On maximizing clique, clique-Helly and hereditary clique-Helly induced subgraphs

Clique-Helly and hereditary clique-Helly graphs are polynomial-time recognizable. Recently, we presented a proof that the clique graph recognition problem is NP-complete [L. Alcón, L. Faria, C.M.H. de Figueiredo, M. Gutierrez, Clique graph recognition is NP-complete, in: Proc. WG 2006, in: Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., vol. 4271, Springer, 2006, pp. 269-277]. In this work, we consider the decision problems: given a graph G=(V,E) and an integer k≥0, we ask whether there exists a subset V^′⊆V with |V^′|≥k such that the induced subgraph G[V^′] of G is, variously, a clique, clique-Helly or hereditary clique-Helly graph. The first problem is clearly NP-complete, from the above reference; we prove that the other two decision problems mentioned are NP-complete, even for maximum degree 6 planar graphs. We consider the corresponding maximization problems of finding a maximum induced subgraph that is, respectively, clique, clique-Helly or hereditary clique-Helly. We show that these problems are Max SNP-hard, even for maximum degree 6 graphs. We show a general polynomial-time -approximation algorithm for these problems when restricted to graphs with fixed maximum degree Δ. We generalize these results to other graph classes. We exhibit a polynomial 6-approximation algorithm to minimize the number of vertices to be removed in order to obtain a hereditary clique-Helly subgraph.     

4-regular claw-free IM-extendable graphs

A graph G is induced matching extendable (shortly, IM-extendable), if every induced matching of G is included in a perfect matching of G. A graph G is claw-free, if G does not contain any induced subgraph isomorphic to K_1,3. The kth power of a graph G, denoted by G^k, is the graph with vertex set V(G) in which two vertices are adjacent if and only if the distance between them in G is at most k. In this paper, the 4-regular claw-free IM-extendable graphs are characterized. It is shown that the only 4-regular claw-free connected IM-extendable graphs are , and T_r, r?2, where T_r is the graph with 4r vertices u_i,v_i,x_i,y_i, 1?i?r, such that for each i with 1?i?r, {u_i,v_i,x_i,y_i} is a clique of T_r and . We also show that a 4-regular strongly IM-extendable graph must be claw-free. As a consequence, the only 4-regular strongly IM-extendable graphs are K₄×K₂, and .     

Fast algorithms for identifying maximal common connected sets of interval graphs

Given a family of interval graphs F={G₁=(V,E₁),…,G_k=(V,E_k)} on the same vertices V, a set S⊂V is a maximal common connected set of F if the subgraphs of G_i,1?i?k, induced by S are connected in all G_i and S is maximal for the inclusion order. The maximal general common connected set for interval graphs problem (gen-CCPI) consists in efficiently computing the partition of V in maximal common connected sets of F. This problem has many practical applications, notably in computational biology. Let n=|V| and . For k?2, an algorithm in O((kn+m)logn) time is presented in Habib et al. [Maximal common connected sets of interval graphs, in: Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3109, Springer, Berlin, 2004, pp. 359-372]. In this paper, we improve this bound to O(knlogn+m). Moreover, if the interval graphs are given as k sets of n intervals, which is often the case in bioinformatics, we present a simple time algorithm.     

Spectral results on graphs with regularity constraints

Graphs with (k, τ)-regular sets and equitable partitions are examples of graphs with regularity constraints. A (k, τ)-regular set of a graph G is a subset of vertices S ⊆ V(G) inducing a k-regular subgraph and such that each vertex not in S has τ neighbors in S. The existence of such structures in a graph provides some information about the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of its adjacency matrix. For example, if a graph G has a (k₁, τ₁)-regular set S₁ and a (k₂, τ₂)-regular set S₂ such that k₁ − τ₁ = k₂ − τ₂ = λ, then λ is an eigenvalue of G with a certain eigenvector. Additionally, considering primitive strongly regular graphs, a necessary and sufficient condition for a particular subset of vertices to be (k, τ)-regular is introduced. Another example comes from the existence of an equitable partition in a graph. If a graph G, has an equitable partition π then its line graph, L(G), also has an equitable partition, , induced by π, and the adjacency matrix of the quotient graph is obtained from the adjacency matrix of G/π.     

Acyclic edge colouring of planar graphs without short cycles

Let G=(V,E) be any finite graph. A mapping C:E→[k] is called an acyclic edgek-colouring of G, if any two adjacent edges have different colours and there are no bichromatic cycles in G. In other words, for every pair of distinct colours i and j, the subgraph induced in G by all the edges which have colour i or j, is acyclic. The smallest number k of colours, such that G has an acyclic edge k-colouring is called the acyclic chromatic index of G, denoted by .In 2001, Alon et al. conjectured that for any graph G it holds that ; here Δ(G) stands for the maximum degree of G.In this paper we prove this conjecture for planar graphs with girth at least 5 and for planar graphs not containing cycles of length 4,6,8 and 9. We also show that if G is planar with girth at least 6. Moreover, we find an upper bound for the acyclic chromatic index of planar graphs without cycles of length 4. Namely, we prove that if G is such a graph, then .     

