r-tuple colorings of uniquely colorable graphs

An r-tuple coloring of a graph is one in which r colors are assigned to each point of the graph so that the sets of colors assigned to adjacent points are always disjoint. We investigate the question of whether a uniquely n-colorable graph can receive an r-tuple coloring with fewer than nr colors. We show that this cannot happen for n=3 and r=2 and that for a given n and r to establish the conjecture that no uniquely n-colorable graph can receive an r-tuple coloring from fewer than nr colors it suffices to prove it for on a finite set of uniquely n-colorable graphs.     

Generalised acyclic edge colourings of graphs with large girth

The r-acyclic edge chromatic number of a graph G is the minimum number of colours required to colour the edges of G in such a way that adjacent edges receive different colours and every cycle C receives at least min{|C|,r} colours. We prove that for any integer r?4, the r-acyclic edge chromatic number of any graph G with maximum degree Δ and with girth at least 3(r-1)Δ is at most 6(r-1)Δ.     

NP-completeness of a family of graph-colouring problems

It is well known that the problem of graph k-colourability, for any k≥3, is NP-complete but that graph 2-colourability may be solved easily in polynomial time. An (s,r)-colouring of a graph G(s≥r≥1) is an assignment of r colours from a set of s to each vertex of G in such a way that no two adjacent vertices have a colour in common. The problem of (2r+1, r)-colourability for r = 1, 2, 3,… forms a family of increasingly restrictive colouring problems, the first of which is the standard 3-colourability problem. Each of these problems is shown to be NP-complete by constructing a polynomial transformation from 3-satisfiability to (2r+1, r)-colourability, valid for each value of r.     

A characterisation of rigid circuit graphs

Let G_n be a graph of n vertices, having chromatic number r which contains no complete graph of r vertices. Then G_n contains a vertex of degree not exceeding n(3r?7)/(3r?4). The result is essentially best possible.     

Recognizing Intersection Graphs of Linear Uniform Hypergraphs

A hypergraph is linear if any two distinct hyperedges have at most one common vertex. The existence of a polynomial algorithm is shown for deciding whether a graph of minimum degree δ ≥ 19 is the intersection graph of a linear 3-uniform hypergraph. This result improves a corollary of the finite forbidden subgraph characterization proved for δ ≥ 69 by Naik et al. in [8]. Essentially the same methods yield a polynomial recognition algorithm for the intersection graph of a linear r-uniform hypergraph, r ≥ 3, provided the minimum edge-degree of the graphs is at least 2r ² ? 3r + 1. This improves on the cubic bound that follows from the corresponding finite characterization result in [8].     

Size of monochromatic components in local edge colorings

An edge coloring of a graph is a local r coloring if the edges incident to any vertex are colored with at most r distinct colors. We determine the size of the largest monochromatic component that must occur in any local r coloring of a complete graph or a complete bipartite graph.     

The graph Kre(4) does not exist

Suppose that a strongly regular graph Γ with parameters (v, k, λ, μ) has eigenvalues k, r, and s. If the graphs Γ and \(\bar \Gamma \) are connected, then the following inequalities, known as Krein’s conditions, hold: (i) (r + 1)(k + r + 2rs) ≤ (k + r)(s + 1)² and (ii) (s + 1)(k + s + 2rs) ≤ (k + s)(r + 1)². We say that Γ is a Krein graph if one of Krein’s conditions (i) and (ii) is an equality for this graph. A triangle-free Krein graph has parameters ((r ² + 3r)², r ³ + 3r ² + r, 0, r ² + r). We denote such a graph by Kre(r). It is known that, in the cases r = 1 and r = 2, the graphs Kre(r) exist and are unique; these are the Clebsch and Higman–Sims graphs, respectively. The latter was constructed in 1968 together with the Higman–Sims sporadic simple group. A.L. Gavrilyuk and A.A. Makhnev have proved that the graph Kre(3) does not exist. In this paper, it is proved that the graph Kre(4) (a strongly regular graph with parameters (784, 116, 0, 20)) does not exist either.     

A note on the complexity of finding regular subgraphs

Given a graph G and an integer r, does there exist a regular subgraph of G with degree r? In this note we establish NP-completeness for the r-regular subgraph problem for each r ? 3 and certain restrictions on G. In particular, the cubic subgraph problem is NP-complete even for the simple case where G is a bipartite planar graph with maximum degree 4.     

