Path factors and parallel knock-out schemes of almost claw-free graphs

An H₁,{H₂}-factor of a graph G is a spanning subgraph of G with exactly one component isomorphic to the graph H₁ and all other components (if there are any) isomorphic to the graph H₂. We completely characterise the class of connected almost claw-free graphs that have a P₇,{P₂}-factor, where P₇ and P₂ denote the paths on seven and two vertices, respectively. We apply this result to parallel knock-out schemes for almost claw-free graphs. These schemes proceed in rounds in each of which each surviving vertex eliminates one of its surviving neighbours. A graph is reducible if such a scheme eliminates every vertex in the graph. Using our characterisation, we are able to classify all reducible almost claw-free graphs, and we can show that every reducible almost claw-free graph is reducible in at most two rounds. This leads to a quadratic time algorithm for determining if an almost claw-free graph is reducible (which is a generalisation and improvement upon the previous strongest result that showed that there was a O(n^5.376) time algorithm for claw-free graphs on n vertices).     

Trivalent 2-Arc Transitive Graphs of Type {G^1_2} are Near Polygonal

A connected graph Σ of girth at least four is called a near n-gonal graph with respect to E, where n ≥  4 is an integer, if E is a set of n-cycles of Σ such that every path of length two is contained in a unique member of E. It is well known that connected trivalent symmetric graphs can be classified into seven types. In this note we prove that every connected trivalent G-symmetric graph S 1 K₄{\Sigma \neq K_4} of type G¹₂{G^1_2} is a near polygonal graph with respect to two G-orbits on cycles of Σ. Moreover, we give an algorithm for constructing the unique cycle in each of these G-orbits containing a given path of length two.     

Hamiltonicity in vertex envelopes of plane cubic graphs

In this paper we study a graph operation which produces what we call the “vertex envelope” G^∗_V from a graph G. We apply it to plane cubic graphs and investigate the hamiltonicity of the resulting graphs, which are also cubic. To this end, we prove a result giving a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of hamiltonian cycles in the vertex envelopes of plane cubic graphs. We then use these conditions to identify graphs or classes of graphs whose vertex envelopes are either all hamiltonian or all non-hamiltonian, paying special attention to bipartite graphs. We also show that deciding if a vertex envelope is hamiltonian is NP-complete, and we provide a polynomial algorithm for deciding if a given cubic plane graph is a vertex envelope.     

A randomized embedding algorithm for trees

In this paper, we propose a simple and natural randomized algorithm to embed a tree T in a given graph G. The algorithm can be viewed as a “self-avoiding tree-indexed random walk“. The order of the tree T can be as large as a constant fraction of the order of the graph G, and the maximum degree of T can be close to the minimum degree of G. We show that our algorithm works in a variety of interesting settings. For example, we prove that any graph of minimum degree d without 4-cycles contains every tree of order εd ² and maximum degree at most d-2εd-2. As there exist d-regular graphs without 4-cycles and with O(d ²) vertices, this result is optimal up to constant factors. We prove similar nearly tight results for graphs of given girth and graphs with no complete bipartite subgraph K _s,t .     

Cycle-free partial orders and chordal comparability graphs

This paper studies a number of problems on cycle-free partial orders and chordal comparability graphs. The dimension of a cycle-free partial order is shown to be at most 4. A linear time algorithm is presented for determining whether a chordal directed graph is transitive, which yields an O(n ²) algorithm for recognizing chordal comparability graphs. An algorithm is presented for determining whether the transitive closure of a digraph is a cycle-free partial order in O(n+m _t)time, where m _tis the number of edges in the transitive closure.     

On the complexity of computing treelength

We resolve the computational complexity of determining the treelength of a graph, thereby solving an open problem of Dourisboure and Gavoille, who introduced this parameter, and asked to determine the complexity of recognizing graphs of a bounded treelength Dourisboure and Gavoille (2007) [6]. While recognizing graphs with treelength 1 is easily seen as equivalent to recognizing chordal graphs, which can be done in linear time, the computational complexity of recognizing graphs with treelength 2 was unknown until this result. We show that the problem of determining whether a given graph has a treelength at most k is NP-complete for every fixed k≥2, and use this result to show that treelength in weighted graphs is hard to approximate within a factor smaller than . Additionally, we show that treelength can be computed in time O^∗(1.7549ⁿ) by giving an exact exponential time algorithm for the Chordal Sandwich problem and showing how this algorithm can be used to compute the treelength of a graph.     