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.     

Rainbow domination on trees

This paper studies a variation of domination in graphs called rainbow domination. For a positive integer k, a k-rainbow dominating function of a graph G is a function f from V(G) to the set of all subsets of {1,2,…,k} such that for any vertex v with f(v)=0? we have ∪_u∈NG(v)f(u)={1,2,…,k}. The 1-rainbow domination is the same as the ordinary domination. The k-rainbow domination problem is to determine the k-rainbow domination number of a graph G, that is the minimum value of ∑_v∈V(G)|f(v)| where f runs over all k-rainbow dominating functions of G. In this paper, we prove that the k-rainbow domination problem is NP-complete even when restricted to chordal graphs or bipartite graphs. We then give a linear-time algorithm for the k-rainbow domination problem on trees. For a given tree T, we also determine the smallest k such that .     

Cube intersection concepts in median graphs

In this paper, we study different classes of intersection graphs of maximal hypercubes of median graphs. For a median graph G and k≥0, the intersection graph Q_k(G) is defined as the graph whose vertices are maximal hypercubes (by inclusion) in G, and two vertices H_x and H_y in Q_k(G) are adjacent whenever the intersection H_x∩H_y contains a subgraph isomorphic to Q_k. Characterizations of clique-graphs in terms of these intersection concepts when k>0, are presented. Furthermore, we introduce the so-called maximal 2-intersection graph of maximal hypercubes of a median graph G, denoted , whose vertices are maximal hypercubes of G, and two vertices are adjacent if the intersection of the corresponding hypercubes is not a proper subcube of some intersection of two maximal hypercubes. We show that a graph H is diamond-free if and only if there exists a median graph G such that H is isomorphic to . We also study convergence of median graphs to the one-vertex graph with respect to all these operations.     

Variations of Y-dominating functions on graphs

Let Y be a subset of real numbers. A Y-dominating function of a graph G=(V,E) is a function f:V→Y such that for all vertices v∈V, where N_G[v]={v}∪{u|(u,v)∈E}. Let for any subset S of V and let f(V) be the weight of f. The Y-domination problem is to find a Y-dominating function of minimum weight for a graph G=(V,E). In this paper, we study the variations of Y-domination such as {k}-domination, k-tuple domination, signed domination, and minus domination for some classes of graphs. We give formulas to compute the {k}-domination, k-tuple domination, signed domination, and minus domination numbers of paths, cycles, n-fans, n-wheels, n-pans, and n-suns. Besides, we present a unified approach to these four problems on strongly chordal graphs. Notice that trees, block graphs, interval graphs, and directed path graphs are subclasses of strongly chordal graphs. This paper also gives complexity results for the problems on doubly chordal graphs, dually chordal graphs, bipartite planar graphs, chordal bipartite graphs, and planar graphs.     

On maximum planar induced subgraphs

The nonplanar vertex deletion or vertex deletion vd(G) of a graph G is the smallest nonnegative integer k, such that the removal of k vertices from G produces a planar graph G^′. In this case G^′ is said to be a maximum planar induced subgraph of G. We solve a problem proposed by Yannakakis: find the threshold for the maximum degree of a graph G such that, given a graph G and a nonnegative integer k, to decide whether vd(G)?k is NP-complete. We prove that it is NP-complete to decide whether a maximum degree 3 graph G and a nonnegative integer k satisfy vd(G)?k. We prove that unless P=NP there is no polynomial-time approximation algorithm with fixed ratio to compute the size of a maximum planar induced subgraph for graphs in general. We prove that it is Max SNP-hard to compute vd(G) when restricted to a cubic input G. Finally, we exhibit a polynomial-time -approximation algorithm for finding a maximum planar induced subgraph of a maximum degree 3 graph.     

Large induced subgraphs with equated maximum degree

For a graph G, denote by f_k(G) the smallest number of vertices that must be deleted from G so that the remaining induced subgraph has its maximum degree shared by at least k vertices. It is not difficult to prove that there are graphs for which already , where n is the number of vertices of G. It is conjectured that for every fixed k. We prove this for k=2,3. While the proof for the case k=2 is easy, already the proof for the case k=3 is considerably more difficult. The case k=4 remains open.A related parameter, s_k(G), denotes the maximum integer m so that there are k vertex-disjoint subgraphs of G, each with m vertices, and with the same maximum degree. We prove that for every fixed k, s_k(G)≥n/k−o(n). The proof relies on probabilistic arguments.     

