The Ramsey numbers for disjoint unions of graphs

For given graphs G and H, the Ramsey number R(G,H) is the smallest natural number n such that for every graph F of order n: either F contains G or the complement of F contains H. In this paper we investigate the Ramsey number of a disjoint union of graphs . For any natural integer k, we contain a general upper bound, R(kG,H)?R(G,H)+(k-1)|V(G)|. We also show that if m=2n-4, 2n-8 or 2n-6, then R(kS_n,W_m)=R(S_n,W_m)+(k-1)n. Furthermore, if |G_i|>(|G_i|-|G_i+1|)(χ(H)-1) and R(G_i,H)=(χ(H)-1)(|G_i|-1)+1, for each i, then .     

Colouring games on outerplanar graphs and trees

Let f be a graph function which assigns to each graph H a non-negative integer f(H)≤|V(H)|. The f-game chromatic number of a graph G is defined through a two-person game. Let X be a set of colours. Two players, Alice and Bob, take turns colouring the vertices of G with colours from X. A partial colouring c of G is legal (with respect to graph function f) if for any subgraph H of G, the sum of the number of colours used in H and the number of uncoloured vertices of H is at least f(H). Both Alice and Bob must colour legally (i.e., the partial colouring produced needs to be legal). The game ends if either all the vertices are coloured or there are uncoloured vertices with no legal colour. In the former case, Alice wins the game. In the latter case, Bob wins the game. The f-game chromatic number of G, χ_g(f,G), is the least number of colours that the colour set X needs to contain so that Alice has a winning strategy. Let be the graph function defined as , for any n≥3 and otherwise. Then is called the acyclic game chromatic number of G. In this paper, we prove that any outerplanar graph G has acyclic game chromatic number at most 7. For any integer k, let ?_k be the graph function defined as ?_k(K₂)=2 and ?_k(P_k)=3 (P_k is the path on k vertices) and ?_k(H)=0 otherwise. This paper proves that if k≥8 then for any tree T, χ_g(?_k,T)≤9. On the other hand, if k≤6, then for any integer n, there is a tree T such that χ_g(?_k,T)≥n.     

On some three color Ramsey numbers for paths and cycles

For given graphs G₁,G₂,…,G_k, k≥2, the multicolor Ramsey number, denoted by R(G₁,G₂,…,G_k), is the smallest integer n such that if we arbitrarily color the edges of a complete graph on n vertices with k colors, there is always a monochromatic copy of G_i colored with i, for some 1≤i≤k. Let P_k (resp. C_k) be the path (resp. cycle) on k vertices. In the paper we consider the value for numbers of type R(P_i,P_k,C_m) for odd m, k≥m≥3 and when i is odd, and when i is even. In addition, we provide the exact values for Ramsey numbers R(P₃,P_k,C₄) for all integers k≥3.     

Cubicity, boxicity, and vertex cover

A k-dimensional box is the cartesian product R₁×R₂×?×R_k where each R_i is a closed interval on the real line. The boxicity of a graph G, denoted as box(G), is the minimum integer k such that G is the intersection graph of a collection of k-dimensional boxes. A unit cube in k-dimensional space or a k-cube is defined as the cartesian product R₁×R₂×?×R_k where each R_i is a closed interval on the real line of the form [a_i,a_i+1]. The cubicity of G, denoted as cub(G), is the minimum k such that G is the intersection graph of a collection of k-cubes. In this paper we show that cub(G)≤t+⌈log(n−t)⌉−1 and , where t is the cardinality of a minimum vertex cover of G and n is the number of vertices of G. We also show the tightness of these upper bounds.F.S. Roberts in his pioneering paper on boxicity and cubicity had shown that for a graph G, and , where n is the number of vertices of G, and these bounds are tight. We show that if G is a bipartite graph then and this bound is tight. We also show that if G is a bipartite graph then . We point out that there exist graphs of very high boxicity but with very low chromatic number. For example there exist bipartite (i.e., 2 colorable) graphs with boxicity equal to . Interestingly, if boxicity is very close to , then chromatic number also has to be very high. In particular, we show that if , s≥0, then , where χ(G) is the chromatic number of G.     

The tail is cut for Ramsey numbers of cubes

The Ramsey number R(G) of a graph G is the least integer p such that for all bicolorings of the edges of the complete graph K_p, one of the monochromatic subgraphs contains a copy of G. We show that for any positive constant c and bipartite graph G=(U,V;E) of order n where the maximum degree of vertices in U is at most , . Moreover, we show that the Ramsey number of the cube Q_n of dimension n satisfies . In both cases, the small terms are removed from the powers in the upper bounds of a earlier result of the author.     

