The Laplacian spectral radius of some bipartite graphs

In this paper, we study the largest Laplacian spectral radius of the bipartite graphs with n vertices and k cut edges and the bicyclic bipartite graphs, respectively. Identifying the center of a star K_1,k and one vertex of degree n of K_m,n, we denote by the resulting graph. We show that the graph (1?k?n-4) is the unique graph with the largest Laplacian spectral radius among the bipartite graphs with n vertices and k cut edges, and (n?7) is the unique graph with the largest Laplacian spectral radius among all the bicyclic bipartite graphs.     

On the spectral radii and the signless Laplacian spectral radii of c-cyclic graphs with fixed maximum degree

If G is a connected undirected simple graph on n vertices and n+c-1 edges, then G is called a c-cyclic graph. Specially, G is called a tricyclic graph if c=3. Let Δ(G) be the maximum degree of G. In this paper, we determine the structural characterizations of the c-cyclic graphs, which have the maximum spectral radii (resp. signless Laplacian spectral radii) in the class of c-cyclic graphs on n vertices with fixed maximum degree . Moreover, we prove that the spectral radius of a tricyclic graph G strictly increases with its maximum degree when , and identify the first six largest spectral radii and the corresponding graphs in the class of tricyclic graphs on n vertices.     

Laplacian coefficients of trees with given number of leaves or vertices of degree two

Let G be a simple undirected n-vertex graph with the characteristic polynomial of its Laplacian matrix . It is well known that for trees the Laplacian coefficient c_n-2 is equal to the Wiener index of G, while c_n-3 is equal to the modified hyper-Wiener index of graph. Using a result of Zhou and Gutman on the relation between the Laplacian coefficients and the matching numbers in subdivided bipartite graphs, we characterize the trees with k leaves (pendent vertices) which simultaneously minimize all Laplacian coefficients. In particular, this extremal balanced starlike tree S(n,k) minimizes the Wiener index, the modified hyper-Wiener index and recently introduced Laplacian-like energy. We prove that graph S(n,n-1-p) has minimal Laplacian coefficients among n-vertex trees with p vertices of degree two. In conclusion, we illustrate on examples of these spectrum-based invariants that the opposite problem of simultaneously maximizing all Laplacian coefficients has no solution, and pose a conjecture on extremal unicyclic graphs with k leaves.     

A new lower bound on the number of trivially noncontractible edges in contraction critical 5-connected graphs

An edge of a k-connected graph is said to be k-contractible if its contraction results in a k-connected graph. A k-connected non-complete graph with no k-contractible edge, is called contraction critical k-connected. An edge of a k-connected graph is called trivially noncontractible if its two end vertices have a common neighbor of degree k. Ando [K. Ando, Trivially noncontractible edges in a contraction critically 5-connected graph, Discrete Math. 293 (2005) 61-72] proved that a contraction critical 5-connected graph on n vertices has at least n/2 trivially noncontractible edges. Li [Xiangjun Li, Some results about the contractible edge and the domination number of graphs, Guilin, Guangxi Normal University, 2006 (in Chinese)] improved the lower bound to n+1. In this paper, the bound is improved to the statement that any contraction critical 5-connected graph on n vertices has at least trivially noncontractible edges.     

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.     

Connected permutation graphs

A permutation graph is a simple graph associated with a permutation. Let c_n be the number of connected permutation graphs on n vertices. Then the sequence {c_n} satisfies an interesting recurrence relation such that it provides partitions of n! as . We also see that, if uniformly chosen at random, asymptotically almost all permutation graphs are connected.     

The Laplacian spread of quasi-tree graphs

The Laplacian spread of a graph is defined to be the difference between the largest eigenvalue and the second-smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix of the graph. Bao, Tan and Fan [Y.H. Bao, Y.Y. Tan,Y.Z. Fan, The Laplacian spread of unicyclic graphs, Appl. Math. Lett. 22 (2009) 1011-1015.] characterize the unique unicyclic graph with maximum Laplacian spread among all connected unicyclic graphs of fixed order. In this paper, we characterize the unique quasi-tree graph with maximum Laplacian spread among all quasi-tree graphs in the set Q(n,d) with .     

