Maximum number of colorings of (2k,k2)‐graphs

Let consist of all simple graphs on 2k vertices and edges. For a simple graph G and a positive integer , let denote the number of proper vertex colorings of G in at most colors, and let . We prove that and is the only extremal graph. We also prove that as . © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 56: 135–148, 2007     

Optimal Regularity for the No‐Sign Obstacle Problem

In this paper we prove the optimal $C^{1,1}(B_{1/2})$ ‐regularity for a general obstacle‐type problem under the assumption that $f*N$ is $C^{1,1}(B_1)$ , where N is the Newtonian potential. This is the weakest assumption for which one can hope to get $C^{1,1}$ ‐regularity. As a by‐product of the $C^{1,1}$ ‐regularity we are able to prove that, under a standard thickness assumption on the zero set close to a free boundary point $x^0$ , the free boundary is locally a $C^1$ ‐graph close to $x^0$ provided f is Dini. This completely settles the question of the optimal regularity of this problem, which has been the focus of much attention during the last two decades. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Upper chromatic number of finite projective planes

For a finite projective plane , let denote the maximum number of classes in a partition of the point set, such that each line has at least two points in the same partition class. We prove that the best possible general estimate in terms of the order of projective planes is , which is tight apart from a multiplicative constant in the third term :

• (1) As holds for every projective plane of order q.
• (2) If q is a square, then the Galois plane of order q satisfies .

Our results asymptotically solve a ten‐year‐old open problem in the coloring theory of mixed hypergraphs, where is termed the upper chromatic number of . Further improvements on the upper bound (1) are presented for Galois planes and their subclasses. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 221–230, 2008     

A system of equations for describing cocyclic Hadamard matrices

Given a basis for 2‐cocycles over a group G of order , we describe a nonlinear system of 4t‐1 equations and k indeterminates over , whose solutions determine the whole set of cocyclic Hadamard matrices over G, in the sense that ( ) is a solution of the system if and only if the 2‐cocycle gives rise to a cocyclic Hadamard matrix . Furthermore, the study of any isolated equation of the system provides upper and lower bounds on the number of coboundary generators in which have to be combined to form a cocyclic Hadamard matrix coming from a special class of cocycles. We include some results on the families of groups and . A deeper study of the system provides some more nice properties. For instance, in the case of dihedral groups , we have found that it suffices to check t instead of the 4t rows of , to decide the Hadamard character of the matrix (for a special class of cocycles f). © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 276–290, 2008     

Uniqueness of weak solutions in critical space of the 3‐D time‐dependent Ginzburg‐Landau equations for superconductivity

We prove the uniqueness of weak solutions of the 3‐D time‐dependent Ginzburg‐Landau equations for super‐conductivity with initial data (ψ₀, A₀)∈ L² under the hypothesis that (ψ, A) ∈ L^s(0, T; L^r,∞) × (0, T; with Coulomb gauge for any (r, s) and satisfying + = 1, + = 1, ≥ , ≥ and 3 < r ≤ 6, 3 < ≤ ∞. Here L^r,∞ ≡ is the Lorentz space. As an application, we prove a uniqueness result with periodic boundary condition when ψ₀ ∈ , A₀ ∈ L³ (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Graph classes characterized both by forbidden subgraphs and degree sequences

Given a set of graphs, a graph G is ‐free if G does not contain any member of as an induced subgraph. We say that is a degree‐sequence‐forcing set if, for each graph G in the class of ‐free graphs, every realization of the degree sequence of G is also in . We give a complete characterization of the degree‐sequence‐forcing sets when has cardinality at most two. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 131–148, 2008     

Cutting two graphs simultaneously

Consider two graphs, and , on the same vertex set V, with and having edges for . We give a simple algorithm that partitions V into sets A and B such that and . We also show, using a probabilistic method, that if and belong to certain classes of graphs, (for instance, if and both have a density of at least 2/, or if and are both regular of degree at most with n sufficiently large) then we can find a partition of V into sets A and B such that for . © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 19–32, 2008     