The number of reachable pairs in a digraph

For a digraph G, let R(G) (respectively, R^(k)(G)) be the number of ordered pairs (u,v) of vertices of G such that u≠v and v is reachable from u (respectively, reachable from u by a path of length ?k). In this paper, we study the range S_n of R(G) and the range of R^(k)(G) as G varies over all possible digraphs on n vertices. We give a sufficient condition and a necessary condition for an integer to belong to S_n. These determine the set S_n for all n?208. We also determine for k?4 and show that whenever n?k+(k+1)^0.57+2, for arbitrary k.     

The hardness of approximating the boxicity, cubicity and threshold dimension of a graph

A k-dimensional box is the Cartesian product R₁×R₂×?×R_k where each R_i is a closed interval on the real line. The boxicity of a graph G, denoted as , is the minimum integer k such that G can be represented as the intersection graph of a collection of k-dimensional boxes. A unit cube in k-dimensional space or a k-cube is defined as the Cartesian product R₁×R₂×?×R_k where each R_i is a closed interval on the real line of the form [a_i,a_i+1]. The cubicity of G, denoted as , is the minimum integer k such that G can be represented as the intersection graph of a collection of k-cubes. The threshold dimension of a graph G(V,E) is the smallest integer k such that E can be covered by k threshold spanning subgraphs of G. In this paper we will show that there exists no polynomial-time algorithm for approximating the threshold dimension of a graph on n vertices with a factor of O(n^0.5−?) for any ?>0 unless NP=ZPP. From this result we will show that there exists no polynomial-time algorithm for approximating the boxicity and the cubicity of a graph on n vertices with factor O(n^0.5−?) for any ?>0 unless NP=ZPP. In fact all these hardness results hold even for a highly structured class of graphs, namely the split graphs. We will also show that it is NP-complete to determine whether a given split graph has boxicity at most 3.     

Note on the energy of regular graphs

For a simple graph G, the energy E(G) is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all the eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix A(G). Let n,m, respectively, be the number of vertices and edges of G. One well-known inequality is that , where λ₁ is the spectral radius. If G is k-regular, we have . Denote . Balakrishnan [R. Balakrishnan, The energy of a graph, Linear Algebra Appl. 387 (2004) 287-295] proved that for each ?>0, there exist infinitely many n for each of which there exists a k-regular graph G of order n with k<n-1 and , and proposed an open problem that, given a positive integer n?3, and ?>0, does there exist a k-regular graph G of order n such that . In this paper, we show that for each ?>0, there exist infinitely many such n that . Moreover, we construct another class of simpler graphs which also supports the first assertion that .     

Complexity results in graph reconstruction

We investigate the relative complexity of the graph isomorphism problem (GI) and problems related to the reconstruction of a graph from its vertex-deleted or edge-deleted subgraphs (in particular, deck checking (DC) and legitimate deck (LD) problems). We show that these problems are closely related for all amounts c?1 of deletion:

(1)

, , , and .

(2)

For all k?2, and .

(3)

For all k?2, .

(4)

.

(5)

For all k?2, .

For many of these results, even the c=1 case was not previously known.Similar to the definition of reconstruction numbers vrn_∃(G) [F. Harary, M. Plantholt, The graph reconstruction number, J. Graph Theory 9 (1985) 451-454] and ern_∃(G) (see [J. Lauri, R. Scapellato Topics in Graph Automorphism and Reconstruction, London Mathematical Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 120]), we introduce two new graph parameters, vrn_∀(G) and ern_∀(G), and give an example of a family {G_n}_n?4 of graphs on n vertices for which vrn_∃(G_n)<vrn_∀(G_n). For every k?2 and n?1, we show that there exists a collection of k graphs on (2^k-1+1)n+k vertices with 2ⁿ 1-vertex-preimages, i.e., one has families of graph collections whose number of 1-vertex-preimages is huge relative to the size of the graphs involved.     

Graham’s pebbling conjecture on product of thorn graphs of complete graphs

The pebbling number of a graph G, f(G), is the least n such that, no matter how n pebbles are placed on the vertices of G, we can move a pebble to any vertex by a sequence of pebbling moves, each move taking two pebbles off one vertex and placing one on an adjacent vertex. Let p₁,p₂,…,p_n be positive integers and G be such a graph, V(G)=n. The thorn graph of the graph G, with parameters p₁,p₂,…,p_n, is obtained by attaching p_i new vertices of degree 1 to the vertex u_i of the graph G, i=1,2,…,n. Graham conjectured that for any connected graphs G and H, f(G×H)≤f(G)f(H). We show that Graham’s conjecture holds true for a thorn graph of the complete graph with every by a graph with the two-pebbling property. As a corollary, Graham’s conjecture holds when G and H are the thorn graphs of the complete graphs with every .     