The multiple originator broadcasting problem in graphs

Given a graph G and a vertex subset S of V(G), the broadcasting time with respect toS, denoted by b(G,S), is the minimum broadcasting time when using S as the broadcasting set. And the k-broadcasting number, denoted by b_k(G), is defined by b_k(G)=min{b(G,S)|S⊆V(G),|S|=k}.Given a graph G and two vertex subsets S, S^′ of V(G), define , d(S,S^′)=min{d(u,v)|u∈S, v∈S^′}, and for all v∈V(G). For all k, 1?k?|V(G)|, the k-radius of G, denoted by r_k(G), is defined as r_k(G)=min{d(G,S)|S⊆V(G), |S|=k}.In this paper, we study the relation between the k-radius and the k-broadcasting numbers of graphs. We also give the 2-radius and the 2-broadcasting numbers of the grid graphs, and the k-broadcasting numbers of the complete n-partite graphs and the hypercubes.     

Walks and the spectral radius of graphs

Given a graph G, write μ(G) for the largest eigenvalue of its adjacency matrix, ω(G) for its clique number, and w_k(G) for the number of its k-walks. We prove that the inequalities

     

Equitable colorings of Kronecker products of graphs

For a positive integer k, a graph G is equitably k-colorable if there is a mapping f:V(G)→{1,2,…,k} such that f(x)≠f(y) whenever xy∈E(G) and ||f⁻¹(i)|−|f⁻¹(j)||≤1 for 1≤i<j≤k. The equitable chromatic number of a graph G, denoted by χ₌(G), is the minimum k such that G is equitably k-colorable. The equitable chromatic threshold of a graph G, denoted by , is the minimum t such that G is equitably k-colorable for k≥t. The current paper studies equitable chromatic numbers of Kronecker products of graphs. In particular, we give exact values or upper bounds on χ₌(G×H) and when G and H are complete graphs, bipartite graphs, paths or cycles.     

Generalization of transitive fraternal augmentations for directed graphs and its applications

Let be a directed graph. A transitive fraternal augmentation of is a directed graph with the same vertex set, including all the arcs of and such that for any vertices x,y,z,

1.

if and then or (fraternity);

2.

if and then (transitivity).

In this paper, we explore some generalization of the transitive fraternal augmentations for directed graphs and its applications. In particular, we show that the 2-coloring number col₂(G)≤O(∇₁(G)∇₀(G)²), where ∇_k(G) (k≥0) denotes the greatest reduced average density with depth k of a graph G; we give a constructive proof that ∇_k(G) bounds the distance (k+1)-coloring number col_k+1(G) with a function f(∇_k(G)). On the other hand, ∇_k(G)≤(col_2k+1(G))^2k+1. We also show that an inductive generalization of transitive fraternal augmentations can be used to study nonrepetitive colorings of graphs.     

Note on the 3-graph counting lemma

Szemerédi's regularity lemma proved to be a powerful tool in extremal graph theory. Many of its applications are based on the so-called counting lemma: if G is a k-partite graph with k-partition V₁∪?∪V_k, |V₁|=?=|V_k|=n, where all induced bipartite graphs G[V_i,V_j] are (d,ε)-regular, then the number of k-cliques K_k in G is . Frankl and Rödl extended Szemerédi's regularity lemma to 3-graphs and Nagle and Rödl established an accompanying 3-graph counting lemma analogous to the graph counting lemma above. In this paper, we provide a new proof of the 3-graph counting lemma.     

Improved induced matchings in sparse graphs

An induced matching in a graph G=(V,E) is a matching M such that (V,M) is an induced subgraph of G. Clearly, among two vertices with the same neighbourhood (called twins) at most one is matched in any induced matching, and if one of them is matched then there is another matching of the same size that matches the other vertex. Motivated by this, Kanj et al. [10] studied induced matchings in twinless graphs. They showed that any twinless planar graph contains an induced matching of size at least and that there are twinless planar graphs that do not contain an induced matching of size greater than . We improve both these bounds to , which is tight up to an additive constant. This implies that the problem of deciding whether a planar graph has an induced matching of size k has a kernel of size at most 28k. We also show for the first time that this problem is fixed parameter tractable for graphs of bounded arboricity.Kanj et al. also presented an algorithm which decides in -time whether an n-vertex planar graph contains an induced matching of size k. Our results improve the time complexity analysis of their algorithm. However, we also show a more efficient -time algorithm. Its main ingredient is a new, O^∗(4^l)-time algorithm for finding a maximum induced matching in a graph of branch width at most l.     

Degree conditions for restricted-edge-connectivity and isoperimetric-edge-connectivity to be optimal

For a connected graph G=(V,E), an edge set S⊂E is a k-restricted-edge-cut, if G-S is disconnected and every component of G-S has at least k vertices. The k-restricted-edge-connectivity of G, denoted by λ_k(G), is defined as the cardinality of a minimum k-restricted-edge-cut. The k-isoperimetric-edge-connectivity is defined as , where is the set of edges with one end in U and the other end in . In this note, we give some degree conditions for a graph to have optimal λ_k and/or γ_k.