Deletion and contraction identities for the resistance values and the Kirchhoff index

We establish identities, which we call deletion and contraction identities, for the resistance values on an electrical network. As an application of these identities, we give an upper bound to the Kirchhoff index of a molecular graph. Our upper bound, expressed in terms of the set of vertices and the edge connectivity of the graph, improves previously known upper bounds. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010     

Families of Metrized Graphs with Small Tau Constants

Baker and Rumely’s tau lower bound conjecture claims that if the tau constant of a metrized graph is divided by its total length, this ratio must be bounded below by a positive constant for all metrized graphs. We construct several families of metrized graphs having small tau constants. In addition to numerical computations, we prove that the tau constants of the metrized graphs in one of these families, the hexagonal nets around a torus, asymptotically approach to \({\frac{1}{108}}\) which is our conjectural lower bound.     

Zhang’s Conjecture and the Effective Bogomolov Conjecture over function fields

We prove the Effective Bogomolov Conjecture, and so the Bogomolov Conjecture, over a function field of characteristic 0 by proving Zhang’s Conjecture about certain invariants of metrized graphs. In the function field case, these conjectures were previously known to be true only for curves of good reduction, for curves of genus at most 4 and a few other special cases. We also either verify or improve the previous results. We relate the invariants involved in Zhang’s Conjecture to the tau constant of metrized graphs. Then we use and extend our previous results on the tau constant. By proving another Conjecture of Zhang, we obtain a new proof of the slope inequality for Faltings heights on moduli space of curves.     

Reversibility of 1D Cellular Automata with Periodic Boundary over Finite Fields $\pmb{ {\mathbb{Z}}}_{p}$

The reversibility problem for linear cellular automata with null boundary defined by a rule matrix in the form of a pentadiagonal matrix was studied recently over the binary field ℤ₂ (del Rey and Rodriguez Sánchez in Appl. Math. Comput., 2011, doi:). In this paper, we study one-dimensional linear cellular automata with periodic boundary conditions over any finite field ℤ _p . For any given p≥2, we show that the reversibility problem can be reduced to solving a recurrence relation depending on the number of cells and the coefficients of the local rules defining the one-dimensional linear cellular automata. More specifically, for any given values (from any fixed field ℤ _p ) of the coefficients of the local rules, we outline a computer algorithm determining the recurrence relation which can be solved by testing reversibility of the cellular automaton for some finite number of cells. As an example, we give the full criteria for the reversibility of the one-dimensional linear cellular automata over the fields ℤ₂ and ℤ₃.     

Generalized Foster's identities

Foster's network theorems and their extensions to higher orders involve resistance values and conductances. We establish identities concerning voltage values and conductances. Our identities are analogous to the extended Foster's identities. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011