Optimal strategies for node selection games on oriented graphs: Skew matrices and symmetric games

In the node selection game Γ_D each of the two players simultaneously selects a node from the oriented graph D. If there is an arc between the selected nodes, then there is a payoff from the “dominated” player to the “dominating” player. We investigate the set of optimal strategies for the players in the node selection game Γ_D. We point out that a classical theorem from game theory relates the dimension of the polytope of optimal strategies for Γ_D to the nullity of certain skew submatrix of the payoff matrix for Γ_D. We show that if D is bipartite (with at least two nodes in each partite set), then an optimal strategy for the node selection game Γ_D is never unique. Our work also implies that if D is a tournament, then there is a unique optimal strategy for each player, a result obtained by Fisher and Ryan [Optimal strategies for a generalized “scissors, paper, and stone” game, Amer. Math. Monthly 99 (1992) 935–942] and independently by Laffond, Laslier, and Le Breton [The bipartisan set of a tournament game, Games Econom. Behav. 5 (1993) 182–201].     

On the partial order polytope of a digraph

We introduce the partial order polytope of a digraphD, defined as the convex hull of the incidence vectors of all transitive acyclic arc sets ofD. For this polytope we prove some classes of inequalities to be facet-defining and show that there is a polynomial separation algorithm for each of these classes. The results imply a polynomial separation algorithm for a class of valid inequalities of the clique partitioning polytope that includes the two-chorded odd cycle inequalities. The polyhedral results concerning the partial order polytope are of interest since a cutting plane based algorithm to solve the maximum weighted transitive acyclic subdigraph problem can be used to solve the maximum weighted acyclic subdigraph problem, the maximum weighted linear ordering problem and a flexible manufacturing problem. For the acyclic subdigraph polytope we show that the separation of simplet-reinforcedk-fence-inequalities is -complete.     

Finite metrics in switching classes

Let g:D×D→R be a symmetric function on a finite set D satisfying g(x,x)=0 for all x∈D. A switch g^σ of g w.r.t. a local valuation σ:D→R is defined by g^σ(x,y)=σ(x)+g(x,y)+σ(y) for x≠y and g^σ(x,x)=0 for all x. We show that every symmetric function g has a unique minimal semimetric switch, and, moreover, there is a switch of g that is isometric to a finite Manhattan metric. Also, for each metric on D, we associate an extension metric on the set of all nonempty subsets of D, and we show that this extended metric inherits the switching classes on D.     

Generalized 3G theorem and application to relativistic stable process on non-smooth open sets

Let G(x,y) and GD(x,y) be the Green functions of rotationally invariant symmetric α-stable process in Rd and in an open set D, respectively, where 0<α<2. The inequality GD(x,y)GD(y,z)/GD(x,z)?c(G(x,y)+G(y,z)) is a very useful tool in studying (local) Schrödinger operators. When the above inequality is true with c=c(D)∈(0,∞), then we say that the 3G theorem holds in D. In this paper, we establish a generalized version of 3G theorem when D is a bounded κ-fat open set, which includes a bounded John domain. The 3G we consider is of the form GD(x,y)GD(z,w)/GD(x,w), where y may be different from z. When y=z, we recover the usual 3G. The 3G form GD(x,y)GD(z,w)/GD(x,w) appears in non-local Schrödinger operator theory. Using our generalized 3G theorem, we give a concrete class of functions belonging to the non-local Kato class, introduced by Chen and Song, on κ-fat open sets. As an application, we discuss relativistic α-stable processes (relativistic Hamiltonian when α=1) in κ-fat open sets. We identify the Martin boundary and the minimal Martin boundary with the Euclidean boundary for relativistic α-stable processes in κ-fat open sets. Furthermore, we show that relative Fatou type theorem is true for relativistic stable processes in κ-fat open sets. The main results of this paper hold for a large class of symmetric Markov processes, as are illustrated in the last section of this paper. We also discuss the generalized 3G theorem for a large class of symmetric stable Lévy processes.     

Competition-reachability of a graph

The reachability r(D) of a directed graph D is the number of ordered pairs of distinct vertices (x,y) with a directed path from x to y. Consider a game associated with a graph G=(V,E) involving two players (maximizer and minimizer) who alternately select edges and orient them. The maximizer attempts to maximize the reachability, while the minimizer attempts to minimize the reachability, of the resulting digraph. If both players play optimally, then the reachability is fixed. Parameters that assign a value to each graph in this manner are called competitive parameters. We determine the competitive-reachability for special classes of graphs and discuss which graphs achieve the minimum and maximum possible values of competitive-reachability.     