Circular chromatic index of Cartesian products of graphs

The circular chromatic index of a graph G, written , is the minimum r permitting a function such that whenever e and are incident. Let □ , where □ denotes Cartesian product and H is an ‐regular graph of odd order, with (thus, G is s‐regular). We prove that , where is the minimum, over all bases of the cycle space of H, of the maximum length of a cycle in the basis. When and m is large, the lower bound is sharp. In particular, if , then □ , independent of m. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 7–18, 2008     

On conjectures of Frankl and El‐Zahar

An induced subgraph of a graph is called a derived subgraph of if contains no isolated vertices. An edge e of is said to be residual if e occurs in more than half of the derived subgraphs of . In this article, we prove that every simple graph with at least one edge contains a non‐residual edge. This was conjectured by El‐Zahar in 1997. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 344–352, 2008     

A S(3, {4, 6}, 18) with a subdesign S(3, 4, 8) does not exist

For , a S(t,K,v) design is a pair, , with |V| = v and a set of subsets of V such that each t‐subset of V is contained in a unique and for all . If , , , and is a S(t,K,u) design, then we say has a subdesign on U. We show that a S(3,{4,6},18) design with a subdesign S(3,4,8) does not exist. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 36–38, 2009     

Bubbling Solutions for the SU(3) Chern‐Simons Model on a Torus

We consider the following nonlinear system derived from the SU(3) Chern‐Simons models on a torus Ω: where $\delta_p$ denotes the Dirac measure at $p\in\Omega$ . When $\{p_j^1\}_1^{N_1}= \{p_j^2\}_1^{N_2}$ , if we look for a solution with $u_1=u_2=u$ , then (0.1) is reduced to the Chern‐Simons‐Higgs equation: The existence of bubbling solutions to (0.1) has been a longstanding problem. In this paper, we prove the existence of such solutions such that $u_1\ne u_2$ even if $\{p_j^1\}_1^{N_1}=\{p_j^2\}_1^{N_2}$ . © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Tangency sets in PG(3, q)

A tangency set of PG (d,q) is a set Q of points with the property that every point P of Q lies on a hyperplane that meets Q only in P. It is known that a tangency set of PG (3,q) has at most points with equality only if it is an ovoid. We show that a tangency set of PG (3,q) with , or points is contained in an ovoid. This implies the non‐existence of minimal blocking sets of size , , and of with respect to planes in PG (3,q), and implies the extendability of partial 1‐systems of size , , or to 1‐systems on the hyperbolic quadric . © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 462–476, 2008     

On the existence of a rainbow 1‐factor in 1‐factorizations of K

Let be a 1‐factorization of the complete uniform hypergraph with and . We show that there exists a 1‐factor of whose edges belong to n different 1‐factors in . Such a 1‐factor is called a “rainbow” 1‐factor or an “orthogonal” 1‐factor. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 487–490, 2007     

Enumeration of generalized Hadamard matrices of order 16 and related designs

We investigate signings of symmetric GDD( , 16, )s over for . Beginning with , at each stage of this process a signing of a GDD( , 16, ) produces a GDD( , 16, ). The initial GDDs ( ) correspond to Hadamard matrices of order 16. For , the GDDs are semibiplanes of order 16, and for the GDDs are semiplanes of order 16 which can be extended to projective planes of order 16. In this article, we completely enumerate such signings which include all generalized Hadamard matrices of order 16. We discuss the generation techniques and properties of the designs obtained during the search. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 119–135, 2009     

