Smallest domination number and largest independence number of graphs and forests with given degree sequence

For a sequence d of nonnegative integers, let and be the sets of all graphs and forests with degree sequence d, respectively. Let , , , and where is the domination number and is the independence number of a graph G. Adapting results of Havel and Hakimi, Rao showed in 1979 that can be determined in polynomial time. We establish the existence of realizations with , and with and that have strong structural properties. This leads to an efficient algorithm to determine for every given degree sequence d with bounded entries as well as closed formulas for and .     

Sufficient conditions for the existence of a path‐factor which are related to odd components

In this article, we are concerned with sufficient conditions for the existence of a ‐factor. We prove that for , there exists such that if a graph G satisfies for all , then G has a ‐factor, where is the number of components C of with . On the other hand, we construct infinitely many graphs G having no ‐factor such that for all .     

Decomposition of complete uniform multi‐hypergraphs into Berge paths and cycles

In 2015, Bryant, Horsley, Maenhaut, and Smith, generalizing a well‐known conjecture by Alspach, obtained the necessary and sufficient conditions for the decomposition of the complete multigraph into cycles of arbitrary lengths, where I is empty, when is even and I is a perfect matching, when is odd. Moreover, Bryant in 2010, verifying a conjecture by Tarsi, proved that the obvious necessary conditions for packing pairwise edge‐disjoint paths of arbitrary lengths in are also sufficient. In this article, first, we obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for packing edge‐disjoint cycles of arbitrary lengths in . Then, applying this result, we investigate the analogous problem of the decomposition of the complete uniform multihypergraph into Berge cycles and paths of arbitrary given lengths. In particular, we show that for every integer , and , can be decomposed into Berge cycles and paths of arbitrary lengths, provided that the obvious necessary conditions hold, thereby generalizing a result by Kühn and Osthus on the decomposition of into Hamilton Berge cycles.     

Thoroughly dispersed colorings

We consider (not necessarily proper) colorings of the vertices of a graph where every color is thoroughly dispersed, that is, appears in every open neighborhood. Equivalently, every color is a total dominating set. We define as the maximum number of colors in such a coloring and as the fractional version thereof. In particular, we show that every claw‐free graph with minimum degree at least  two has  and this is best possible. For planar graphs, we show that every triangular disc has and this is best possible, and that every planar graph has and this is best possible, while we conjecture that every planar triangulation has . Further, although there are arbitrarily large examples of connected, cubic graphs with , we show that for a connected cubic graph . We also consider the related concepts in hypergraphs.     

The decycling number and maximum genus of cubic graphs

Let and denote the minimum size of a decycling set and maximum genus of a graph G, respectively. For a connected cubic graph G of order n, it is shown that . Applying the formula, we obtain some new results on the decycling number and maximum genus of cubic graphs. Furthermore, it is shown that the number of vertices of a decycling set S in a k‐regular graph G is , where c and are the number of components of and the number of edges in , respectively. Therefore, S is minimum if and only if is minimum. As an application, this leads to a lower bound for of a k‐regular graph G. In many cases this bound may be sharp.     

A relaxation of the strong Bordeaux Conjecture

Let be k nonnegative integers. A graph G is ‐colorable if the vertex set can be partitioned into k sets , such that the subgraph , induced by , has maximum degree at most for . Let denote the family of plane graphs with neither adjacent 3‐cycles nor 5‐cycles. Borodin and Raspaud (2003) conjectured that each graph in is (0, 0, 0)‐colorable (which was disproved very recently). In this article, we prove that each graph in is (1, 1, 0)‐colorable, which improves the results by Xu (2009) and Liu‐Li‐Yu (2016).     

