A characterization of robert's inequality for boxicity

F.S. Roberts defined the boxicity of a graph G as the smallest positive integer n for which there exists a function F assigning to each vertex x?G a sequence F(x)(1),F(x)(2),…, F(x)(n) of closed intervals of R so that distinct vertices x and y are adjacent in G if and only if F(x)(i)∩F(y)(i)≠? fori = 1, 2, 3, …, n. Roberts then proved that if G is a graph having 2n + 1 vertices, thentheboxicityofGisatmostn. In this paper, we provide an explicit characterization of this inequality by determining for each n ? 1 the minimum collection $\text{C}$_n of graphs so that a graph G having 2n + 1 vertices has boxicity n if and only if it contains a graph from $\text{C}$_n as an induced subgraph. We also discuss combinatorial connections with analogous characterization problems for rectangle graphs, circular arc graphs, and partially ordered sets.     

Neighbor Sum Distinguishing Index

We consider proper edge colorings of a graph G using colors of the set {1, . . . , k}. Such a coloring is called neighbor sum distinguishing if for any pair of adjacent vertices x and y the sum of colors taken on the edges incident to x is different from the sum of colors taken on the edges incident to y. The smallest value of k in such a coloring of G is denoted by ndi_Σ(G). In the paper we conjecture that for any connected graph G ≠ C ₅ of order n ≥ 3 we have ndi_Σ(G) ≤ Δ(G) + 2. We prove this conjecture for several classes of graphs. We also show that ndi_Σ(G) ≤ 7Δ(G)/2 for any graph G with Δ(G) ≥ 2 and ndi_Σ(G) ≤ 8 if G is cubic.     

Vertex pancyclicity and new sufficient conditions

For a graph G, ??(G) denotes the minimum degree of G. In 1971, Bondy proved that, if G is a 2-connected graph of order n and d(x)?+?d(y)????n for each pair of non-adjacent vertices x,y in G, then G is pancyclic or G?=?K _n/2,n/2. In 2001, Xu proved that, if G is a 2-connected graph of order n????6 and |N(x)????N(y)|?+???(G)????n for each pair of non-adjacent vertices x,y in G, then G is pancyclic or G?=?K _n/2,n/2. In this paper, we introduce a new sufficient condition of generalizing degree sum and neighborhood union and prove that, if G is a 2-connected graph of order n????6 and |N(x)????N(y)|?+?d(w)????n for any three vertices x,y,w of d(x,y)?=?2 and wx or $wy\not\in E(G)$ in G, then G is 4-vertex pancyclic or G belongs to two classes of well-structured exceptional graphs. This result also generalizes the above results.     

Graphs with small boundary

For a pair of vertices x and y in a graph G, we denote by d_G(x,y) the distance between x and y in G. We call x a boundary vertex of y if x and y belong to the same component and d_G(y,v)?d_G(y,x) for each neighbor v of x in G. A boundary vertex of some vertex is simply called a boundary vertex, and the set of boundary vertices in G is called the boundary of G, and is denoted by B(G).In this paper, we investigate graphs with a small boundary. Since a pair of farthest vertices are boundary vertices, |B(G)|?2 for every connected graph G of order at least two. We characterize the graphs with boundary of order at most three. We cannot give a characterization of graphs with exactly four boundary vertices, but we prove that such graphs have minimum degree at most six. Finally, we give an upper bound to the minimum degree of a connected graph G in terms of |B(G)|.     

Degree sum and nowhere-zero 3-flows

Let G be a simple graph on n vertices. In this paper, we prove that if G satisfies the condition that d(x)+d(y)≥n for each xy∈E(G), then G has no nowhere-zero 3-flow if and only if G is either one of the five graphs on at most 6 vertices or one of a very special class of graphs on at least 6 vertices.     