Dirichlet spectrum and heat content

Let M be a complete Riemannian manifold and D⊂M a smoothly bounded domain with compact closure. We use Brownian motion to study the relationship between the Dirichlet spectrum of D and the heat content asymptotics of D. Central to our investigation is a sequence of invariants associated to D defined using exit time moments. We prove that our invariants determine that part of the spectrum corresponding to eigenspaces which are not orthogonal to constant functions, that our invariants determine the heat content asymptotics associated to the manifold, and that when the manifold is a generic domain in Euclidean space, the invariants determine the Dirichlet spectrum.     

Generalized exponents of primitive two-colored digraphs

A l-colored digraph D^(l) is primitive if there exists a nonnegative integer vector α such that for each ordered pair of vertices x and y (not necessarily distinct), there exists an α-walk in D^(l) from x to y. The exponent of the primitive l-colored digraph D^(l) is defined to be the minimum value of the sum of all coordinates of α taken over all such α. In this paper, we generalize the concept of exponent of a primitive l-colored digraph by introducing three types of generalized exponents. Further, we study the generalized exponents of primitive two-colored Wielandt digraphs.     

Uniform boundary Harnack principle and generalized triangle property

Let D be a bounded open subset in R^d, d?2, and let G denote the Green function for D with respect to (-Δ)^α/2, 0<α?2, α<d. If α<2, assume that D satisfies the interior corkscrew condition; if α=2, i.e., if G is the classical Green function on D, assume—more restrictively—that D is a uniform domain. Let g=G(·,y₀)∧1 for some y₀∈D. Based on the uniform boundary Harnack principle, it is shown that G has the generalized triangle property which states that when d(z,x)?d(z,y). An intermediate step is the approximation G(x,y)≈|x-y|^α-dg(x)g(y)/g(A)², where A is an arbitrary point in a certain set B(x,y).This is discussed in a general setting where D is a dense open subset of a compact metric space satisfying the interior corkscrew condition and G is a quasi-symmetric positive numerical function on D×D which has locally polynomial decay and satisfies Harnack's inequality. Under these assumptions, the uniform boundary Harnack principle, the approximation for G, and the generalized triangle property turn out to be equivalent.     

On the variance of random polytopes

A random polytope is the convex hull of uniformly distributed random points in a convex body K. A general lower bound on the variance of the volume and f-vector of random polytopes is proved. Also an upper bound in the case when K is a polytope is given. For polytopes, as for smooth convex bodies, the upper and lower bounds are of the same order of magnitude. The results imply a law of large numbers for the volume and f-vector of random polytopes when K is a polytope.     

On pedigree polytopes and Hamiltonian cycles

In this paper we define a combinatorial object called a pedigree, and study the corresponding polytope, called the pedigree polytope. Pedigrees are in one-to-one correspondence with the Hamiltonian cycles on K_n. Interestingly, the pedigree polytope seems to differ from the standard tour polytope, Q_n with respect to the complexity of testing whether two given vertices of the polytope are nonadjacent. A polynomial time algorithm is given for nonadjacency testing in the pedigree polytope, whereas the corresponding problem is known to be NP-complete for Q_n. We also discuss some properties of the pedigree polytope and illustrate with examples.     

Dimension-2 poset competition numbers and dimension-2 poset double competition numbers

Let D=(V(D),A(D)) be a digraph. The competition graph of D, is the graph with vertex set V(D) and edge set . The double competition graph of D, is the graph with vertex set V(D) and edge set . A poset of dimension at most two is a digraph whose vertices are some points in the Euclidean plane R² and there is an arc going from a vertex (x₁,y₁) to a vertex (x₂,y₂) if and only if x₁>x₂ and y₁>y₂. We show that a graph is the competition graph of a poset of dimension at most two if and only if it is an interval graph, at least half of whose maximal cliques are isolated vertices. This answers an open question on the doubly partial order competition number posed by Cho and Kim. We prove that the double competition graph of a poset of dimension at most two must be a trapezoid graph, generalizing a result of Kim, Kim, and Rho. Some connections are also established between the minimum numbers of isolated vertices required to be added to change a given graph into the competition graph, the double competition graph, of a poset and the minimum sizes of certain intersection representations of that graph.     

The minimum spanning strong subdigraph problem is fixed parameter tractable

A digraph D is strong if it contains a directed path from x to y for every choice of vertices x,y in D. We consider the problem (MSSS) of finding the minimum number of arcs in a spanning strong subdigraph of a strong digraph. It is easy to see that every strong digraph D on n vertices contains a spanning strong subdigraph on at most 2n−2 arcs. By reformulating the MSSS problem into the equivalent problem of finding the largest positive integer k≤n−2 so that D contains a spanning strong subdigraph with at most 2n−2−k arcs, we obtain a problem which we prove is fixed parameter tractable. Namely, we prove that there exists an O(f(k)n^c) algorithm for deciding whether a given strong digraph D on n vertices contains a spanning strong subdigraph with at most 2n−2−k arcs.We furthermore prove that if k≥1 and D has no cut vertex then it has a kernel of order at most (2k−1)². We finally discuss related problems and conjectures.     

