Linearly independent vertices and minimum semidefinite rank

We study the minimum semidefinite rank of a graph using vector representations of the graph and of certain subgraphs. We present a sufficient condition for when the vectors corresponding to a set of vertices of a graph must be linearly independent in any vector representation of that graph, and conjecture that the resulting graph invariant is equal to minimum semidefinite rank. Rotation of vector representations by a unitary matrix allows us to find the minimum semidefinite rank of the join of two graphs. We also improve upon previous results concerning the effect on minimum semidefinite rank of the removal of a vertex.     

An upper bound for the minimum rank of a graph

For a graph G of order n, the minimum rank of G is defined to be the smallest possible rank over all real symmetric n×n matrices A whose (i,j)th entry (for i≠j) is nonzero whenever {i,j} is an edge in G and is zero otherwise. We prove an upper bound for minimum rank in terms of minimum degree of a vertex is valid for many graphs, including all bipartite graphs, and conjecture this bound is true over for all graphs, and prove a related bound for all zero-nonzero patterns of (not necessarily symmetric) matrices. Most of the results are valid for matrices over any infinite field, but need not be true for matrices over finite fields.     

Non rank 3 strongly regular graphs with the 5-vertex condition

Three new strongly regular graphs on 256, 120, and 135 vertices are described in this paper. They satisfy thet-vertex condition — in the sense of [1] — on the edges and on the nonedges fort=4 but they are not rank 3 graphs. The problem to search for any such graph was discussed on a folklore level several times and was fixed in [2]. Here the graph on 256 vertices satisfies even the 5-vertex condition, and has the graphs on 120 and 135 vertices as its subgraphs. The existence of these graphs was announced in [3] and [4]. [4] contains M. H. Klin's interpretation of the graph on 120 vertices. Further results concerning these graphs were obtained by A. E. Brouwer, cf. [5].     

Rank three permutation groups with rank three subconstituents

Finite permutation groups of rank 3 such that both the subconstituents have rank 3 are classified. This is equivalent to classifying all finite undirected graphs with the following property: every isomorphism between subgraphs on at most three vertices is a restriction of an automorphism of the graph.     

On acyclic and unicyclic graphs whose minimum rank equals the diameter

The minimum rank of a graph G is defined as the smallest possible rank over all symmetric matrices governed by G. It is well known that the minimum rank of a connected graph is at least the diameter of that graph. In this paper, we investigate the graphs for which equality holds between minimum rank and diameter, and completely describe the acyclic and unicyclic graphs for which this equality holds.     

Bipartite dimensions and bipartite degrees of graphs

A cover (bipartite) of a graph G is a family of complete bipartite subgraphs of G whose edges cover G's edges. G'sbipartite dimension d(G) is the minimum cardinality of a cover, and its bipartite degree η(G) is the minimum over all covers of the maximum number of covering members incident to a vertex. We prove that d(G) equals the Boolean interval dimension of the irreflexive complement of G, identify the 21 minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for d 2, and investigate the forbidden graphs for d n that have the fewest vertices. We note that for complete graphs, d(K_n) = [log₂n], η(K_n) = d(K_n) for n 16, and η(K_n) is unbounded. The list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for η 2 is infinite. We identify two infinite families in this list along with all members that have fewer than seven vertices.     

Techniques for determining the minimum rank of a small graph

The minimum rank of a simple graph G is defined to be the smallest possible rank over all symmetric real matrices whose ijth entry (for i≠j) is nonzero whenever {i,j} is an edge in G and is zero otherwise. Minimum rank is a difficult parameter to compute. However, there are now a number of known reduction techniques and bounds that can be programmed on a computer; we have developed a program using the open-source mathematics software Sage to implement several techniques. We have also established several additional strategies for computation of minimum rank. These techniques have been used to determine the minimum ranks of all graphs of order 7.     

Partial characterizations of circle graphs

A circle graph is the intersection graph of a family of chords on a circle. There is no known characterization of circle graphs by forbidden induced subgraphs that do not involve the notions of local equivalence or pivoting operations. We characterize circle graphs by a list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs when the graph belongs to one of the following classes: linear domino graphs, P₄-tidy graphs, and tree-cographs. We also completely characterize by minimal forbidden induced subgraphs the class of unit Helly circle graphs, which are those circle graphs having a model whose chords have all the same length, are pairwise different, and satisfy the Helly property.     

Forbidden subgraphs that imply 2-factors

The connected forbidden subgraphs and pairs of connected forbidden subgraphs that imply a 2-connected graph is hamiltonian have been characterized by Bedrossian [Forbidden subgraph and minimum degree conditions for hamiltonicity, Ph.D. Thesis, Memphis State University, 1991], and extensions of these excluding graphs for general graphs of order at least 10 were proved by Faudree and Gould [Characterizing forbidden pairs for Hamiltonian properties, Discrete Math. 173 (1997) 45-60]. In this paper a complete characterization of connected forbidden subgraphs and pairs of connected forbidden subgraphs that imply a 2-connected graph of order at least 10 has a 2-factor will be proved. In particular it will be shown that the characterization for 2-factors is very similar to that for hamiltonian cycles, except there are seven additional pairs. In the case of graphs of all possible orders, there are four additional forbidden pairs not in the hamiltonian characterization, but a claw is part of each pair.     

Classes of graphs with minimum skew rank 4

The minimum skew rank of a simple graph G   is the smallest possible rank among all real skew-symmetric matrices whose (i,j)$(i,j)$-entry is nonzero if and only if the edge joining i and j is in G. It is known that a graph has minimum skew rank 2 if and only if it consists of a complete multipartite graph and some isolated vertices. Some necessary conditions for a graph to have minimum skew rank 4 are established, and several families of graphs with minimum skew rank 4 are given. Linear algebraic techniques are developed to show that complements of trees and certain outerplanar graphs have minimum skew rank 4.     

