Bounding the diameter of a distance-transitive graph

A graph Γ is distance-transitive if for all vertices u, v, x, y such that d(u, v) = d(x, y) there is an automorphism h of Γ such that uh = x, vh = y. We show how to find a bound for the diameter of a bipartite distance-transitive graph given a bound for the order |G_α| of the stabilizer of a vertex.     

Bounding the distance among longest paths in a connected graph

It is easy to see that in a connected graph any $2$ longest paths have a vertex in common. For $k\ge 7$, Skupień in 1966 obtained a connected graph in which some $k$ longest paths have no common vertex, but every $k?1$ longest paths have a common vertex. It is not known whether every $3$ longest paths in a connected graph have a common vertex and similarly for 4, 5, and $6$ longest path. Fujita et al. in 2015 give an upper bound on distance among $3$ longest paths in a connected graph. In this paper we give a similar upper bound on distance between $4$ longest paths and also for $k$ longest paths, in general.     

On the distance function of a connected graph

An axiomatic characterization of the distance function of a connected graph is given in this note. The triangle inequality is not contained in this characterization.     

Bounding the number of circuits of a graph

Letc(G) denote the number of circuits of a graphG. In this paper, we characterize those minor-closed classesG of graphs for which there is a polynomial functionp(.) such thatc(G)p(|E(G)|) for all graphsG inG.     

On the dimension to represent a graph by a unit distance graph

It is proved that if a graphG has maximum degreed, then its vertices can be represented by distinct unit vectors inR ^2d so that two vectors are orthogonal if and only if the corresponding vertices are adjacent. As a corollary it follows that if a graph has maximum degreed, then it is isomorphic to a unit distance graph inR ^2d.     

Bounding the diameter of distance-regular graphs

LetG be a connected distance-regular graph with valencyk>2 and diameterd, but not a complete multipartite graph. Suppose that is an eigenvalue ofG with multiplicitym and that±k. We prove that bothd andk are bounded by functions ofm. This implies that, ifm>1 is given, there are only finitely many connected, co-connected distance-regular graphs with an eigenvalue of multiplicitym.This work was supported by NSERC grant A5367.     

Circumference of a regular graph

It is proved that a 4-connected, δ-regular graph G either is Hamiltonian, or has at least 3δ + 1 vertices and contains a cycle of length at least min{4δ - 4, 1/2 (|G| + 3δ - 2)}. Examples supplied by B. Jackson and H.A. Jung show that min{4δ - 4, 1/2(|G| + 3δ - 2)} cannot be replaced by 4δ + 1.     

Bounding the mim-width of hereditary graph classes

A large number of $\mathsf{NP}$-hard graph problems are solvable in $\mathsf{XP}$ time when parameterized by some width parameter. Hence, when solving problems on special graph classes, it is helpful to know if the graph class under consideration has bounded width. In this paper we consider maximum-induced matching width (mim-width), a particularly general width parameter that has a number of algorithmic applications whenever a decomposition is “quickly computable” for the graph class under consideration. We start by extending the toolkit for proving (un)boundedness of mim-width of graph classes. By combining our new techniques with known ones we then initiate a systematic study into bounding mim-width from the perspective of hereditary graph classes, and make a comparison with clique-width, a more restrictive width parameter that has been well studied. We prove that for a given graph $H$, the class of $H$-free graphs has bounded mim-width if and only if it has bounded clique-width. We show that the same is not true for $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs. We identify several general classes of $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs having unbounded clique-width, but bounded mim-width; moreover, we show that a branch decomposition of constant mim-width can be found in polynomial time for these classes. Hence, these results have algorithmic implications: when the input is restricted to such a class of $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs, many problems become polynomial-time solvable, including classical problems, such as $k$- Colouring and Independent Set , domination-type problems known as Locally Checkable Vertex Subset and Vertex Partitioning (LC-VSVP) problems, and distance versions of LC-VSVP problems, to name just a few. We also prove a number of new results showing that, for certain $H_1$ and $H_2$, the class of $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs has unbounded mim-width. Boundedness of clique-width implies boundedness of mim-width. By combining our results with the known bounded cases for clique-width, we present summary theorems of the current state of the art for the boundedness of mim-width for $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs. In particular, we classify the mim-width of $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs for all pairs $(H_1,H_2)$ with $\mid V(H_1)\mid +\mid V(H_2)\mid \le 8$. When $H_1$ and $H_2$ are connected graphs, we classify all pairs $(H_1,H_2)$ except for one remaining infinite family and a few isolated cases.     

