Geometric aspects of 2-walk-regular graphs

A t-walk-regular graph is a graph for which the number of walks of given length between two vertices depends only on the distance between these two vertices, as long as this distance is at most t. Such graphs generalize distance-regular graphs and t-arc-transitive graphs. In this paper, we will focus on 1- and in particular 2-walk-regular graphs, and study analogues of certain results that are important for distance-regular graphs. We will generalize Delsarte?s clique bound to 1-walk-regular graphs, Godsil?s multiplicity bound and Terwilliger?s analysis of the local structure to 2-walk-regular graphs. We will show that 2-walk-regular graphs have a much richer combinatorial structure than 1-walk-regular graphs, for example by proving that there are finitely many non-geometric 2-walk-regular graphs with given smallest eigenvalue and given diameter (a geometric graph is the point graph of a special partial linear space); a result that is analogous to a result on distance-regular graphs. Such a result does not hold for 1-walk-regular graphs, as our construction methods will show.     

Vertex Cuts

Given a connected graph, in many cases it is possible to construct a structure tree that provides information about the ends of the graph or its connectivity. For example Stallings' theorem on the structure of groups with more than one end can be proved by analyzing the action of the group on a structure tree and Tutte used a structure tree to investigate finite 2‐connected graphs, that are not 3‐connected. Most of these structure tree theories have been based on edge cuts, which are components of the graph obtained by removing finitely many edges. A new axiomatic theory is described here using vertex cuts, components of the graph obtained by removing finitely many vertices. This generalizes Tutte's decomposition of 2‐connected graphs to k‐connected graphs for any k, in finite and infinite graphs. The theory can be applied to nonlocally finite graphs with more than one vertex end, i.e. ends that can be separated by removing a finite number of vertices. This gives a decomposition for a group acting on such a graph, generalizing Stallings' theorem. Further applications include the classification of distance transitive graphs and k‐CS‐transitive graphs.     

Tree-Like Structure Graphs with Full Diversity of Balls

Under study is the diversity of metric balls in connected finite ordinary graphs considered as a metric space with the usual shortest-path metric. We investigate the structure of graphs in which all balls of fixed radius i are distinct for each i less than the diameter of the graph. Let us refer to such graphs as graphs with full diversity of balls. For these graphs, we establish some properties connected with the existence of bottlenecks and find out the configuration of blocks in the graph. Using the obtained properties, we describe the tree-like structure graphs with full diversity of balls.     

Vertex-transitive graphs and vertex-transitive maps

We consider vertex-transitive graphs embeddable on a fixed surface. We prove that all but a finite number of them admit embeddings as vertex-transitive maps on surfaces of nonnegative Euler characteristic (sphere, projective plane, torus, or Klein bottle). It follows that with the exception of the cycles and a finite number of additional graphs, they are factor graphs of semiregular plane tilings. The results generalize previous work on the genus of minimal Cayley graphs by V. Proulx and T. W. Tucker and were obtained independently by C. Thomassen, with significant differences in the methods used. Our method is based on an excursion into the infinite. The local structure of our finite graphs is studied via a pointwise limit construction, and the infinite vertex-transitive graphs obtained as such limits are classified by their connectivity and the number of ends. In two appendices, we derive a combinatorial version of Hurwitz's Theorem, and classify the vertex-transitive maps on the Klein bottle.     

Polarity of chordal graphs

Polar graphs are a common generalization of bipartite, cobipartite, and split graphs. They are defined by the existence of a certain partition of vertices, which is NP-complete to decide for general graphs. It has been recently proved that for cographs, the existence of such a partition can be characterized by finitely many forbidden subgraphs, and hence tested in polynomial time. In this paper we address the question of polarity of chordal graphs, arguing that this is in essence a question of colourability, and hence chordal graphs are a natural restriction. We observe that there is no finite forbidden subgraph characterization of polarity in chordal graphs; nevertheless we present a polynomial time algorithm for polarity of chordal graphs. We focus on a special case of polarity (called monopolarity) which turns out to be the central concept for our algorithms. For the case of monopolar graphs, we illustrate the structure of all minimal obstructions; it turns out that they can all be described by a certain graph grammar, permitting our monopolarity algorithm to be cast as a certifying algorithm.     