A characterization of chain probe graphs

A chain probe graph is a graph that admits an independent set S of vertices and a set F of pairs of elements of S such that G+F is a chain graph (i.e., a 2K ₂-free bipartite graph). We show that chain probe graphs are exactly the bipartite graphs that do not contain as an induced subgraph a member of a family of six forbidden subgraphs, and deduce an O(n ²) recognition algorithm.     

Hereditary dominating pair graphs

An asteroidal triple (AT) is a set of vertices such that each pair of vertices is joined by a path that avoids the neighborhood of the third. Every AT-free graph contains a dominating pair, a pair of vertices such that for every path between them, every vertex of the graph is within distance one of the path. We say that a graph is a hereditary dominating pair (HDP) graph if each of its connected induced subgraphs contains a dominating pair. In this paper we introduce the notion of frame HDP graphs in order to capture the structure of HDP graphs that contain asteroidal triples. We also determine the maximum diameter of frame HDP graphs.     

A trust region method for solving the decentralized static output feedback design problem

The shortest-paths problem is a fundamental problem in graph theory and finds diverse applications in various fields. This is why shortest path algorithms have been designed more thoroughly than any other algorithm in graph theory. A large number of optimization problems are mathematically equivalent to the problem of finding shortest paths in a graph. The shortest-path between a pair of vertices is defined as the path with shortest length between the pair of vertices. The shortest path from one vertex to another often gives the best way to route a message between the vertices. This paper presents anO(n ²) time sequential algorithm and anO(n ²/p+logn) time parallel algorithm on EREW PRAM model for solving all pairs shortest paths problem on circular-arc graphs, wherep andn represent respectively the number of processors and the number of vertices of the circular-arc graph.     

Maximal independent sets in caterpillar graphs

A caterpillar graph is a tree in which the removal of all pendant vertices results in a chordless path. In this work, we determine the number of maximal independent sets (mis) in caterpillar graphs. For a general graph, this problem is #P—complete. We provide a polynomial time algorithm to generate the whole family of mis in a caterpillar graph. We also characterize the independent graph (intersection graph of mis) and the clique graph (intersection graph of cliques) of complete caterpillar graphs.     

A note on on-line ranking number of graphs

A k-ranking of a graph G = (V, E) is a mapping ϕ: V → {1, 2, ..., k} such that each path with end vertices of the same colour c contains an internal vertex with colour greater than c. The ranking number of a graph G is the smallest positive integer k admitting a k-ranking of G. In the on-line version of the problem, the vertices v ₁, v ², ..., v _n of G arrive one by one in an arbitrary order, and only the edges of the induced graph G[{v ₁, v ₂, ..., v _i }] are known when the colour for the vertex v _i has to be chosen. The on-line ranking number of a graph G is the smallest positive integer k such that there exists an algorithm that produces a k-ranking of G for an arbitrary input sequence of its vertices. We show that there are graphs with arbitrarily large difference and arbitrarily large ratio between the ranking number and the on-line ranking number. We also determine the on-line ranking number of complete n-partite graphs. The question of additivity and heredity is discussed as well.     

Reconstructing shortest paths

This paper develops a polynomial-time algorithm that reconstructs a shortest path between two vertices using only the all pairs shortest path distance matrix. For graphs with positive edge weights, the algorithm requiresO(⦹V|log|V|) time. When the graph contains both positive and negative, but not zero, edge weights, and all cycles have positive length, the algorithm runs inO(|V|²) time. The remarkable feature about the algorithm is that it does not require explicit information about edges in the original graph.     