Orthogonal representations over finite fields and the chromatic number of graphs

We study the relationship between the minimum dimension of an orthogonal representation of a graph over a finite field and the chromatic number of its complement. It turns out that for some classes of matrices defined by a graph the 3-colorability problem is equivalent to deciding whether the class defined by the graph contains a matrix of rank 3 or not. This implies the NP-hardness of determining the minimum rank of a matrix in such a class. Finally we give for any class of matrices defined by a graph that is interesting in this respect a reduction of the 3-colorability problem to the problem of deciding whether or not this class contains a matrix of rank equal to three.The author is financially supported by the Cooperation Centre Tilburg and Eindhoven Universities.     

Minimum rank of skew-symmetric matrices described by a graph

The minimum (symmetric) rank of a simple graph G over a field F is the smallest possible rank among all symmetric matrices over F whose ijth entry (for i≠j) is nonzero whenever {i,j} is an edge in G and is zero otherwise. The problem of determining minimum (symmetric) rank has been studied extensively. We define the minimum skew rank of a simple graph G to be the smallest possible rank among all skew-symmetric matrices over F whose ijth entry (for i≠j) is nonzero whenever {i,j} is an edge in G and is zero otherwise. We apply techniques from the minimum (symmetric) rank problem and from skew-symmetric matrices to obtain results about the minimum skew rank problem.     

Zero forcing parameters and minimum rank problems

The zero forcing number Z(G), which is the minimum number of vertices in a zero forcing set of a graph G, is used to study the maximum nullity/minimum rank of the family of symmetric matrices described by G. It is shown that for a connected graph of order at least two, no vertex is in every zero forcing set. The positive semidefinite zero forcing number Z₊(G) is introduced, and shown to be equal to |G|-OS(G), where OS(G) is the recently defined ordered set number that is a lower bound for minimum positive semidefinite rank. The positive semidefinite zero forcing number is applied to the computation of positive semidefinite minimum rank of certain graphs. An example of a graph for which the real positive symmetric semidefinite minimum rank is greater than the complex Hermitian positive semidefinite minimum rank is presented.     

Characterizing path graphs by forbidden induced subgraphs

A path graph is the intersection graph of subpaths of a tree. In 1970, Renz asked for a characterization of path graphs by forbidden induced subgraphs. We answer this question by determining the complete list of graphs that are not path graphs and are minimal with this property. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62: 369–384, 2009     

Zero forcing sets and the minimum rank of graphs

The minimum rank of a simple graph G is defined to be the smallest possible rank over all symmetric real matrices whose ijth entry (for i≠j) is nonzero whenever {i,j} is an edge in G and is zero otherwise. This paper introduces a new graph parameter, Z(G), that is the minimum size of a zero forcing set of vertices and uses it to bound the minimum rank for numerous families of graphs, often enabling computation of the minimum rank.     

Expected values of parameters associated with the minimum rank of a graph

We investigate the expected value of various graph parameters associated with the minimum rank of a graph, including minimum rank/maximum nullity and related Colin de Verdière-type parameters. Let G(v,p) denote the usual Erd?s-Rényi random graph on v vertices with edge probability p. We obtain bounds for the expected value of the random variables mr(G(v,p)), M(G(v,p)), ν(G(v,p)) and ξ(G(v,p)), which yield bounds on the average values of these parameters over all labeled graphs of order v.     

The minimum rank problem: A counterexample

We provide a counterexample to a recent conjecture that the minimum rank over the reals of every sign pattern matrix can be realized by a rational matrix. We use one of the equivalences of the conjecture and some results from projective geometry. As a consequence of the counterexample we show that there is a graph for which the minimum rank of the graph over the reals is strictly smaller than the minimum rank of the graph over the rationals. We also make some comments on the minimum rank of sign pattern matrices over different subfields of R.     

Minimum rank of outerplanar graphs

The problem of finding the minimum rank over all symmetric matrices corresponding to a given graph has grown in interest recently. It is well known that the minimum rank of any graph is bounded above by the clique cover number, the minimum number of cliques needed to cover all edges of the graph. We generalize the idea of the clique cover number by defining the rank sum of a cover to be the sum of the minimum ranks of the graphs in the cover. Using this idea we obtain a combinatorial solution to the minimum rank problem for an outerplanar graph. As a consequence the minimum rank of an outerplanar graph is field independent and all outerplanar graphs have a universally optimal matrix. We also consider implications of the main result to the inverse inertia problem.     

Constructably Laplacian integral graphs

A graph is Laplacian integral if the spectrum of its Laplacian matrix consists entirely of integers. We consider the class of constructably Laplacian integral graphs - those graphs that be constructed from an empty graph by adding a sequence of edges in such a way that each time a new edge is added, the resulting graph is Laplacian integral. We characterize the constructably Laplacian integral graphs in terms of certain forbidden vertex-induced subgraphs, and consider the number of nonisomorphic Laplacian integral graphs that can be constructed by adding a suitable edge to a constructably Laplacian integral graph. We also discuss the eigenvalues of constructably Laplacian integral graphs, and identify families of isospectral nonisomorphic graphs within the class.     

On automorphisms of infinite graphs with forbidden subgraphs

LexX be anm-connected infinite graph without subgraphs homeomorphic toKm, n, for somen, and let α be an automorphism ofX with at least one cycle of infinite length. We characterize the structure of α and use this characterization to extend a known result about orientation-preserving automorphisms of finite plane graphs to infinite plane graphs. In the last section we investigate the action of α on the ends ofX and show that α fixes at most two ends (Theorem 3.2).