A note on a Brooks' type theorem for DP-coloring

Dvořák and Postle introduced DP-coloring of simple graphs as a generalization of list-coloring. They proved a Brooks' type theorem for DP-coloring; and Bernshteyn, Kostochka, and Pron extended it to DP-coloring of multigraphs. However, detailed structure, when a multigraph does not admit DP-coloring, was not specified. In this note, we make this point clear and give the complete structure. This is also motivated by the relation to signed coloring of signed graphs.     

Almost self-centered graphs

The center of a graph is the set of vertices with minimum eccentricity. Graphs in which all vertices are central are called self-centered graphs. In this paper almost self-centered (ASC) graphs are introduced as the graphs with exactly two non-central vertices. The block structure of these graphs is described and constructions for generating such graphs are proposed. Embeddings of arbitrary graphs into ASC graphs are studied. In particular it is shown that any graph can be embedded into an ASC graph of prescribed radius. Embeddings into ASC graphs of radius two are studied in more detail. ASC index of a graph G is introduced as the smallest number of vertices needed to add to G such that G is an induced subgraph of an ASC graph.     

Unitary graphs and classification of a family of symmetric graphs with complete quotients

A finite graph Γ is called G-symmetric if G is a group of automorphisms of Γ which is transitive on the set of ordered pairs of adjacent vertices of Γ. We study a family of symmetric graphs, called the unitary graphs, whose vertices are flags of the Hermitian unital and whose adjacency relations are determined by certain elements of the underlying finite fields. Such graphs admit the unitary groups as groups of automorphisms, and play a significant role in the classification of a family of symmetric graphs with complete quotients such that an associated incidence structure is a doubly point-transitive linear space. We give this classification in the paper and also investigate combinatorial properties of the unitary graphs.     

On cubical graphs

It is frequently of interest to represent a given graph G as a subgraph of a graph H which has some special structure. A particularly useful class of graphs in which to embed G is the class of n-dimensional cubes. This has found applications, for example, in coding theory, data transmission, and linguistics. In this note, we study the structure of those graphs G, called cubical graphs (not to be confused with cubic graphs, those graphs for which all vertices have degree 3), which can be embedded into an n-dimensional cube. A basic technique used is the investigation of graphs which are critically nonembeddable, i.e., which can not be embedded but all of whose subgraphs can be embedded.     

Generating unlabeled connected cubic planar graphs uniformly at random

We present an expected polynomial time algorithm to generate an unlabeled connected cubic planar graph uniformly at random. We first consider rooted connected cubic planar graphs, i.e., we count connected cubic planar graphs up to isomorphisms that fix a certain directed edge. Based on decompositions along the connectivity structure, we derive recurrence formulas for the exact number of rooted cubic planar graphs. This leads to rooted 3‐connected cubic planar graphs, which have a unique embedding on the sphere. Special care has to be taken for rooted graphs that have a sense‐reversing automorphism. Therefore we introduce the concept of colored networks, which stand in bijective correspondence to rooted 3‐connected cubic planar graphs with given symmetries. Colored networks can again be decomposed along the connectivity structure. For rooted 3‐connected cubic planar graphs embedded in the plane, we switch to the dual and count rooted triangulations. Since all these numbers can be evaluated in polynomial time using dynamic programming, rooted connected cubic planar graphs can be generated uniformly at random in polynomial time by inverting the decomposition along the connectivity structure. To generate connected cubic planar graphs without a root uniformly at random, we apply rejection sampling and obtain an expected polynomial time algorithm. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2008     

The Number of Spanning Trees in Self-Similar Graphs

The number of spanning trees of a graph, also known as the complexity, is computed for graphs constructed by a replacement procedure yielding a self-similar structure. It is shown that under certain symmetry conditions exact formulas for the complexity can be given. These formulas indicate interesting connections to the theory of electrical networks. Examples include the well-known Sierpiński graphs and their higher-dimensional analogues. Several auxiliary results are provided on the way—for instance, a property of the number of rooted spanning forests is proven for graphs with a high degree of symmetry.     

