Inverses of trees

LetT be a tree with a perfect matching. It is known that in this case the adjacency matrixA ofT is invertible and thatA ^?1 is a (0, 1, ?1)-matrix. We show that in factA ^?1 is diagonally similar to a (0, 1)-matrix, hence to the adjacency matrix of a graph. We use this to provide sharp bounds on the least positive eigenvalue ofA and some general information concerning the behaviour of this eigenvalue. Some open problems raised by this work and connections with Möbius inversion on partially ordered sets are also discussed.     

Unicyclic graphs with bicyclic inverses

A graph is nonsingular if its adjacency matrix A(G) is nonsingular. The inverse of a nonsingular graph G is a graph whose adjacency matrix is similar to A(G)^?1 via a particular type of similarity. Let H denote the class of connected bipartite graphs with unique perfect matchings. Tifenbach and Kirkland (2009) characterized the unicyclic graphs in H which possess unicyclic inverses. We present a characterization of unicyclic graphs in H which possess bicyclic inverses.     

A Distributive Lattice on the Set of Perfect Matchings of a Plane Bipartite Graph

Let G be a plane bipartite graph and M(G) the set of perfect matchings of G. The Z-transformation graph of G is defined as a graph on M(G): M,MM(G) are joined by an edge if and only if they differ only in one cycle that is the boundary of an inner face of G. A property that a certain orientation of the Z-transformation graph of G is acyclic implies a partially ordered relation on M(G). An equivalent definition of the poset M(G) is discussed in detail. If G is elementary, the following main results are obtained in this article: the poset M(G) is a finite distributive lattice, and its Hasse diagram is isomorphic to the Z-transformation digraph of G. Further, a distributive lattice structure is established on the set of perfect matchings of any plane bipartite graph.     

Decomposing Berge Graphs Containing No Proper Wheel, Long Prism Or Their Complements

In this paper we show that, if G is a Berge graph such that neither G nor its complement contains certain induced subgraphs, named proper wheels and long prisms, then either G is a basic perfect graph( a bipartite graph, a line graph of a bipartite graph or the complement of such graphs) or it has a skew partition that cannot occur in a minimally imperfect graph. This structural result implies that G is perfect. This work was supported in part by NSF grant DMI-0352885 and ONR grant N00014-03-1-0188.     

Thep-intersection number of a complete bipartite graph and orthogonal double coverings of a clique

Thep-intersection graph of a collection of finite sets {S _i } _i=1 ⁿ is the graph with vertices 1, ...,n such thati, j are adjacent if and only if |S _i S _j |p. Thep-intersection number of a graphG, herein denoted _p (G), is the minimum size of a setU such thatG is thep-intersection graph of subsets ofU. IfG is the complete bipartite graphK _n,n andp2, then _p (K _{n, n} )(n ²+(2p–1)n)/p. Whenp=2, equality holds if and only ifK _n has anorthogonal double covering, which is a collection ofn subgraphs ofK _n , each withn–1 edges and maximum degree 2, such that each pair of subgraphs shares exactly one edge. By construction,K _n has a simple explicit orthogonal double covering whenn is congruent modulo 12 to one of {1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 11}.Research supported in part by ONR Grant N00014-5K0570.     

The perfectly Matchable Subgraph Polytope of an arbitrary graph

The Perfectly Matchable Subgraph Polytope of a graphG=(V, E), denoted byPMS(G), is the convex hull of the incidence vectors of thoseXV which induce a subgraph having a perfect matching. We describe a linear system whose solution set isPMS(G), for a general (nonbipartite) graphG. We show how it can be derived via a projection technique from Edmonds' characterization of the matching polytope ofG. We also show that this system can be deduced from the earlier bipartite case [2], by using the Edmonds-Gallai structure theorem. Finally, we characterize which inequalities are facet inducing forPMS(G), and hence essential.     