Conditional colorings of graphs

For an integer r>0, a conditional(k,r)-coloring of a graph G is a proper k-coloring of the vertices of G such that every vertex of degree at least r in G will be adjacent to vertices with at least r different colors. The smallest integer k for which a graph G has a conditional (k,r)-coloring is the rth order conditional chromatic number χ_r(G). In this paper, the behavior and bounds of conditional chromatic number of a graph G are investigated.     

Antipodal graphs of diameter three

Distance-regular graphs of diameter three are of three (almost distinct) kinds: primitive, bipartite, and antipodal. An antipodal graph of diameter three is just an r-fold covering of a complete graph K_k+1 for some r?k. Its intersection array and spectrum are determined by the parameters r, k together with the number c of 2-arcs joining any two vertices at distance two. Most such graphs have girth three. In this note we consider antipodal distance-regular graphs of diameter three and girth ? 4. If r=2, then the only graphs are “K_{k+1, k+1} minus a 1-factor.” We therefore assume r?3. The graphs with c=1 necessarily have r=k and were classified in lsqb3rsqb. We prove the inequality $\text{r?2>c}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$ (Theorem 2), list the feasible parameter sets when c=2 or 3 (Corollary 1), and conclude that every 3-fold or 4-fold antipodal covering of a complete graph has girth three (Corollary 2).     

Local search for the minimum label spanning tree problem with bounded color classes

In the Minimum Label Spanning Tree problem, the input consists of an edge-colored undirected graph, and the goal is to find a spanning tree with the minimum number of different colors. We investigate the special case where every color appears at most r times in the input graph. This special case is polynomially solvable for r=2, and NP- and APX-complete for any fixed r?3.We analyze local search algorithms that are allowed to switch up to k of the colors used in a feasible solution. We show that for k=2 any local optimum yields an (r+1)/2-approximation of the global optimum, and that this bound is tight. For every k?3, there exist instances for which some local optima are a factor of r/2 away from the global optimum.     

On bipartite zero-divisor graphs

A (finite or infinite) complete bipartite graph together with some end vertices all adjacent to a common vertex is called a complete bipartite graph with a horn. For any bipartite graph G, we show that G is the graph of a commutative semigroup with 0 if and only if it is one of the following graphs: star graph, two-star graph, complete bipartite graph, complete bipartite graph with a horn. We also prove that a zero-divisor graph is bipartite if and only if it contains no triangles. In addition, we give all corresponding zero-divisor semigroups of a class of complete bipartite graphs with a horn and determine which complete r-partite graphs with a horn have a corresponding semigroup for r≥3.     

Cubic graphs on twelve vertices and the line graph of a finite affine plane

It is shown by Rao and Rao that certain geometric properties characterize the line graph of a BIB design with parameters b, v, r, k, 1, provided r - 2k + 1 < 0. If r = k + 1, and $\text{k \#\&62; 2}$, a characterization of the line graph of a finite affine plane is obtained. If r - 2k + 1 = 0, the only possible value for k is 2 and consequently r = k + 1 resulting in the case of the line graph of a finite affine plane. It is shown here that if r = k + 1 and k = 2, there are exactly seven other non-isomorphic graphs with those properties which are not the line graph of a finite affine plane and these are the only cubic graphs on twelve vertices with no quadrilaterals.     

Clique-inserted-graphs and spectral dynamics of clique-inserting

Motivated by studying the spectra of truncated polyhedra, we consider the clique-inserted-graphs. For a regular graph G of degree r>0, the graph obtained by replacing every vertex of G with a complete graph of order r is called the clique-inserted-graph of G, denoted as C(G). We obtain a formula for the characteristic polynomial of C(G) in terms of the characteristic polynomial of G. Furthermore, we analyze the spectral dynamics of iterations of clique-inserting on a regular graph G. For any r-regular graph G with r>2, let S(G) denote the union of the eigenvalue sets of all iterated clique-inserted-graphs of G. We discover that the set of limit points of S(G) is a fractal with the maximum r and the minimum −2, and that the fractal is independent of the structure of the concerned regular graph G as long as the degree r of G is fixed. It follows that for any integer r>2 there exist infinitely many connected r-regular graphs (or, non-regular graphs with r as the maximum degree) with arbitrarily many distinct eigenvalues in an arbitrarily small interval around any given point in the fractal. We also present a formula on the number of spanning trees of any kth iterated clique-inserted-graph and other related results.     