Non‐Critical Vertices and Long Circuits in Strong Tournaments of Order n and Diameter d

Let T be a strong tournament of order with diameter . A vertex w in T is non‐critical if the subtournament is also strong. In the opposite case, it is a critical vertex. In the present article, we show that T has at most critical vertices. This fact and Moon's vertex‐pancyclic theorem imply that for , it contains at least circuits of length . We describe the class of all strong tournaments of order with diameter for which this lower bound is achieved and show that for , the minimum number of circuits of length in a tournament of this class is equal to . In turn, the minimum among all strong tournaments of order with diameter 2 grows exponentially with respect to n for any given . Finally, for , we select a strong tournament of order n with diameter d and conjecture that for any strong tournament T of order n whose diameter does not exceed d, the number of circuits of length ? in T is not less than that in for each possible ?. Moreover, if these two numbers are equal to each other for some given , where , then T is isomorphic to either or its converse . For , this conjecture was proved by Las Vergnas. In the present article, we confirm it for the case . In an Appendix, some problems concerning non‐critical vertices are considered for generalizations of tournaments.     

Dominating sets inducing large components in maximal outerplanar graphs

For a maximal outerplanar graph G of order n at least three, Matheson and Tarjan showed that G has domination number at most . Similarly, for a maximal outerplanar graph G of order n at least five, Dorfling, Hattingh, and Jonck showed, by a completely different approach, that G has total domination number at most unless G is isomorphic to one of two exceptional graphs of order 12. We present a unified proof of a common generalization of these two results. For every positive integer k, we specify a set of graphs of order at least and at most such that every maximal outerplanar graph G of order n at least that does not belong to has a dominating set D of order at most such that every component of the subgraph of G induced by D has order at least k.     

Nonseparating Cycles Avoiding Specific Vertices

Thomassen proved that every ‐connected graph G contains an induced cycle C such that is k‐connected, establishing a conjecture of Lovász. In general, one could ask the following question: For any positive integers , does there exist a smallest positive integer such that for any ‐connected graph G, any with , and any , there is an induced cycle C in such that and is l‐connected? The case when is a well‐known conjecture of Lovász that is still open for . In this article, we prove and . We also consider a weaker version: For any positive integers , is there a smallest positive integer such that for every ‐connected graph G and any with , there is an induced cycle C in such that is l‐connected? The case when was studied by Thomassen. We prove and .     

Ramsey Results for Cycle Spectra

Let denote the set of lengths of cycles of a graph G of order n and let denote the complement of G. We show that if , then contains all odd ? with and all even ? with , where and denote the maximum odd and the maximum even integer in , respectively. From this we deduce that the set contains at least integers, which is sharp.     

List Coloring with a Bounded Palette

Král' and Sgall (J Graph Theory 49(3) (2005), 177–186) introduced a refinement of list coloring where every color list must be subset to one predetermined palette of colors. We call this ‐choosability when the palette is of size at most ? and the lists must be of size at least k . They showed that, for any integer , there is an integer , satisfying as , such that, if a graph is ‐choosable, then it is C‐choosable, and asked if C is required to be exponential in k . We demonstrate it must satisfy . For an integer , if is the least integer such that a graph is ‐choosable if it is ‐choosable, then we more generally supply a lower bound on , one that is super‐polynomial in k if , by relation to an extremal set theoretic property. By the use of containers, we also give upper bounds on that improve on earlier bounds if .     

More on the Bipartite Decomposition of Random Graphs

For a graph , let denote the minimum number of pairwise edge disjoint complete bipartite subgraphs of G so that each edge of G belongs to exactly one of them. It is easy to see that for every graph G , , where is the maximum size of an independent set of G . Erd?s conjectured in the 80s that for almost every graph G equality holds, that is that for the random graph , with high probability, that is with probability that tends to 1 as n tends to infinity. The first author showed that this is slightly false, proving that for most values of n tending to infinity and for , with high probability. We prove a stronger bound: there exists an absolute constant so that with high probability.     

Edge‐transitive homogeneous factorizations of complete uniform hypergraphs

For a finite set V and a positive integer k with , letting be the set of all k‐subsets of V, the pair is called the complete k‐hypergraph on V, while each k‐subset of V is called an edge. A factorization of the complete k‐hypergraph of index , simply a ‐factorization of order n, is a partition of the edges into s disjoint subsets such that each k‐hypergraph , called a factor, is a spanning subhypergraph of . Such a factorization is homogeneous if there exist two transitive subgroups G and M of the symmetric group of degree n such that G induces a transitive action on the set and M lies in the kernel of this action. In this article, we give a classification of homogeneous factorizations of that admit a group acting transitively on the edges of . It is shown that, for and , there exists an edge‐transitive homogeneous ‐factorization of order n if and only if is one of (32, 3, 5), (32, 3, 31), (33, 4, 5), , and , where and q is a prime power with .     