Diameter and connectivity of 3-arc graphs

An arc of a graph is an oriented edge and a 3-arc is a 4-tuple (v,u,x,y) of vertices such that both (v,u,x) and (u,x,y) are paths of length two. The 3-arc graph of a given graph G, X(G), is defined to have vertices the arcs of G. Two arcs uv,xy are adjacent in X(G) if and only if (v,u,x,y) is a 3-arc of G. This notion was introduced in recent studies of arc-transitive graphs. In this paper we study diameter and connectivity of 3-arc graphs. In particular, we obtain sharp bounds for the diameter and connectivity of X(G) in terms of the corresponding invariant of G.     

New Ore��s Type Results on Hamiltonicity and Existence of Paths of Given Length in Graphs

The well-known Ore??s theorem (see Ore in Am Math Mon 65:55, 1960), states that a graph G of order n such that d(x)?+?d(y)??? n for every pair {x, y} of non-adjacent vertices of G is Hamiltonian. In this paper, we considerably improve this theorem by proving that in a graph G of order n and of minimum degree ????? 2, if there exist at least n ? ?? vertices x of G so that the number of the vertices y of G non-adjacent to x and satisfying d(x)?+?d(y)??? n ? 1 is at most ?? ? 1, then G is Hamiltonian. We will see that there are graphs which violate the condition of the so called ??Extended Ore??s theorem?? (see Faudree et?al. in Discrete Math 307:873?C877, 2007) as well as the condition of Chvatál??s theorem (see Chvátal in J Combin Theory Ser B 12:163?C168, 1972) and the condition of the so called ??Extended Fan?? theorem?? (see Faudree et?al. in Discrete Math 307:873?C877, 2007), but satisfy the condition of our result, which then, only allows to conclude that such graphs are Hamiltonian. This will show the pertinence of our result. We give also a new result of the same type, ensuring the existence of a path of given length.     

Maximum hitting time for random walks on graphs

For x and y vertices of a connected graph G, let T_G(x, y) denote the expected time before a random walk starting from x reaches y. We determine, for each n > 0, the n-vertex graph G and vertices x and y for which T_G(x, y) is maximized. the extremal graph consists of a clique on ?(2n + 1)/3?) (or ?)(2_n ? 2)/3?) vertices, including x, to which a path on the remaining vertices, ending in y, has been attached; the expected time T_G(x, y) to reach y from x in this graph is approximately 4_n³/27.     

Hamiltonicity of 3-Arc Graphs

An arc of a graph is an oriented edge and a 3-arc is a 4-tuple (v, u, x, y) of vertices such that both (v, u, x) and (u, x, y) are paths of length two. The 3-arc graph of a graph G is defined to have vertices the arcs of G such that two arcs uv, xy are adjacent if and only if (v, u, x, y) is a 3-arc of G. We prove that any connected 3-arc graph is hamiltonian, and all iterative 3-arc graphs of any connected graph of minimum degree at least three are hamiltonian. As a corollary we obtain that any vertex-transitive graph which is isomorphic to the 3-arc graph of a connected arc-transitive graph of degree at least three must be hamiltonian. This confirms the conjecture, for this family of vertex-transitive graphs, that all vertex-transitive graphs with finitely many exceptions are hamiltonian. We also prove that if a graph with at least four vertices is Hamilton-connected, then so are its iterative 3-arc graphs.     

Cycle Lengths in Hamiltonian Graphs with a Pair of Vertices Having Large Degree Sum

A graph of order n is said to be pancyclic if it contains cycles of all lengths from three to n. Let G be a Hamiltonian graph and let x and y be vertices of G that are consecutive on some Hamiltonian cycle in G. Hakimi and Schmeichel showed (J Combin Theory Ser B 45:99–107, 1988) that if d(x) + d(y) ≥ n then either G is pancyclic, G has cycles of all lengths except n − 1 or G is isomorphic to a complete bipartite graph. In this paper, we study the existence of cycles of various lengths in a Hamiltonian graph G given the existence of a pair of vertices that have a high degree sum but are not adjacent on any Hamiltonian cycle in G.     

