Signed degree sets in signed graphs

The set D of distinct signed degrees of the vertices in a signed graph G is called its signed degree set. In this paper, we prove that every non-empty set of positive (negative) integers is the signed degree set of some connected signed graph and determine the smallest possible order for such a signed graph. We also prove that every non-empty set of integers is the signed degree set of some connected signed graph.     

On Extracting Maximum Stable Sets in Perfect Graphs Using Lovász's Theta Function

We study the maximum stable set problem. For a given graph, we establish several transformations among feasible solutions of different formulations of Lovász's theta function. We propose reductions from feasible solutions corresponding to a graph to those corresponding to its induced subgraphs. We develop an efficient, polynomial-time algorithm to extract a maximum stable set in a perfect graph using the theta function. Our algorithm iteratively transforms an approximate solution of the semidefinite formulation of the theta function into an approximate solution of another formulation, which is then used to identify a vertex that belongs to a maximum stable set. The subgraph induced by that vertex and its neighbors is removed and the same procedure is repeated on successively smaller graphs. We establish that solving the theta problem up to an adaptively chosen, fairly rough accuracy suffices in order for the algorithm to work properly. Furthermore, our algorithm successfully employs a warm-start strategy to recompute the theta function on smaller subgraphs. Computational results demonstrate that our algorithm can efficiently extract maximum stable sets in comparable time it takes to solve the theta problem on the original graph to optimality. This work was supported in part by NSF through CAREER Grant DMI-0237415. Part of this work was performed while the first author was at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statisticsat Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.     

Electrospray deposition in vacuum

We have used the established technique of electrospray in developing a portable vacuum electrospray system which can deposit, in vacuo, dissolved molecules onto a sample which may then be analysed by UHV techniques. As an initial test of the system we have analysed silicon samples with an electrosprayed layer of poly(ethylene) oxide (PEO) using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The polymer forms different structures depending on the voltage applied to the emitter, and solution composition. The system is part of our ongoing effort to deposit other materials such as nanoparticles, and large dye molecules for developing molecular dye sensitised solar cells.     

Angular momenta and eigenvectors of the weakly coupled T ⊗ t Jahn‐Teller system

The eigenvalues of the weakly coupled T ? t Jahn‐Teller problem are known for several decades, and the same holds also true for the eigenstates. These, however, are only given in the traditional position representation, which proves inconvenient if one attempts to extend the weak‐coupling treatment into the region of stronger coupling. Here the solution of the T ? t eigenvalue problem at weak coupling is derived in terms of creation and annihilation operators. This reformulation of the problem is nontrivial, since the algebraic form of the oscillator eigenvectors, being simultaneous angular‐momentum eigenstates, has been worked out only recently and is probably still widely unknown. The electronic and oscillator eigenstates are then coupled to form eigenvectors of the total angular momentum. Finally, in preparation for an extension of the weak‐coupling treatment, the action of the boson creation and annihilation operators on the oscillator eigenvectors is calculated, thus completing the algebraic approach to the weakly coupled T ? t system.     

Graphs with Special Arcs and Cryptography

A combinatorial method of encryption with a similarity to the classical scheme of linear coding has been suggested by the author. The general idea is to treat vertices of a graph as messages and arcs of a certain length as encryption tools. We will study the quality of such an encryption in the case of graphs of high girth by comparing the probability to guess the message, (vertex) at random with the probability of breaking the key, i.e. guessing the encoding arc. In fact, the quality is good for graphs which are close to the Erdös bound, defined by the Even Cycle Theorem.In the case of parallelotopic graphs, there is a uniform way to match arcs with strings in a certain alphabet. Among parallelotopic graphs we distinguish linguistic graphs of affine type whose vertices (messages) and arcs (encoding tools) both could be naturally identified with vectors over the GF(q), and neighbors of the vertex defined by a system of linear equations. We will discuss families of linguistic and parallelotopic graphs of increasing girth as the source for assymmetric cryptographic functions and related open key algorithms.Several constructions of families of linguistic graphs of high girth with good quality, complexity and expansion coefficients will be considered. Some of those constructions have been obtained via group-theoretical and geometrical techniques.     

Using graphs for some discrete tomography problems

Given a rectangular array whose entries represent the pixels of a digitalized image, we consider the problem of reconstructing an image from the number of occurrences of each color in every column and in every row. The complexity of this problem is still open when there are just three colors in the image. We study some special cases where the number of occurrences of each color is limited to small values. Formulations in terms of edge coloring in graphs and as timetabling problems are used; complexity results are derived from the model.     

On disjoint configurations in infinite graphs

For a graph A and a positive integer n, let nA denote the union of n disjoint copies of A; similarly, the union of ?₀ disjoint copies of A is referred to as ?₀A. It is shown that there exist (connected) graphs A and G such that nA is a minor of G for all n??, but ?₀A is not a minor of G. This supplements previous examples showing that analogous statements are true if, instead of minors, isomorphic embeddings or topological minors are considered. The construction of A and G is based on the fact that there exist (infinite) graphs G₁, G₂,… such that G_i is not a minor of G_j for all i ≠ j. In contrast to previous examples concerning isomorphic embeddings and topological minors, the graphs A and G presented here are not locally finite. The following conjecture is suggested: for each locally finite connected graph A and each graph G, if nA is a minor of G for all n ? ?, then ?₀A is a minor of G, too. If true, this would be a far‐reaching generalization of a classical result of R. Halin on families of disjoint one‐way infinite paths in graphs. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 39: 222–229, 2002; DOI 10.1002/jgt.10016