Extensions of Fractional Precolorings Show Discontinuous Behavior

We study the following problem: given a real number k and an integer d, what is the smallest ε such that any fractional ‐precoloring of vertices at pairwise distances at least d of a fractionally k‐colorable graph can be extended to a fractional ‐coloring of the whole graph? The exact values of ε were known for and any d. We determine the exact values of ε for if , and if , and give upper bounds for if , and if . Surprisingly, ε viewed as a function of k is discontinuous for all those values of d.     

Calculating Ramsey Numbers by Partitioning Colored Graphs

In this article we prove a new result about partitioning colored complete graphs and use it to determine certain Ramsey numbers exactly. The partitioning theorem we prove is that for , in every edge coloring of with the colors red and blue, it is possible to cover all the vertices with k disjoint red paths and a disjoint blue balanced complete ‐partite graph. When the coloring of is connected in red, we prove a stronger result—that it is possible to cover all the vertices with k red paths and a blue balanced complete ‐partite graph. Using these results we determine the Ramsey number of an n‐vertex path, , versus a balanced complete t‐partite graph on vertices, , whenever . We show that in this case , generalizing a result of Erd?s who proved the case of this result. We also determine the Ramsey number of a path versus the power of a path . We show that , solving a conjecture of Allen, Brightwell, and Skokan.     

Strengthening Theorems of Dirac and Erdős on Disjoint Cycles

Let be an integer, be the set of vertices of degree at least 2k in a graph G , and be the set of vertices of degree at most in G . In 1963, Dirac and Erd?s proved that G contains k (vertex) disjoint cycles whenever . The main result of this article is that for , every graph G with containing at most t disjoint triangles and with contains k disjoint cycles. This yields that if and , then G contains k disjoint cycles. This generalizes the Corrádi–Hajnal Theorem, which states that every graph G with and contains k disjoint cycles.     

Large Induced Forests in Graphs

In this article, we prove three theorems. The first is that every connected graph of order n and size m has an induced forest of order at least with equality if and only if such a graph is obtained from a tree by expanding every vertex to a clique of order either 4 or 5. This improves the previous lower bound of Alon–Kahn–Seymour for , and implies that such a graph has an induced forest of order at least for . This latter result relates to the conjecture of Albertson and Berman that every planar graph of order n has an induced forest of order at least . The second is that every connected triangle‐free graph of order n and size m has an induced forest of order at least . This bound is sharp by the cube and the Wagner graph. It also improves the previous lower bound of Alon–Mubayi–Thomas for , and implies that such a graph has an induced forest of order at least for . This latter result relates to the conjecture of Akiyama and Watanabe that every bipartite planar graph of order n has an induced forest of order at least . The third is that every connected planar graph of order n and size m with girth at least 5 has an induced forest of order at least with equality if and only if such a graph is obtained from a tree by expanding every vertex to one of five specific graphs. This implies that such a graph has an induced forest of order at least , where was conjectured to be the best lower bound by Kowalik, Lu?ar, and ?krekovski.     

Partition functions and a generalized coloring‐flow duality for embedded graphs

Let G be a finite group and a class function. Let be a directed graph with for each vertex a cyclic order of the edges incident to it. The cyclic orders give a collection F of faces of H. Define the partition function , where denotes the product of the κ‐values of the edges incident with v (in cyclic order), where the inverse is taken for edges leaving v. Write , where the sum runs over irreducible representations λ of G with character and with for every λ. When H is connected, it is proved that , where 1 is the identity element of G. Among the corollaries, a formula for the number of nowhere‐identity G‐flows on H is derived, generalizing a result of Tutte. We show that these flows correspond bijectively to certain proper G‐colorings of a covering graph of the dual graph of H. This correspondence generalizes coloring‐flow duality for planar graphs.     

Smallest graphs with given generalized quaternion automorphism group

For , a smallest graph whose automorphism group is isomorphic to the generalized quaternion group is constructed. If , then such a graph has vertices and edges. In the special case when , a smallest graph has 16 vertices but 44 edges.