C‐perfect hypergraphs

Let ${\mathcal{H}}=({{X}},{\mathcal{E}})Let ${\mathcal{H}}=({{X}},{\mathcal{E}})$ be a hypergraph with vertex set X and edge set ${\mathcal{E}}$. A C‐coloring of ${\mathcal{H}}$ is a mapping ?:X→? such that |?(E)|<|E| holds for all edges ${{E}}\in{\mathcal{E}}$ (i.e. no edge is multicolored). We denote by $\bar{\chi}({\mathcal{H}})$ the maximum number |?(X)| of colors in a C‐coloring. Let further $\alpha({\mathcal{H}})$ denote the largest cardinality of a vertex set S?X that contains no ${{E}}\in{\mathcal{E}}$, and $\tau({\mathcal{H}})=|{{X}}|-\alpha({\mathcal{H}})$ the minimum cardinality of a vertex set meeting all $E \in {\mathcal{E}}$. The hypergraph ${\mathcal{H}}$ is called C‐perfect if $\bar{\chi}({\mathcal{H}}\prime)=\alpha({\mathcal{H}}\prime)$ holds for every induced subhypergraph ${\mathcal{H}}\prime\subseteq{\mathcal{H}}$. If ${\mathcal{H}}$ is not C‐perfect but all of its proper induced subhypergraphs are, then we say that it is minimally C‐imperfect. We prove that for all r, k∈? there exists a finite upper bound h(r, k) on the number of minimally C‐imperfect hypergraphs ${\mathcal{H}}$ with $\tau({\mathcal{H}})\le {{k}}$ and without edges of more than r vertices. We give a characterization of minimally C‐imperfect hypergraphs that have τ=2, which also characterizes implicitly the C‐perfect ones with τ=2. From this result we derive an infinite family of new constructions that are minimally C‐imperfect. A characterization of minimally C‐imperfect circular hypergraphs is presented, too. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 64: 132–149, 2010     

On k‐detour subgraphs of hypercubes

A spanning subgraph G of a graph H is a k‐detour subgraph of H if for each pair of vertices , the distance, , between x and y in G exceeds that in H by at most k. Such subgraphs sometimes also are called additive spanners. In this article, we study k‐detour subgraphs of the n‐dimensional cube, , with few edges or with moderate maximum degree. Let denote the minimum possible maximum degree of a k‐detour subgraph of . The main result is that for every and On the other hand, for each fixed even and large n, there exists a k‐detour subgraph of with average degree at most . © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 55–64, 2008     

Existence of 3‐chromatic Steiner quadruple systems

A Steiner quadruple system of order v (briefly SQS (v)) is a pair (X, ), where X is a v‐element set and is a set of 4‐element subsets of X (called blocks or quadruples), such that each 3‐element subset of X is contained in a unique block of . The chromatic number of an SQS(v)(X, ) is the smallest m for which there is a map such that for all , where . The system (X, ) is equitably m‐chromatic if there is a proper coloring with minimal m for which the numbers differ from each other by at most 1. Linek and Mendelsohn showed that an equitably 3‐chromatic SQS(v) exists for v ≡ 4, 8, 10 (mod 12), v ≥ 16. In this article we show that an equitably 3‐chromatic SQS(v) exists for v ≡ 2 (mod 12) with v > 2. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 469–477, 2007     

Disjoint cycles with chords in graphs

Let be integers, , , and let for each , be a cycle or a tree on vertices. We prove that every graph G of order at least n with contains k vertex disjoint subgraphs , where , if is a tree, and is a cycle with chords incident with a common vertex, if is a cycle. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 60: 87–98, 2009     

Vertex suppression in 3‐connected graphs

To suppress a vertex in a finite graph G means to delete it and add an edge from a to b if a, b are distinct nonadjacent vertices which formed the neighborhood of . Let be the graph obtained from by suppressing vertices of degree at most 2 as long as it is possible; this is proven to be well defined. Our main result states that every 3‐connected graph G has a vertex x such that is 3‐connected unless G is isomorphic to , , or to a wheel for some . This leads to a generator theorem for 3‐connected graphs in terms of series parallel extensions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 41–54, 2008     

Persistence of activity in threshold contact processes,an “Annealed approximation” of random Boolean networks

We consider a model for gene regulatory networks that is a modification of Kauffmann's J Theor Biol 22 (1969), 437–467 random Boolean networks. There are three parameters: $n = {\rm the}$ number of nodes, $r = {\rm the}$ number of inputs to each node, and $p = {\rm the}$ expected fraction of 1'sin the Boolean functions at each node. Following a standard practice in thephysics literature, we use a threshold contact process on a random graph on n nodes, in which each node has in degree r, to approximate its dynamics. We show that if $r\ge 3$ and $r \cdot 2p(1-p)>1$ , then the threshold contact process persists for a long time, which correspond to chaotic behavior of the Boolean network. Unfortunately, we are only able to prove the persistence time is $\ge \exp(cn^{b(p)})$ with $b(p)>0$ when $r\cdot 2p(1-p)> 1$ , and $b(p)=1$ when $(r-1)\cdot 2p(1-p)>1$ . © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2011