Linear choosability of sparse graphs

A linear coloring is a proper coloring such that each pair of color classes induces a union of disjoint paths. We study the linear list chromatic number, denoted , of sparse graphs. The maximum average degree of a graph G, denoted mad(G), is the maximum of the average degrees of all subgraphs of G. It is clear that any graph G with maximum degree Δ(G) satisfies . In this paper, we prove the following results: (1) if and Δ(G)≥3, then , and we give an infinite family of examples to show that this result is best possible; (2) if and Δ(G)≥9, then , and we give an infinite family of examples to show that the bound on cannot be increased in general; (3) if G is planar and has girth at least 5, then .     

Upper bounds on the linear chromatic number of a graph

A proper vertex coloring of a graph G is linear if the graph induced by the vertices of any two color classes is a union of vertex-disjoint paths. The linear chromatic number of G is the smallest number of colors in a linear coloring of G.Let G be a graph with maximum degree Δ(G). In this paper we prove the following results: (1) ; (2) if Δ(G)≤4; (3) if Δ(G)≤5; (4) if G is planar and Δ(G)≥52.     

Edge choosability and total choosability of planar graphs with no 3-cycles adjacent 4-cycles

Two cycles are said to be adjacent if they share a common edge. Let G be a planar graph without triangles adjacent 4-cycles. We prove that if Δ(G)≥6, and and if Δ(G)≥8, where and denote the list edge chromatic number and list total chromatic number of G, respectively.     

Irregularity strength of digraphs

It is an elementary exercise to show that any non-trivial simple graph has two vertices with the same degree. This is not the case for digraphs and multigraphs. We consider generating irregular digraphs from arbitrary digraphs by adding multiple arcs. To this end, we define an irregular labeling of a digraph D to be an arc-labeling of the digraph such that the ordered pairs of the sums of the in-labels and out-labels at each vertex are all distinct. We define the strength of D to be the smallest of the maximum labels used across all irregular labelings. Similar definitions for graphs have been studied extensively and a different formulation of digraph irregularity was given in [H. Hackett, Irregularity strength of graphs and digraphs, Masters Thesis, University of Louisville, 1995]. Here we continue the study of irregular labelings of digraphs. We give a general lower bound on and determine exactly for tournaments, directed paths and cycles and the orientation of the path where all vertices have either in-degree 0 or out-degree 0. We also determine the irregularity strength of a union of directed cycles and a union of directed paths, the latter which requires a new result pertaining to finding circuits of given lengths containing prescribed vertices in the complete symmetric digraph with loops.     

The order of hypotraceable oriented graphs

A digraph of order n is hypotraceable if it is nontraceable but all its induced subdigraphs of order n−1 are traceable. Grötschel et al. (1980) [M. Grötschel, C. Thomassen, Y. Wakabayashi, Hypotraceable digraphs, J. Graph Theory 4 (1980) 377–381] constructed an infinite family of hypotraceable oriented graphs, the smallest of which has order 13. We show that there exist hypotraceable oriented graphs of order n for every n≥8 except possibly for n=9,11 and that is the only one of order less than 8.Furthermore, we determine all the hypotraceable oriented graphs of order 8 and explain the relevance of these results to the problem of determining, for given k≥2, the maximum order of nontraceable oriented digraphs each of whose induced subdigraphs of order k is traceable.     

Closure operation for even factors on claw-free graphs

Ryjá?ek (1997) [6] defined a powerful closure operation on claw-free graphs G. Very recently, Ryjá?ek et al. (2010) [8] have developed the closure operation on claw-free graphs which preserves the (non)-existence of a 2-factor. In this paper, we introduce a closure operation on claw-free graphs that generalizes the above two closure operations. The closure of a graph is unique determined and the closure turns a claw-free graph into the line graph of a graph containing no cycle of length at most 5 and no cycles of length 6 satisfying a certain condition and no induced subgraph being isomorphic to the unique tree with a degree sequence 111133. We show that these closure operations on claw-free graphs all preserve the minimum number of components of an even factor. In particular, we show that a claw-free graph G has an even factor with at most k components if and only if (, respectively) has an even factor with at most k components. However, the closure operation does not preserve the (non)-existence of a 2-factor.     