Spanning quadrangulations of triangulated surfaces

In this paper we study alternating cycles in graphs embedded in a surface. We observe that 4-vertex-colorability of a triangulation on a surface can be expressed in terms of spanninq quadrangulations, and we establish connections between spanning quadrangulations and cycles in the dual graph which are noncontractible and alternating with respect to a perfect matching. We show that the dual graph of an Eulerian triangulation of an orientable surface other than the sphere has a perfect matching M and an M-alternating noncontractible cycle. As a consequence, every Eulerian triangulation of the torus has a nonbipartite spanning quadrangulation. For an Eulerian triangulation G of the projective plane the situation is different: If the dual graph \(G^*\) is nonbipartite, then \(G^*\) has no noncontractible alternating cycle, and all spanning quadrangulations of G are bipartite. If the dual graph \(G^*\) is bipartite, then it has a noncontractible, M-alternating cycle for some (and hence any) perfect matching, G has a bipartite spanning quadrangulation and also a nonbipartite spanning quadrangulation.     

Mortality of iterated Gallai graphs

For a finite or infinite graphG, theGallai graph (G) ofG is defined as the graph whose vertex set is the edge setE(G) ofG; two distinct edges ofG are adjacent in (G) if they are incident but do not span a triangle inG. For any positive integert, thetth iterated Gallai graph ^t (G) ofG is defined by ( ^t–1(G)), where ⁰(G):=G. A graph is said to beGallai-mortal if some of its iterated Gallai graphs finally equals the empty graph. In this paper we characterize Gallai-mortal graphs in several ways.     

Bounding the diameter of distance-regular graphs

LetG be a connected distance-regular graph with valencyk>2 and diameterd, but not a complete multipartite graph. Suppose that is an eigenvalue ofG with multiplicitym and that±k. We prove that bothd andk are bounded by functions ofm. This implies that, ifm>1 is given, there are only finitely many connected, co-connected distance-regular graphs with an eigenvalue of multiplicitym.This work was supported by NSERC grant A5367.     

RandomlyH-coverable graphs

A graph israndomly matchable if every matching of the graph is contained in a perfect matching. We generalize this notion and say that a graphG israndomly H-coverable if every set of independent subgraphs, each isomorphic toH, that does not cover the vertices ofG can be extended to a larger set of independent copies ofH. Various problems are considered for the situation whereH is a path. In particular, we characterize the graphs that are randomlyP ₃ -coverable.     

Extensions on 2-edge connected 3-regular up-embeddable graphs

1.IntroductionLetHbea3-regulargraph.Forel,e2,e3EE(H)(el,eZande3areallowedtobethesame),weaddthreenewvenicesal)wZandw3inel,eZande3respectively.ChoosingueV(H),andthenjoiningutofi(i=1,2,3),weatlastobtaina3-regulargraphG.Or,inotherwords,wesaythatGisobtainedfromHbyanM-extension.DenoteG=M(u)(H)(seeFig.1).LetHbea3-regulargraph.Takingel,eZEE(H)(elandeZareallowedtobethesame),weputtwodistinctvenicestvian0dwZinelandeZrespectively,andaddtwodistinctvenicesu,v4V(H),thenjoinutoal,joinvtowZandjoin…     

A lower bound for the recognition of digraph properties

The complexity of a digraph property is the number of entries of the adjacency matrix which must be examined by a decision tree algorithm to recognize the property in the worst case, Aanderaa and Rosenberg conjectured that there is a constant such that every digraph property which is monotone (not destroyed by the deletion of edges) and nontrivial (holds for some but not all digraphs) has complexity at leastv ² wherev is the number of nodes in the digraph. This conjecture was proved by Rivest and Vuillemin and a lower bound ofv ²/4–o(v ²) was subsequently found by Kahn, Saks, and Sturtevant. Here we show a lower bound ofv ²/2–o(v ²). We also prove that a certain class of monotone, nontrivial bipartite digraph properties is evasive (requires that every entry in the adjacency matrix be examined in the worst case).     