Growth of Self‐Similar Graphs

Locally finite self‐similar graphs with bounded geometry and without bounded geometry as well as non‐locally finite self‐similar graphs are characterized by the structure of their cell graphs. Geometric properties concerning the volume growth and distances in cell graphs are discussed. The length scaling factor ν and the volume scaling factor μ can be defined similarly to the corresponding parameters of continuous self‐similar sets. There are different notions of growth dimensions of graphs. For a rather general class of self‐similar graphs, it is proved that all these dimensions coincide and that they can be calculated in the same way as the Hausdorff dimension of continuous self‐similar fractals: . © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 45: 224–239, 2004     

On some properties of o-degeneracy graphs

Degenerate optima in linear programming problems lead in a canonical way to so-called o-degeneracy graphs as subgraphs of degeneracy graphs induced by the set of optimal bases. Fundamental questions about the structure of o-degeneracy graphs suggest the closer inspection of some properties of these graphs, such as, for example, the connectivity and the complexity. Finally, some open questions are pointed out.     

On a Problem of Cameron’s on Inexhaustible Graphs

A graph G is inexhaustible if whenever a vertex of G is deleted the remaining graph is isomorphic to G. We address a question of Cameron [6], who asked which countable graphs are inexhaustible. In particular, we prove that there are continuum many countable inexhaustible graphs with properties in common with the infinite random graph, including adjacency properties and universality. Locally finite inexhaustible graphs and forests are investigated, as is a semigroup structure on the class of inexhaustible graphs. We extend a result of [7] on homogeneous inexhaustible graphs to pseudo-homogeneous inexhaustible graphs.The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).     

Triangle-free graphs and forbidden subgraphs

The relation of chromatic aspects and the existence of certain induced subgraphs of a triangle-free graph will be investigated. Based on a characterization statement of Pach, some results on the chromatic number of triangle-free graphs with certain forbidden induced subgraphs will be refined by describing their structure in terms of homomorphisms. In particular, we introduce chordal triangle-free graphs as a natural superclass of chordal bipartite graphs and describe the structure of the maximal triangle-free members. Finally, we improve on the upper bound for the chromatic number of triangle-free sK₂-free graphs by 1 for s2 giving the tight bound for s=3.     

Generalized de Bruijn graphs

Oriented graphs in which every pair of vertices can be connected by a unique path of given length (not depending on the choice of the pair of vertices) are studied. These graphs are a natural extension of the well-known de Bruijn graphs and retain their most important properties. Some results on the structure of and methods for constructing such graphs are obtained. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 62, No. 4, pp. 540–548, October, 1997. Translated by O. V. Sipacheva     

Convex drawings of hierarchical planar graphs and clustered planar graphs

In this paper, we present results on convex drawings of hierarchical graphs and clustered graphs. A convex drawing is a planar straight-line drawing of a plane graph, where every facial cycle is drawn as a convex polygon. Hierarchical graphs and clustered graphs are useful graph models with structured relational information. Hierarchical graphs are graphs with layering structures; clustered graphs are graphs with recursive clustering structures.We first present the necessary and sufficient conditions for a hierarchical plane graph to admit a convex drawing. More specifically, we show that the necessary and sufficient conditions for a biconnected plane graph due to Thomassen [C. Thomassen, Plane representations of graphs, in: J.A. Bondy, U.S.R. Murty (Eds.), Progress in Graph Theory, Academic Press, 1984, pp. 43–69] remains valid for the case of a hierarchical plane graph. We then prove that every internally triconnected clustered plane graph with a completely connected clustering structure admits a “fully convex drawing,” a planar straight-line drawing such that both clusters and facial cycles are drawn as convex polygons. We also present algorithms to construct such convex drawings of hierarchical graphs and clustered graphs.     

Context-free pairs of groups II - Cuts, tree sets, and random walks

This is a continuation of the study, begun by Ceccherini-Silberstein and Woess (2009) [5], of context-free pairs of groups and the related context-free graphs in the sense of Muller and Schupp (1985) [22]. The graphs under consideration are Schreier graphs of a subgroup of some finitely generated group, and context-freeness relates to a tree-like structure of those graphs. Instead of the cones of Muller and Schupp (1985) [22] (connected components resulting from deletion of finite balls with respect to the graph metric), a more general approach to context-free graphs is proposed via tree sets consisting of cuts of the graph, and associated structure trees. The existence of tree sets with certain "good" properties is studied. With a tree set, a natural context-free grammar is associated. These investigations of the structure of context free pairs, resp. graphs are then applied to study random walk asymptotics via complex analysis. In particular, a complete proof of the local limit theorem for return probabilities on any virtually free group is given, as well as on Schreier graphs of a finitely generated subgoup of a free group. This extends, respectively completes, the significant work of Lalley (1993, 2001) [18,20].