Large minors in graphs with given independence number

A weakening of Hadwiger’s conjecture states that every n-vertex graph with independence number α has a clique minor of size at least . Extending ideas of Fox (2010) [6], we prove that such a graph has a clique minor with at least vertices where c>1/19.2.     

Higher order log-concavity in Euler’s difference table

For 0≤k≤n, let be the entries in Euler’s difference table and let . Dumont and Randrianarivony showed equals the number of permutations on [n] whose fixed points are contained in {1,2,…,k}. Rakotondrajao found a combinatorial interpretation of the number in terms of k-fixed-points-permutations of [n]. We show that for any n≥1, the sequence is essentially 2-log-concave and reverse ultra log-concave.     

The non-existence of some perfect codes over non-prime power alphabets

Let denote the number of times the prime number p appears in the prime factorization of the integer q. The following result is proved: If there is a perfect 1-error correcting code of length n over an alphabet with q symbols then, for every prime number .This condition is stronger than both the packing condition and the necessary condition given by the Lloyd theorem, as it for example excludes the existence of a perfect code with the parameters (n,q,e)=(19,6,1).     

On the eccentric connectivity index of a graph

If G is a connected graph with vertex set V, then the eccentric connectivity index of G, ξ^C(G), is defined as where is the degree of a vertex v and is its eccentricity. We obtain an exact lower bound on ξ^C(G) in terms of order, and show that this bound is sharp. An asymptotically sharp upper bound is also derived. In addition, for trees of given order, when the diameter is also prescribed, precise upper and lower bounds are provided.     

A new characterization of projections of quadrics in finite projective spaces of even characteristic

We will classify, up to linear representations, all geometries fully embedded in an affine space with the property that for every antiflag {p,L} of the geometry there are either 0, α, or q lines through p intersecting L. An example of such a geometry with α=2 is the following well known geometry . Let Q_n+1 be a nonsingular quadric in a finite projective space , n≥3, q even. We project Q_n+1 from a point r∉Q_n+1, distinct from its nucleus if n+1 is even, on a hyperplane not through r. This yields a partial linear space whose points are the points p of , such that the line 〈p,r〉 is a secant to Q_n+1, and whose lines are the lines of which contain q such points. This geometry is fully embedded in an affine subspace of and satisfies the antiflag property mentioned. As a result of our classification theorem we will give a new characterization theorem of this geometry.     

Mutually orthogonal equitable Latin rectangles

Let ab=n². We define an equitable Latin rectangle as an a×b matrix on a set of n symbols where each symbol appears either or times in each row of the matrix and either or times in each column of the matrix. Two equitable Latin rectangles are orthogonal in the usual way. Denote a set of ka×b mutually orthogonal equitable Latin rectangles as a k– MOELR (a,b;n). When a≠9,18,36, or 100, then we show that the maximum number of k– MOELR (a,b;n)≥3 for all possible values of (a,b).     

Coquet-type formulas for the rarefied weighted Thue–Morse sequence

Newman proved for the classical Thue–Morse sequence, ((−1)^s(n))_n≥0, that for all N∈N with real constants satisfying c₂>c₁>0 and λ=log3/log4. Coquet improved this result and deduced , where F(x) is a nowhere-differentiable, continuous function with period 1 and η(N)∈{−1,0,1}. In this paper we obtain for the weighted version of the Thue–Morse sequence that for the sum a Coquet-type formula exists for every r∈{0,1,2} if and only if the sequence of weights is eventually periodic. From the specific Coquet-type formulas we derive parts of the weak Newman-type results that were recently obtained by Larcher and Zellinger.     

Optical grooming with grooming ratio nine

Grooming uniform all-to-all traffic in optical ring networks with grooming ratio C requires the determination of graph decompositions of the complete graph into subgraphs each having at most C edges. The drop cost of such a grooming is the total number of vertices of nonzero degree in these subgraphs, and the grooming is optimal when the drop cost is minimum. The minimum drop cost is determined for grooming ratio 9. Previously this bound was shown to be met when with two exceptions and eleven additional possible exceptions for n, and also when with one exception and one possible exception for n. In this paper it is shown that the bound is met for all with four exceptions for n∈{8,11,14,17} and one possible exception for n=20. Using this result, it is further shown that when and n is sufficiently large, the bound is also met.     