Applications of a theorem by Ky Fan in the theory of graph energy

The energy of a graph G is equal to the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of G, which in turn is equal to the sum of the singular values of the adjacency matrix of G. Let X, Y, and Z be matrices, such that X+Y=Z. The Ky Fan theorem establishes an inequality between the sum of the singular values of Z and the sum of the sum of the singular values of X and Y. This theorem is applied in the theory of graph energy, resulting in several new inequalities, as well as new proofs of some earlier known inequalities.     

Perfect matchings in regular bipartite graphs

P. Hall, [2], gave necessary and sufficient conditions for a bipartite graph to have a perfect matching. Koning, [3], proved that such a graph can be decomposed intok edge-disjoint perfect matchings if and only if it isk-regular. It immediately follows that in ak-regular bipartite graphG, the deletion of any setS of at mostk – 1 edges leaves intact one of those perfect matchings. However, it is not known what happens if we delete more thank – 1 edges. In this paper we give sufficient conditions so that by deleting a setS ofk + r edgesr 0, stillG – S has a perfect matching. Furthermore we prove that our result, in some sense, is best possible.     

A note on 1-factors in graphs

Conditions on a graphG are presented which are sufficient to guarantee thatG–Z contains a 1-factor, whereZ is a set of edges ofG of restricted cardinality. These conditions provide generalizations of several known results and, further, establish the result that ifG is anr-regular, (r–2)-edge-connected graph (r2) of even order andz is an integer with 0zr–1 such thatG contains fewer thanr–z edge cut sets of cardinalityr–2, thenG–Z has a 1-factor for each setZ ofz edges ofG.     

On the maximum 2-1 matching

Given a simple bipartite graphG=(X,Y, E).M E is called a 2-1 matching ofG if: 1) _x X, either two edges or none inM is incident tox and 2) _y Y, at most one edge inM is incident toy. In this paper, we describe an efficient algorithm for finding a maximum 2-1 matching in a given bipartite graph. We also formulate and prove a duality theorem for 2-1 matching.     

Perfect Matchings of Regular Bipartite Graphs

Let G be a regular bipartite graph and . We show that there exist perfect matchings of G containing both, an odd and an even number of edges from X if and only if the signed graph , that is a graph G with exactly the edges from X being negative, is not equivalent to . In fact, we prove that for a given signed regular bipartite graph with minimum signature, it is possible to find perfect matchings that contain exactly no negative edges or an arbitrary one preselected negative edge. Moreover, if the underlying graph is cubic, there exists a perfect matching with exactly two preselected negative edges. As an application of our results we show that each signed regular bipartite graph that contains an unbalanced circuit has a 2‐cycle‐cover such that each cycle contains an odd number of negative edges.     

A characterization of the smallest eigenvalue of a graph

It is well known that the smallest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of a connected d-regular graph is at least ? d and is strictly greater than ? d if the graph is not bipartite. More generally, for any connected graph G = (V, E), consider the matrix Q = D + A where D is the diagonal matrix of degrees in the graph G and A is the adjacency matrix of G. Then Q is positive semidefinite, and the smallest eigenvalue of Q is 0 if and only if G is bipartite. We will study the separation of this eigenvalue from 0 in terms of the following measure of nonbipartiteness of G. For any S ? V, we denote by e_min(S) the minimum number of edges that need to be removed from the induced subgraph on S to make it bipartite. Also, we denote by cut(S) the set of edges with one end in S and the other in V ? S. We define the parameter Ψ as. The parameter Ψ is a measure of the nonbipartiteness of the graph G. We will show that the smallest eigenvalue of Q is bounded above and below by functions of Ψ. For d-regular graphs, this characterizes the separation of the smallest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix from ?d. These results can be easily extended to weighted graphs.     

On unimodular graphs

We study graphs whose adjacency matrices have determinant equal to 1 or −1, and characterize certain subclasses of these graphs. Graphs whose adjacency matrices are totally unimodular are also characterized. For bipartite graphs having a unique perfect matching, we provide a formula for the inverse of the corresponding adjacency matrix, and address the problem of when that inverse is diagonally similar to a nonnegative matrix. Special attention is paid to the case that such a graph is unicyclic.