Bandwidth of the corona of two graphs

The bandwidth B(G) of a graph G is the minimum of the quantity max{|f(u)-f(v)|:uv∈E(G)} taken over all injective integer numberings f of G. The corona of two graphs G and H, written as G°H, is the graph obtained by taking one copy of G and |V(G)| copies of H, and then joining the ith vertex of G to every vertex in the ith copy of H. In this paper, we investigate the bandwidth of the corona of two graphs. For a graph G, we denote the connectivity of G by κ(G). Let G be a graph on n vertices with B(G)=κ(G)=k?2 and let H be a graph of order m. Let c,p and q be three integers satisfying 1?c?k-1 and . We define h_i=(2k-1)m+(k-i)(⌊(2k-1)m/i⌋+1)+1 for i=1,2,…,k and b=max{⌈(n(m+1)-qm-1)/(p+2)⌉,⌈(n(m+1)+k-q-1)/(p+3)⌉}. Then, among other results, we prove that

     

Non-uniform Turán-type problems

Given positive integers n,k,t, with 2?k?n, and t<2^k, let m(n,k,t) be the minimum size of a family F of (nonempty distinct) subsets of [n] such that every k-subset of [n] contains at least t members of F, and every (k-1)-subset of [n] contains at most t-1 members of F. For fixed k and t, we determine the order of magnitude of m(n,k,t). We also consider related Turán numbers T_?r(n,k,t) and T_r(n,k,t), where T_?r(n,k,t) (T_r(n,k,t)) denotes the minimum size of a family such that every k-subset of [n] contains at least t members of F. We prove that T_?r(n,k,t)=(1+o(1))T_r(n,k,t) for fixed r,k,t with and n→∞.     

A new characterization of dual bases in finite fields and its applications

We propose a new characterization of dual bases in finite fields. Let A=(α₁,…,α_n) be a basis of F over F_q and its dual basis B=(β₁,…,β_n) with the transition matrix C∈GL_n(F_q) such that (β₁,…,β_n)=(α₁,…,α_n)C. We show that holds for all 1?k?n, where T_k∈M_n(F_q) satisfies α_k(α₁,…,α_n)=(α₁,…,α_n)T_k. Conversely, suppose F=F_q(α_k^′) and for some 1?k^′?n and G∈GL_n(F_q), then B is equivalent to (α₁,…,α_n)G. As applications, we can construct the dual basis of a given basis A or determine whether the dual basis of A satisfies the desired conditions from T_k. This generalizes the results obtained by Liao and Sun for normal bases. Furthermore, we give a simple proof of the theorem of Gollmann, Wang and Blake for polynomial bases.     

On the Hadwiger's conjecture for graph products

The Hadwiger number η(G) of a graph G is the largest integer h such that the complete graph on h nodes K_h is a minor of G. Equivalently, η(G) is the largest integer such that any graph on at most η(G) nodes is a minor of G. The Hadwiger's conjecture states that for any graph G, η(G)?χ(G), where χ(G) is the chromatic number of G. It is well-known that for any connected undirected graph G, there exists a unique prime factorization with respect to Cartesian graph products. If the unique prime factorization of G is given as G₁□G₂□?□G_k, where each G_i is prime, then we say that the product dimension of G is k. Such a factorization can be computed efficiently.In this paper, we study the Hadwiger's conjecture for graphs in terms of their prime factorization. We show that the Hadwiger's conjecture is true for a graph G if the product dimension of G is at least . In fact, it is enough for G to have a connected graph M as a minor whose product dimension is at least , for G to satisfy the Hadwiger's conjecture. We show also that if a graph G is isomorphic to F^d for some F, then η(G)?χ(G)^{⌊(d-1)/2⌋}, and thus G satisfies the Hadwiger's conjecture when d?3. For sufficiently large d, our lower bound is exponentially higher than what is implied by the Hadwiger's conjecture.Our approach also yields (almost) sharp lower bounds for the Hadwiger number of well-known graph products like d-dimensional hypercubes, Hamming graphs and the d-dimensional grids. In particular, we show that for the d-dimensional hypercube H_d, . We also derive similar bounds for G^d for almost all G with n nodes and at least edges.     

Hamiltonian path saturated graphs with small size

A graph G is said to be hamiltonian path saturated (HPS for short), if G has no hamiltonian path but any addition of a new edge in G creates a hamiltonian path in G. It is known that an HPS graph of order n has size at most and, for n?6, the only HPS graph of order n and size is K_n-1∪K₁. Denote by sat(n,HP) the minimum size of an HPS graph of order n. We prove that sat(n,HP)?⌊(3n-1)/2⌋-2. Using some properties of Isaacs’ snarks we give, for every n?54, an HPS graph G_n of order n and size ⌊(3n-1)/2⌋. This proves sat(n,HP)?⌊(3n-1)/2⌋ for n?54. We also consider m-path cover saturated graphs and P_m-saturated graphs with small size.     