Spanning trails containing given edges

A graph G is Eulerian-connected if for any u and v in V(G), G has a spanning (u,v)-trail. A graph G is edge-Eulerian-connected if for any e^′ and e^″ in E(G), G has a spanning (e^′,e^″)-trail. For an integer r?0, a graph is called r-Eulerian-connected if for any X⊆E(G) with |X|?r, and for any , G has a spanning (u,v)-trail T such that X⊆E(T). The r-edge-Eulerian-connectivity of a graph can be defined similarly. Let θ(r) be the minimum value of k such that every k-edge-connected graph is r-Eulerian-connected. Catlin proved that θ(0)=4. We shall show that θ(r)=4 for 0?r?2, and θ(r)=r+1 for r?3. Results on r-edge-Eulerian connectivity are also discussed.     

Two spectral characterizations of regular, bipartite graphs with five eigenvalues

Graphs with a few distinct eigenvalues usually possess an interesting combinatorial structure. We show that regular, bipartite graphs with at most six distinct eigenvalues have the property that each vertex belongs to the constant number of quadrangles. This enables to determine, from the spectrum alone, the feasible families of numbers of common neighbors for each vertex with other vertices in its part. For particular spectra, such as [6,2⁹,0⁶,-2⁹,-6] (where exponents denote eigenvalue multiplicities), there is a unique such family, which makes it possible to characterize all graphs with this spectrum.Using this lemma we also to show that, for r?2, a graph has spectrum if and only if it is a graph of a 1-resolvable transversal design TD(r,r), i.e., if it corresponds to the complete set of mutually orthogonal Latin squares of size r in a well-defined manner.     

Heterochromatic tree partition numbers for complete bipartite graphs

An r-edge-coloring of a graph G is a surjective assignment of r colors to the edges of G. A heterochromatic tree is an edge-colored tree in which any two edges have different colors. The heterochromatic tree partition number of an r-edge-colored graph G, denoted by t_r(G), is the minimum positive integer p such that whenever the edges of the graph G are colored with r colors, the vertices of G can be covered by at most p vertex-disjoint heterochromatic trees. In this paper we give an explicit formula for the heterochromatic tree partition number of an r-edge-colored complete bipartite graph K_m,n.     

Non-separating 2-factors of an even-regular graph

For a 2-factor F of a connected graph G, we consider G−F, which is the graph obtained from G by removing all the edges of F. If G−F is connected, F is said to be a non-separating 2-factor. In this paper we study a sufficient condition for a 2r-regular connected graph G to have such a 2-factor. As a result, we show that a 2r-regular connected graph G has a non-separating 2-factor whenever the number of vertices of G does not exceed 2r²+r.     

Edge-deletable IM-extendable graphs with minimum number of edges

A graph G is induced matching extendable, shortly IM-extendable, if every induced matching of G is included in a perfect matching of G. For a nonnegative integer k, a graph G is called a k-edge-deletable IM-extendable graph, if, for every F⊆E(G) with |F|=k, G−F is IM-extendable. In this paper, we characterize the k-edge-deletable IM-extendable graphs with minimum number of edges. We show that, for a positive integer k, if G is ak-edge-deletable IM-extendable graph on 2n vertices, then |E(G)|≥(k+2)n; furthermore, the equality holds if and only if either G≅K_k+2,k+2, or k=4r−2 for some integer r≥3 and G≅C₅[N_2r], where N_2r is the empty graph on 2r vertices and C₅[N_2r] is the graph obtained from C₅ by replacing each vertex with a graph isomorphic to N_2r.     

Constructions of bi-regular cages

Given three positive integers r,m and g, one interesting question is the following: What is the minimum number of vertices that a graph with prescribed degree set {r,m}, 2≤r<m, and girth g can have? Such a graph is called a bi-regular cage or an ({r,m};g)-cage, and its minimum order is denoted by n({r,m};g). In this paper we provide new upper bounds on n({r,m};g) for some related values of r and m. Moreover, if r−1 is a prime power, we construct the following bi-regular cages: ({r,k(r−1)};g)-cages for g∈{5,7,11} and k≥2 even; and ({r,kr};6)-cages for k≥2 any integer. The latter cages are of order n({r,kr};6)=2(kr²−kr+1). Then this result supports the conjecture that n({r,m};6)=2(rm−m+1) for any r<m, posed by Yuansheng and Liang [Y. Yuansheng, W. Liang, The minimum number of vertices with girth 6 and degree set D={r,m}, Discrete Math. 269 (2003) 249-258]. We finalize giving the exact value n({3,3k};8), for k≥2.