Bounding graph diameters of solvable groups

We define a graph associated with a group G by letting nontrivial degrees be the vertices, and placing an edge between distinct degrees if they are not relatively prime. Using results in the literature, it is not difficult to show that when G is solvable and the graph is connected, its diameter is at most 4. Recent results suggest that this bound might be obtained. We show that in fact this diameter is at most 3, which is best possible.     

The deficiency of a regular graph

A proper edge coloring c:E(G)→Z of a finite simple graph G is an interval coloring if the colors used at each vertex form a consecutive interval of integers. Many graphs do not have interval colorings, and the deficiency of a graph is an invariant that measures how close a graph comes to having an interval coloring. In this paper we search for tight upper bounds on the deficiencies of k-regular graphs in terms of the number of vertices. We find exact values for 1?k?4 and bounds for larger k.     

A generalisation of the diameter of a graph

We prove the following theorem. If G is a connected finite graph of order p, and S is a k-subset of V(G) (where k≥2), then there is a pair of vertices in S which are at a distance ≤2(p−1)/k if k does not divide p, and ≤2(p−1)/k + 1 otherwise.     

On the degree distance of a graph

If G is a connected graph with vertex set V, then the degree distance of G, D^′(G), is defined as , where degw is the degree of vertex w, and d(u,v) denotes the distance between u and v. We prove the asymptotically sharp upper bound for graphs of order n and diameter d. As a corollary we obtain the bound for graphs of order n. This essentially proves a conjecture by Tomescu [I. Tomescu, Some extremal properties of the degree distance of a graph, Discrete Appl. Math. (98) (1999) 159-163].     

The total graph and regular graph of a commutative ring

Let R be a commutative ring. The total graph of R, denoted by T(Γ(R)) is a graph with all elements of R as vertices, and two distinct vertices x,y∈R, are adjacent if and only if x+y∈Z(R), where Z(R) denotes the set of zero-divisors of R. Let regular graph of R, Reg(Γ(R)), be the induced subgraph of T(Γ(R)) on the regular elements of R. Let R be a commutative Noetherian ring and Z(R) is not an ideal. In this paper we show that if T(Γ(R)) is a connected graph, then . Also, we prove that if R is a finite ring, then T(Γ(R)) is a Hamiltonian graph. Finally, we show that if S is a commutative Noetherian ring and Reg(S) is finite, then S is finite.     

On the diameter of a domination dot-critical graph

A graph G is domination dot-critical, or just dot-critical, if contracting any edge decreases the domination number. It is totally dot-critical if identifying any two vertices decreases the domination number. In this paper, we study an open question concerning of the diameter of a domination dot-critical graph G.     

The depression of a graph and the diameter of its line graph

An edge ordering of a graph G=(V,E) is an injection f:E→Q⁺ where Q⁺ is the set of positive rational numbers. A (simple) path λ for which f increases along its edge sequence is an f-ascent, and a maximal f-ascent if it is not contained in a longer f-ascent. The depression ε(G) of G is the least integer k such that every edge ordering of G has a maximal ascent of length at most k.It has been shown in [E.J. Cockayne, G. Geldenhuys, P.J.P. Grobler, C.M. Mynhardt, J. van Vuuren, The depression of a graph, Utilitas Math. 69 (2006) 143-160] that the difference may be made arbitrarily large. We prove that the difference can also be arbitrarily large, thus answering a question raised in [E.J. Cockayne, G. Geldenhuys, P.J.P. Grobler, C.M. Mynhardt, J. van Vuuren, The depression of a graph, Utilitas Math. 69 (2006) 143-160].     

Mean distance in a graph

The average or mean of the distances between vertices in a connected graph Γ, μ(Γ), is a natural measure of the compactness of the graph. In this paper we compute bounds for μ(Γ) in terms of the number of vertices in Γ and the diameter of Γ. We prove a formula for computing μ(Γ) when Γ is a tree which is particularly useful when Γ has a high degree of symmetry. Finally, we present algorithms for μ(Γ) which are amenable to computer implementation.     

Bounding Betti numbers of bipartite graph ideals

We prove a conjectured lower bound of Nagel and Reiner on Betti numbers of edge ideals of bipartite graphs.     

The regular graph of a commutative ring

Let R be a commutative ring, let Z(R) be the set of all zero-divisors of R and Reg(R) = R\Z(R). The regular graph of R, denoted by G(R), is a graph with all elements of Reg(R) as the vertices, and two distinct vertices x, y ∈ Reg(R) are adjacent if and only if x+y ∈ Z(R). In this paper we show that if R is a commutative Noetherian ring and 2 ∈ Z(R), then the chromatic number and the clique number of G(R) are the same and they are 2 ⁿ , where n is the minimum number of prime ideals whose union is Z(R). Also, we prove that all trees that can occur as the regular graph of a ring have at most two vertices.