Path-kipas Ramsey numbers

For two given graphs F and H, the Ramsey number R(F,H) is the smallest positive integer p such that for every graph G on p vertices the following holds: either G contains F as a subgraph or the complement of G contains H as a subgraph. In this paper, we study the Ramsey numbers , where P_n is a path on n vertices and is the graph obtained from the join of K₁ and P_m. We determine the exact values of for the following values of n and m: 1?n?5 and m?3; n?6 and (m is odd, 3?m?2n-1) or (m is even, 4?m?n+1); 6?n≤7 and m=2n-2 or m?2n; n?8 and m=2n-2 or m=2n or (q·n-2q+1?m?q·n-q+2 with 3?q?n-5) or m?(n-3)²; odd n?9 and (q·n-3q+1?m?q·n-2q with 3?q?(n-3)/2) or (q·n-q-n+4?m?q·n-2q with (n-1)/2?q?n-4). Moreover, we give lower bounds and upper bounds for for the other values of m and n.     

Roman domination in regular graphs

A Roman domination function on a graph G=(V(G),E(G)) is a function f:V(G)→{0,1,2} satisfying the condition that every vertex u for which f(u)=0 is adjacent to at least one vertex v for which f(v)=2. The weight of a Roman dominating function is the value f(V(G))=∑_u∈V(G)f(u). The minimum weight of a Roman dominating function on a graph G is called the Roman domination number of G. Cockayne et al. [E. J. Cockayne et al. Roman domination in graphs, Discrete Mathematics 278 (2004) 11-22] showed that γ(G)≤γ_R(G)≤2γ(G) and defined a graph G to be Roman if γ_R(G)=2γ(G). In this article, the authors gave several classes of Roman graphs: P_3k,P_3k+2,C_3k,C_3k+2 for k≥1, K_m,n for min{m,n}≠2, and any graph G with γ(G)=1; In this paper, we research on regular Roman graphs and prove that: (1) the circulant graphs and , n⁄≡1 (mod (2k+1)), (n≠2k) are Roman graphs, (2) the generalized Petersen graphs P(n,2k+1)( (mod 4) and ), P(n,1) (n⁄≡2 (mod 4)), P(n,3) ( (mod 4)) and P(11,3) are Roman graphs, and (3) the Cartesian product graphs are Roman graphs.     

The Ramsey number of paths with respect to wheels

For graphs G and H, the Ramsey numberR(G,H) is the smallest positive integer n such that every graph F of order n contains G or the complement of F contains H. For the path P_n and the wheel W_m, it is proved that R(P_n,W_m)=2n-1 if m is even, m?4, and n?(m/2)(m-2), and R(P_n,W_m)=3n-2 if m is odd, m?5, and n?(m-1/2)(m-3).     

Unavoidable subgraphs of colored graphs

A natural generalization of graph Ramsey theory is the study of unavoidable sub-graphs in large colored graphs. In this paper, we find a minimal family of unavoidable graphs in two-edge-colored graphs. Namely, for a positive even integer k, let S_k be the family of two-edge-colored graphs on k vertices such that one of the colors forms either two disjoint K_k/2's or simply one K_k/2. Bollobás conjectured that for all k and ε>0, there exists an n(k,ε) such that if n?n(k,ε) then every two-edge-coloring of K_n, in which the density of each color is at least ε, contains a member of this family. We solve this conjecture and present a series of results bounding n(k,ε) for different ranges of ε. In particular, if ε is sufficiently close to , the gap between our upper and lower bounds for n(k,ε) is smaller than those for the classical Ramsey number R(k,k).     

The cubicity of hypercube graphs

For a graph G, its cubicity is the minimum dimension k such that G is representable as the intersection graph of (axis-parallel) cubes in k-dimensional space. (A k-dimensional cube is a Cartesian product R₁×R₂×?×R_k, where R_i is a closed interval of the form [a_i,a_i+1] on the real line.) Chandran et al. [L.S. Chandran, C. Mannino, G. Oriolo, On the cubicity of certain graphs, Information Processing Letters 94 (2005) 113-118] showed that for a d-dimensional hypercube H_d, . In this paper, we use the probabilistic method to show that . The parameter boxicity generalizes cubicity: the boxicity of a graph G is defined as the minimum dimension k such that G is representable as the intersection graph of axis-parallel boxes in k-dimensional space. Since for any graph G, our result implies that . The problem of determining a non-trivial lower bound for is left open.