On the hyperbolicity constant in graphs

If X is a geodesic metric space and x₁,x₂,x₃∈X, a geodesic triangleT={x₁,x₂,x₃} is the union of the three geodesics [x₁x₂], [x₂x₃] and [x₃x₁] in X. The space X is δ-hyperbolic (in the Gromov sense) if, for every geodesic triangle T in X, every side of T is contained in a δ-neighborhood of the union of the other two sides. We denote by δ(X) the sharpest hyperbolicity constant of X, i.e. . In this paper, we obtain several tight bounds for the hyperbolicity constant of a graph and precise values of this constant for some important families of graphs. In particular, we investigate the relationship between the hyperbolicity constant of a graph and its number of edges, diameter and cycles. As a consequence of our results, we show that if G is any graph with m edges with lengths , then , and if and only if G is isomorphic to C_m. Moreover, we prove the inequality for every graph, and we use this inequality in order to compute the precise value δ(G) for some common graphs.     

Locating–dominating codes in paths

Bertrand, Charon, Hudry and Lobstein studied, in their paper in 2004 [1], r-locating–dominating codes in paths P_n. They conjectured that if r≥2 is a fixed integer, then the smallest cardinality of an r-locating–dominating code in P_n, denoted by , satisfies for infinitely many values of n. We prove that this conjecture holds. In fact, we show a stronger result saying that for any r≥3 we have for all n≥n_r when n_r is large enough. In addition, we solve a conjecture on location–domination with segments of even length in the infinite path.     

Adjoint polynomials of bridge–path and bridge–cycle graphs and Chebyshev polynomials

The chromatic polynomial of a simple graph G with n>0 vertices is a polynomial of degree n, where α_k(G) is the number of k-independent partitions of G for all k. The adjoint polynomial of G is defined to be , where is the complement of G. We find explicit formulas for the adjoint polynomials of the bridge–path and bridge–cycle graphs. Consequence, we find the zeros of the adjoint polynomials of several families of graphs.     

Forbidden configurations and repeated induction

For a given k×? matrix F, we say a matrix A has no configurationF if no k×? submatrix of A is a row and column permutation of F. We say a matrix is simple if it is a (0,1)-matrix with no repeated columns. We define as the maximum number of columns in an m-rowed simple matrix which has no configuration F. A fundamental result of Sauer, Perles and Shelah, and Vapnik and Chervonenkis determines exactly, where K_k denotes the k×2^k simple matrix. We extend this in several ways. For two matrices G,H on the same number of rows, let [G∣H] denote the concatenation of G and H. Our first two sets of results are exact bounds that find some matrices B,C where and . Our final result provides asymptotic boundary cases; namely matrices F for which is O(m^p) yet for any choice of column α not in F, we have is Ω(m^p+1). This is evidence for a conjecture of Anstee and Sali. The proof techniques in this paper are dominated by repeated use of the standard induction employed in forbidden configurations. Analysis of base cases tends to dominate the arguments. For a k-rowed (0,1)-matrix F, we also consider a function which is the minimum number of columns in an m-rowed simple matrix for which each k-set of rows contains F as a configuration.     

Characterization of eccentric digraphs

The eccentric digraphED(G) of a digraph G represents the binary relation, defined on the vertex set of G, of being ‘eccentric’; that is, there is an arc from u to v in ED(G) if and only if v is at maximum distance from u in G. A digraph G is said to be eccentric if there exists a digraph H such that G=ED(H). This paper is devoted to the study of the following two questions: what digraphs are eccentric and when the relation of being eccentric is symmetric.We present a characterization of eccentric digraphs, which in the undirected case says that a graph G is eccentric iff its complement graph is either self-centered of radius two or it is the union of complete graphs. As a consequence, we obtain that all trees except those with diameter 3 are eccentric digraphs. We also determine when ED(G) is symmetric in the cases when G is a graph or a digraph that is not strongly connected.