An improvement of fraisse's sufficient condition for hamiltonian graphs

Let G be a k-connected graph of order n. For an independent set c, let d(S) be the number of vertices adjacent to at least one vertex of S and > let i(S) be the number of vertices adjacent to at least |S| vertices of S. We prove that if there exists some s, 1 ≤ s ≤ k, such that Σ_xiEX d(X\{X_i}) > s(n?1) – k[s/2] – i(X)[(s?1)/2] holds for every independetn set X ={x₀, x₁ ?x_s} of s + 1 vertices, then G is hamiltonian. Several known results, including Fraisse's sufficient condition for hamiltonian graphs, are dervied as corollaries.     

On the remoteness function in median graphs

A profile on a graph G is any nonempty multiset whose elements are vertices from G. The corresponding remoteness function associates to each vertex x∈V(G) the sum of distances from x to the vertices in the profile. Starting from some nice and useful properties of the remoteness function in hypercubes, the remoteness function is studied in arbitrary median graphs with respect to their isometric embeddings in hypercubes. In particular, a relation between the vertices in a median graph G whose remoteness function is maximum (antimedian set of G) with the antimedian set of the host hypercube is found. While for odd profiles the antimedian set is an independent set that lies in the strict boundary of a median graph, there exist median graphs in which special even profiles yield a constant remoteness function. We characterize such median graphs in two ways: as the graphs whose periphery transversal number is 2, and as the graphs with the geodetic number equal to 2. Finally, we present an algorithm that, given a graph G on n vertices and m edges, decides in O(mlogn) time whether G is a median graph with geodetic number 2.     

Characterization of projective graphs

We denote the distance between vertices x and y of a graph by d(x, y), and p_ij(x, y) = ∥ {z : d(x, z) = i, d(y, z) = j} ∥. The (s, q, d)-projective graph is the graph having the s-dimensional subspaces of a d-dimensional vector space over GF(q) as vertex set, and two vertices x, y adjacent iff $\text{dim}\text{(x ? y) = s ? 1}$. These graphs are regular graphs. Also, there exist integers λ and μ > 4 so that μ is a perfect square, p₁₁(x, y) = λ whenever d(x, y) = 1, and p₁₁(x, y) = μ whenever d(x, y) = 2. The (s, q, d)-projective graphs where $\text{2d}\text{3}\text{≤ s < d ? 2}$ and $\text{(s, q, d) ≠ (}\text{2d}\text{3}\text{, 2, d)}$, are characterized by the above conditions together with the property that there exists an integer r satisfying certain inequalities.     

Disjoint cliques in claw-free graphs

A graph is said to be claw-free if it does not contain an induced subgraph isomorphic to K_1,3. Let s and k be two integers with 0 ≤ s ≤ k and let G be a claw-free graph of order n. In this paper, we investigate clique partition problems in claw-free graphs. It is proved that if n ≥ 3s+4(k?s) and d(x)+d(y) ≥ n?2s+2k+1 for any pair of non-adjacent vertices x, y of G, then G contains s disjoint K₃s and k ? s disjoint K₄s such that all of them are disjoint. Moreover, the degree condition is sharp in some cases.     

Planar zero divisor graphs of partially ordered sets

We associate a graph G ^?(P) to a partially ordered set (poset, briefly) with the least element?0, as an undirected graph with vertex set P ^?=P?{0} and, for two distinct vertices x and y, x is adjacent to?y in?G ^?(P) if and only if {x,y} ^? ={0}, where, for a subset?S of?P, S ^? is the set of all elements x∈P with x≦s for all s∈S. We study some basic properties of?G ^?(P). Also, we completely investigate the planarity of?G ^?(P).     