A theorem in combinatorial matrix theory

Let Z be a matrix of order n, and suppose that the elements of Z consist of only two elements x and y, which are elements of a field F. We call Z an (x,y)-matrix over F. In this paper we study the matrix equation ZEZ^T = D+λJ, where Z is a nonsingular (x,y)-matrix over F, Z^T is the transpose of Z, D and E are nonsingular diagonal matrices, J is the matrix of 1's and λ is an element of F. Our main theorem shows that the column sums of Z are severely restricted. This result generalizes a number of earlier investigations that deal with symmetric block designs and related configurations. The problems that emerge are of interest from both a combinatorial and a matrix theoretic point of view.     

The competition number of a graph and the dimension of its hole space

The competition graph of a digraph D is a (simple undirected) graph which has the same vertex set as D and has an edge between x and y if and only if there exists a vertex v in D such that (x,v) and (y,v) are arcs of D. For any graph G, G together with sufficiently many isolated vertices is the competition graph of some acyclic digraph. The competition number k(G) of G is the smallest number of such isolated vertices. In general, it is hard to compute the competition number k(G) for a graph G and it has been one of the important research problems in the study of competition graphs to characterize a graph by its competition number. Recently, the relationship between the competition number and the number of holes of a graph has been studied. A hole of a graph is a cycle of length at least 4 as an induced subgraph. In this paper, we conjecture that the dimension of the hole space of a graph is not smaller than the competition number of the graph. We verify this conjecture for various kinds of graphs and show that our conjectured inequality is indeed an equality for connected triangle-free graphs.     

On the facets of the secondary polytope

The secondary polytope of a point configuration A is a polytope whose face poset is isomorphic to the poset of all regular subdivisions of A. While the vertices of the secondary polytope - corresponding to the triangulations of A - are very well studied, there is not much known about the facets of the secondary polytope.The splits of a polytope, subdivisions with exactly two maximal faces, are the simplest examples of such facets and the first that were systematically investigated. The present paper can be seen as a continuation of these studies and as a starting point of an examination of the subdivisions corresponding to the facets of the secondary polytope in general. As a special case, the notion of k-split is introduced as a possibility to classify polytopes in accordance to the complexity of the facets of their secondary polytopes. An application to matroid subdivisions of hypersimplices and tropical geometry is given.     

Harmonic functions of subordinate killed Brownian motion

In this paper we study harmonic functions of subordinate killed Brownian motion in a domain D. We first prove that, when the killed Brownian semigroup in D is intrinsic ultracontractive, all nonnegative harmonic functions of the subordinate killed Brownian motion in D are continuous and then we establish a Harnack inequality for these harmonic functions. We then show that, when D is a bounded Lipschitz domain, both the Martin boundary and the minimal Martin boundary of the subordinate killed Brownian motion in D coincide with the Euclidean boundary ∂D. We also show that, when D is a bounded Lipschitz domain, a boundary Harnack principle holds for positive harmonic functions of the subordinate killed Brownian motion in D.     

The elimination procedure for the competition number is not optimal

Given an acyclic digraph D, the competition graph C(D) is defined to be the undirected graph with V(D) as its vertex set and where vertices x and y are adjacent if there exists another vertex z such that the arcs (x,z) and (y,z) are both present in D. The competition number k(G) for an undirected graph G is the least number r such that there exists an acyclic digraph F on |V(G)|+r vertices where C(F) is G along with r isolated vertices. Kim and Roberts [The Elimination Procedure for the Competition Number, Ars Combin. 50 (1998) 97-113] introduced an elimination procedure for the competition number, and asked whether the procedure calculated the competition number for all graphs. We answer this question in the negative by demonstrating a graph where the elimination procedure does not calculate the competition number. This graph also provides a negative answer to a similar question about the related elimination procedure for the phylogeny number introduced by the current author in [S.G. Hartke, The Elimination Procedure for the Phylogeny Number, Ars Combin. 75 (2005) 297-311].     

Fixed points of continuous DCPOs

In this article we show that for a continuous DCPO D, the set of fixed points of every self-map is a continuous DCPO if and only if x<y implies x is way below y. We also prove that some classes of continuous functions have the property that if a self-map on a DCPO is in the class then the set of fixed points is a continuous DCPO. We also investigate when the set of fixed points is a retract.