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.     

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.     

On the Estrada and Laplacian Estrada indices of graphs

The Estrada index of a graph G is defined as , where λ₁,λ₂,…,λ_n are the eigenvalues of G. The Laplacian Estrada index of a graph G is defined as , where μ₁,μ₂,…,μ_n are the Laplacian eigenvalues of G. An edge grafting operation on a graph moves a pendent edge between two pendent paths. We study the change of Estrada index of graph under edge grafting operation between two pendent paths at two adjacent vertices. As the application, we give the result on the change of Laplacian Estrada index of bipartite graph under edge grafting operation between two pendent paths at the same vertex. We also determine the unique tree with minimum Laplacian Estrada index among the set of trees with given maximum degree, and the unique trees with maximum Laplacian Estrada indices among the set of trees with given diameter, number of pendent vertices, matching number, independence number and domination number, respectively.     

A note on an embedding problem in transitive tournaments

Let TT_n be a transitive tournament on n vertices. It is known Görlich, Pil?niak, Wo?niak, (2006) [3] that for any acyclic oriented graph of order n and size not greater than , two graphs isomorphic to are arc-disjoint subgraphs of TT_n. In this paper, we consider the problem of embedding of acyclic oriented graphs into their complements in transitive tournaments. We show that any acyclic oriented graph of size at most is embeddable into all its complements in TT_n. Moreover, this bound is generally the best possible.     

Solution to a conjecture on the maximal energy of bipartite bicyclic graphs

The energy of a simple graph G, denoted by E(G), is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. Let C_n denote the cycle of order n and the graph obtained from joining two cycles C₆ by a path P_n-12 with its two leaves. Let B_n denote the class of all bipartite bicyclic graphs but not the graph R_a,b, which is obtained from joining two cycles C_a and C_b (a,b≥10 and ) by an edge. In [I. Gutman, D. Vidovi?, Quest for molecular graphs with maximal energy: a computer experiment, J. Chem. Inf. Sci. 41(2001) 1002-1005], Gutman and Vidovi? conjectured that the bicyclic graph with maximal energy is , for n=14 and n≥16. In [X. Li, J. Zhang, On bicyclic graphs with maximal energy, Linear Algebra Appl. 427(2007) 87-98], Li and Zhang showed that the conjecture is true for graphs in the class B_n. However, they could not determine which of the two graphs R_a,b and has the maximal value of energy. In [B. Furtula, S. Radenkovi?, I. Gutman, Bicyclic molecular graphs with the greatest energy, J. Serb. Chem. Soc. 73(4)(2008) 431-433], numerical computations up to a+b=50 were reported, supporting the conjecture. So, it is still necessary to have a mathematical proof to this conjecture. This paper is to show that the energy of is larger than that of R_a,b, which proves the conjecture for bipartite bicyclic graphs. For non-bipartite bicyclic graphs, the conjecture is still open.     

A fast parallel algorithm for finding Hamiltonian cycles in dense graphs

Suppose that 0<η<1 is given. We call a graph, G, on n vertices an η-Chvátal graph if its degree sequence d₁≤d₂≤?≤d_n satisfies: for k<n/2, d_k≤min{k+ηn,n/2} implies d_n−k−ηn≥n−k. (Thus for η=0 we get the well-known Chvátal graphs.) An -algorithm is presented which accepts as input an η-Chvátal graph and produces a Hamiltonian cycle in G as an output. This is a significant improvement on the previous best -algorithm for the problem, which finds a Hamiltonian cycle only in Dirac graphs (δ(G)≥n/2 where δ(G) is the minimum degree in G).     