A class of antimagic join graphs

A labeling f of a graph G is a bijection from its edge set E(G) to the set {1, 2, . . . , |E(G)|}, which is antimagic if for any distinct vertices x and y, the sum of the labels on edges incident to x is different from the sum of the labels on edges incident to y. A graph G is antimagic if G has an f which is antimagic. Hartsfield and Ringel conjectured in 1990 that every connected graph other than K 2 is antimagic. In this paper, we show that if G 1 is an n-vertex graph with minimum degree at least r, and G 2 is an m-vertex graph with maximum degree at most 2r-1 (m ≥ n), then G1 ∨ G2 is antimagic.     

Competitively Tight Graphs

The competition graph of a digraph D is a (simple undirected) graph which has the same vertex set as D and has an edge between two distinct vertices x and y if and only if there exists a vertex v in D such that (x, v) and (y, v) are arcs of D. For any graph G, G together with sufficiently many isolated vertices is the competition graph of some acyclic digraph. The competition number k(G) of a graph G is the smallest number of such isolated vertices. Computing the competition number of a graph is an NP-hard problem in general and has been one of the important research problems in the study of competition graphs. Opsut [1982] showed that the competition number of a graph G is related to the edge clique cover number θ _E (G) of the graph G via θ _E (G) ? |V(G)| + 2 ≤ k(G) ≤ θ _E (G). We first show that for any positive integer m satisfying 2 ≤ m ≤ |V(G)|, there exists a graph G with k(G) = θ _E (G) ? |V(G)| + m and characterize a graph G satisfying k(G) = θ _E (G). We then focus on what we call competitively tight graphs G which satisfy the lower bound, i.e., k(G) = θ _E (G) ? |V(G)| + 2. We completely characterize the competitively tight graphs having at most two triangles. In addition, we provide a new upper bound for the competition number of a graph from which we derive a sufficient condition and a necessary condition for a graph to be competitively tight.     

Total weight choosability of graphs

A graph G = (V, E) is called (k, k′)‐total weight choosable if the following holds: For any total list assignment L which assigns to each vertex x a set L(x) of k real numbers, and assigns to each edge e a set L(e) of k′ real numbers, there is a mapping f: V∪E→? such that f(y)∈L(y) for any y∈V∪Eand for any two adjacent vertices x, x′, . We conjecture that every graph is (2, 2)‐total weight choosable and every graph without isolated edges is (1, 3)‐total weight choosable. It follows from results in [7] that complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs, trees other than K₂ are (1, 3)‐total weight choosable. Also a graph G obtained from an arbitrary graph H by subdividing each edge with at least three vertices is (1, 3)‐total weight choosable. This article proves that complete graphs, trees, generalized theta graphs are (2, 2)‐total weight choosable. We also prove that for any graph H, a graph G obtained from H by subdividing each edge with at least two vertices is (2, 2)‐total weight choosable as well as (1, 3)‐total weight choosable. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66:198‐212, 2011     

Subpancyclicity of line graphs and degree sums along paths

A graph is called subpancyclic if it contains a cycle of length ? for each ? between 3 and the circumference of the graph. We show that if G is a connected graph on n?146 vertices such that d(u)+d(v)+d(x)+d(y)>(n+10/2) for all four vertices u,v,x,y of any path P=uvxy in G, then the line graph L(G) is subpancyclic, unless G is isomorphic to an exceptional graph. Moreover, we show that this result is best possible, even under the assumption that L(G) is hamiltonian. This improves earlier sufficient conditions by a multiplicative factor rather than an additive constant.     

Some results on the spectral radii of bicyclic graphs

A bicyclic graph is a connected graph in which the number of edges equals the number of vertices plus one. Let Δ(G) and ρ(G) denote the maximum degree and the spectral radius of a graph G, respectively. Let B(n) be the set of bicyclic graphs on n vertices, and B(n,Δ)={G∈B(n)∣Δ(G)=Δ}. When Δ≥(n+3)/2 we characterize the graph which alone maximizes the spectral radius among all the graphs in B(n,Δ). It is also proved that for two graphs G₁ and G₂ in B(n), if Δ(G₁)>Δ(G₂) and Δ(G₁)≥⌈7n/9⌉+9, then ρ(G₁)>ρ(G₂).