with girth g and for every is ‐colorable. It was proved recently that . In a companion paper, we find the exact value . In this article, we show that increasing g from 5 further on does not increase much. Our constructions show that for every g, . We also find exact values of for all g and all .     

Decomposition of Sparse Graphs into Forests and a Graph with Bounded Degree

For a loopless multigraph G, the fractional arboricity Arb(G) is the maximum of over all subgraphs H with at least two vertices. Generalizing the Nash‐Williams Arboricity Theorem, the Nine Dragon Tree Conjecture asserts that if , then G decomposes into forests with one having maximum degree at most d. The conjecture was previously proved for ; we prove it for and when and . For , we can further restrict one forest to have at most two edges in each component. For general , we prove weaker conclusions. If , then implies that G decomposes into k forests plus a multigraph (not necessarily a forest) with maximum degree at most d. If , then implies that G decomposes into forests, one having maximum degree at most d. Our results generalize earlier results about decomposition of sparse planar graphs.     

On the Multichromatic Number of s‐Stable Kneser Graphs

For positive integers n and s, a subset [n] is s‐stable if for distinct . The s‐stable r‐uniform Kneser hypergraph is the r‐uniform hypergraph that has the collection of all s‐stable k‐element subsets of [n] as vertex set and whose edges are formed by the r‐tuples of disjoint s‐stable k‐element subsets of [n]. Meunier ( 21 ) conjectured that for positive integers with , and , the chromatic number of s‐stable r ‐uniform Kneser hypergraphs is equal to . It is a generalized version of the conjecture proposed by Alon et al. ( 1 ). Alon et al. ( 1 ) confirmed Meunier's conjecture for with arbitrary positive integer q. Lin et al. ( 17 ) studied the kth chromatic number of the Mycielskian of the ordinary Kneser graphs for . They conjectured that for . The case was proved by Mycielski ( 22 ). Lin et al. ( 17 ) confirmed their conjecture for , or when n is a multiple of k or . In this paper, we investigate the multichromatic number of the usual s ‐stable Kneser graphs . With the help of Fan's (1952) combinatorial lemma, we show that Meunier's conjecture is true for r is a power of 2 and s is a multiple of r, and Lin‐Liu‐Zhu's conjecture is true for .     

Cycle‐Saturated Graphs with Minimum Number of Edges

A graph G is called H‐saturated if it does not contain any copy of H, but for any edge e in the complement of G, the graph contains some H. The minimum size of an n‐vertex H‐saturated graph is denoted by . We prove holds for all , where is a cycle with length k. A graph G is H‐semisaturated if contains more copies of H than G does for . Let be the minimum size of an n‐vertex H‐semisaturated graph. We have We conjecture that our constructions are optimal for . © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Graph Theory 73: 203–215, 2013     

Generating Nonisomorphic Quadrangular Embeddings of a Complete Graph

We construct (resp. ) index one current graphs with current group such that the current graphs have different underlying graphs and generate nonisomorphic orientable (resp. nonorientable) quadrangular embeddings of the complete graph , (resp. ).     

List Colorings with Distinct List Sizes,the Case of Complete Bipartite Graphs

Let be a function on the vertex set of the graph . The graph G is f‐choosable if for every collection of lists with list sizes specified by f there is a proper coloring using colors from the lists. The sum choice number, , is the minimum of , over all functions f such that G is f‐choosable. It is known (Alon, Surveys in Combinatorics, 1993 (Keele), London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, Vol. 187, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, pp. 1–33, Random Struct Algor 16 (2000), 364–368) that if G has average degree d, then the usual choice number is at least , so they grow simultaneously. In this article, we show that can be bounded while the minimum degree . Our main tool is to give tight estimates for the sum choice number of the unbalanced complete bipartite graph .     

Total Vertex Irregularity Strength of Dense Graphs

Consider a graph of minimum degree δ and order n. Its total vertex irregularity strength is the smallest integer k for which one can find a weighting such that for every pair of vertices of G. We prove that the total vertex irregularity strength of graphs with is bounded from above by . One of the cornerstones of the proof is a random ordering of the vertices generated by order statistics.     

Extremal Graphs With a Given Number of Perfect Matchings

Let denote the maximum number of edges in a graph having n vertices and exactly p perfect matchings. For fixed p, Dudek and Schmitt showed that for some constant when n is at least some constant . For , they also determined and . For fixed p, we show that the extremal graphs for all n are determined by those with vertices. As a corollary, a computer search determines and for . We also present lower bounds on proving that for (as conjectured by Dudek and Schmitt), and we conjecture an upper bound on . Our structural results are based on Lovász's Cathedral Theorem.     

Stability of Hereditary Graph Classes Under Closure Operations

If is a subclass of the class of claw‐free graphs, then is said to be stable if, for any , the local completion of G at any vertex is also in . If is a closure operation that turns a claw‐free graph into a line graph by a series of local completions and is stable, then for any . In this article, we study stability of hereditary classes of claw‐free graphs defined in terms of a family of connected closed forbidden subgraphs. We characterize line graph preimages of graphs in families that yield stable classes, we identify minimal families that yield stable classes in the finite case, and we also give a general background for techniques for handling unstable classes by proving that their closure may be included into another (possibly stable) class.     

Partial Online List Coloring of Graphs

For a graph G, let be the maximum number of vertices of G that can be colored whenever each vertex of G is given t permissible colors. Albertson, Grossman, and Haas conjectured that if G is s‐choosable and , then . In this article, we consider the online version of this conjecture. Let be the maximum number of vertices of G that can be colored online whenever each vertex of G is given t permissible colors online. An analog of the above conjecture is the following: if G is online s‐choosable and then . This article generalizes some results concerning partial list coloring to online partial list coloring. We prove that for any positive integers , . As a consequence, if s is a multiple of t, then . We also prove that if G is online s‐choosable and , then and for any , .     

On 2‐Colorings of Hypergraphs

In this article, we continue the study of 2‐colorings in hypergraphs. A hypergraph is 2‐colorable if there is a 2‐coloring of the vertices with no monochromatic hyperedge. Let denote the class of all k‐uniform k‐regular hypergraphs. It is known (see Alon and Bregman [Graphs Combin. 4 (1988) 303–306] and Thomassen [J. Amer. Math. Soc. 5 (1992), 217–229] that every hypergraph is 2‐colorable, provided . As remarked by Alon and Bregman the result is not true when , as may be seen by considering the Fano plane. Indeed there are several constructions for building infinite families of hypergraphs in that are not 2‐colorable. Our main result in this paper is a strengthening of the above results. For this purpose, we define a set X of vertices in a hypergraph H to be a free set in H if we can 2‐color such that every edge in H receives at least one vertex of each color. We conjecture that for , every hypergraph has a free set of size in H. We show that the bound cannot be improved for any and we prove our conjecture when . Our proofs use results from areas such as transversal in hypergraphs, cycles in digraphs, and probabilistic arguments.