Graph designs for the eight-edge five-vertex graphs

The existence of graph designs for the two nonisomorphic graphs on five vertices and eight edges is determined in the case of index one, with three possible exceptions in total. It is established that for the unique graph with vertex sequence (3, 3, 3, 3, 4), a graph design of order n exists exactly when and n≠16, with the possible exception of n=48. For the unique graph with vertex sequence (2,3,3,4,4), a graph design of order n exists exactly when , with the possible exceptions of n∈{32,48}.     

Edge-dominating cycles in graphs

A set S of vertices in a graph G is said to be an edge-dominating set if every edge in G is incident with a vertex in S. A cycle in G is said to be a dominating cycle if its vertex set is an edge-dominating set. Nash-Williams [Edge-disjoint hamiltonian circuits in graphs with vertices of large valency, Studies in Pure Mathematics, Academic Press, London, 1971, pp. 157-183] has proved that every longest cycle in a 2-connected graph of order n and minimum degree at least is a dominating cycle. In this paper, we prove that for a prescribed positive integer k, under the same minimum degree condition, if n is sufficiently large and if we take k disjoint cycles so that they contain as many vertices as possible, then these cycles form an edge-dominating set. Nash-Williams’ Theorem corresponds to the case of k=1 of this result.     

Independence polynomials of k-tree related graphs

An independent set of a graph G is a set of pairwise non-adjacent vertices. Let α(G) denote the cardinality of a maximum independent set and f_s(G) for 0≤s≤α(G) denote the number of independent sets of s vertices. The independence polynomial defined first by Gutman and Harary has been the focus of considerable research recently. Wingard bounded the coefficients f_s(T) for trees T with n vertices: for s≥2. We generalize this result to bounds for a very large class of graphs, maximal k-degenerate graphs, a class which includes all k-trees. Additionally, we characterize all instances where our bounds are achieved, and determine exactly the independence polynomials of several classes of k-tree related graphs. Our main theorems generalize several related results known before.     

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 .     

Planarization and fragmentability of some classes of graphs

The coefficient of fragmentability of a class of graphs measures the proportion of vertices that need to be removed from the graphs in the class in order to leave behind bounded sized components. We have previously given bounds on this parameter for the class of graphs satisfying a given constant bound on maximum degree. In this paper, we give fragmentability bounds for some classes of graphs of bounded average degree, as well as classes of given thickness, the class of k-colourable graphs, and the class of n-dimensional cubes. In order to establish the fragmentability results for bounded average degree, we prove that the proportion of vertices that must be removed from a graph of average degree at most in order to leave behind a planar subgraph (in fact, a series-parallel subgraph) is at most , provided or the graph is connected and . The proof yields an algorithm for finding large induced planar subgraphs and (under certain conditions) a lower bound on the size of the induced planar subgraph it finds. This bound is similar in form to the one we found for a previous algorithm we developed for that problem, but applies to a larger class of graphs.     

Graphs with maximal signless Laplacian spectral radius

By the signless Laplacian of a (simple) graph G we mean the matrix Q(G)=D(G)+A(G), where A(G),D(G) denote respectively the adjacency matrix and the diagonal matrix of vertex degrees of G. It is known that connected graphs G that maximize the signless Laplacian spectral radius ρ(Q(G)) over all connected graphs with given numbers of vertices and edges are (degree) maximal. For a maximal graph G with n vertices and r distinct vertex degrees δ_r>δ_r-1>?>δ₁, it is proved that ρ(Q(G))<ρ(Q(H)) for some maximal graph H with n+1 (respectively, n) vertices and the same number of edges as G if either G has precisely two dominating vertices or there exists an integer such that δ_i+δ_r+1-i?n+1 (respectively, δ_i+δ_r+1-i?δ_l+δ_r-l+1). Graphs that maximize ρ(Q(G)) over the class of graphs with m edges and m-k vertices, for k=0,1,2,3, are completely determined.