Finding a minimum path cover of a distance-hereditary graph in polynomial time

A path cover of a graph G=(V,E) is a set of pairwise vertex-disjoint paths such that the disjoint union of the vertices of these paths equals the vertex set V of G. The path cover problem is, given a graph, to find a path cover having the minimum number of paths. The path cover problem contains the Hamiltonian path problem as a special case since finding a path cover, consisting of a single path, corresponds directly to the Hamiltonian path problem. A graph is a distance-hereditary graph if each pair of vertices is equidistant in every connected induced subgraph containing them. The complexity of the path cover problem on distance-hereditary graphs has remained unknown. In this paper, we propose the first polynomial-time algorithm, which runs in O(|V|⁹) time, to solve the path cover problem on distance-hereditary graphs.     

Pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p3

A graph is symmetric or 1-regular if its automorphism group is transitive or regular on the arc set of the graph, respectively. We classify the connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p~3 for each prime p. All those symmetric graphs appear as normal Cayley graphs on some groups of order 2p~3 and their automorphism groups are determined. For p = 3, no connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p~3 exist. However, for p = 2 or 5, such symmetric graph exists uniquely in each case. For p 7, the connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p~3 are all regular covers of the dipole Dip5 with covering transposition groups of order p~3, and they consist of seven infinite families; six of them are 1-regular and exist if and only if 5 |(p- 1), while the other one is 1-transitive but not 1-regular and exists if and only if 5 |(p ± 1). In the seven infinite families, each graph is unique for a given order.     

定向图的斜秩

定向图Gσ是一个不含有环(loop)和重边的有向图,其中G称作它的基图.S(Gσ)是Gσ的斜邻接矩阵.S(Gσ)的秩称为Gσ的斜秩,记为sr(Gσ).定向图的斜邻接矩阵是斜对称的,因而,它的斜秩是偶数.本文主要考虑简单定向图的斜秩,首先给出斜秩的一些简单基本知识,紧接着分别刻画斜秩是2的定向图和斜秩是4的带有悬挂点的定向图;其次利用匹配数给出具有n个顶点、围长是k的单圈图的斜秩表达式;作为推论,列出斜秩是4的所有单圈图和带有悬挂点的双圈图;另外研究具有n个顶点、围长是k的单圈图的图类中斜秩的最小值,并刻画了极图;最后研究斜邻接矩阵是非奇异的定向单圈图.     

Recognizing Planar Strict Quasi-Parity Graphs

 A graph is a strict-quasi parity (SQP) graph if every induced subgraph that is not a clique contains a pair of vertices with no odd chordless path between them (an “even pair”). We present an O(n ³) algorithm for recognizing planar strict quasi-parity graphs, based on Wen-Lian Hsu's decomposition of planar (perfect) graphs and on the (non-algorithmic) characterization of planar minimal non-SQP graphs given in [9]. Received: September 21, 1998 Final version received: May 9, 2000     

On a conjecture of Murty and Simon on diameter 2-critical graphs

A graph G is diameter 2-critical if its diameter is two, and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter 2-critical graph of order n is at most n²/4 and that the extremal graphs are complete bipartite graphs with equal size partite sets. We use an association with total domination to prove the conjecture for the graphs whose complements have diameter three.     

Zero-Divisor Semigroups and Some Simple Graphs

In this article, we study commutative zero-divisor semigroups determined by graphs. We prove that for all n ≥ 4, the complete graph K _n together with two end vertices has a unique corresponding zero-divisor semigroup, while the complete graph K _n together with three end vertices has no corresponding semigroups. We determine all the twenty zero-divisor semigroups whose zero-divisor graphs are the complete graph K ₃ together with an end vertex.     

An Optimal Algorithm to Solve the All-Pairs Shortest Paths Problem on Permutation Graphs

In this paper we present an optimal algorithm to solve the all-pairs shortest path problem on permutation graphs with n vertices and m edges which runs in O(n ²) time. Using this algorithm, the average distance of a permutation graph can also be computed in O(n ²) time.     

A proof of a conjecture on diameter 2-critical graphs whose complements are claw-free

A graph G is diameter 2-critical if its diameter is 2, and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter 2-critical graph of order n is at most n²/4 and that the extremal graphs are complete bipartite graphs with equal size partite sets. We use an important association with total domination to prove the conjecture for the graphs whose complements are claw-free.