General neighbour-distinguishing index via chromatic number

An edge colouring of a graph G without isolated edges is neighbour-distinguishing if any two adjacent vertices have distinct sets consisting of colours of their incident edges. The general neighbour-distinguishing index of G is the minimum number of colours in a neighbour-distinguishing edge colouring of G. Gy?ri et al. [E. Gy?ri, M. Horňák, C. Palmer, M. Wo?niak, General neighbour-distinguishing index of a graph, Discrete Math. 308 (2008) 827-831] proved that provided G is bipartite and gave a complete characterisation of bipartite graphs according to their general neighbour-distinguishing index. The aim of this paper is to prove that if χ(G)≥3, then . Therefore, if log₂χ(G)∉Z, then .     

Disjoint hamiltonian cycles in bipartite graphs

Let G=(X,Y) be a bipartite graph and define . Moon and Moser [J. Moon, L. Moser, On Hamiltonian bipartite graphs, Israel J. Math. 1 (1963) 163-165. MR 28 # 4540] showed that if G is a bipartite graph on 2n vertices such that , then G is hamiltonian, sharpening a classical result of Ore [O. Ore, A note on Hamilton circuits, Amer. Math. Monthly 67 (1960) 55] for bipartite graphs. Here we prove that if G is a bipartite graph on 2n vertices such that , then G contains k edge-disjoint hamiltonian cycles. This extends the result of Moon and Moser and a result of R. Faudree et al. [R. Faudree, C. Rousseau, R. Schelp, Edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles, Graph Theory Appl. Algorithms Comput. Sci. (1984) 231-249].     

Edge covered critical multigraphs

Let G be a multigraph with edge set E(G). An edge coloring C of G is called an edge covered coloring, if each color appears at least once at each vertex v∈V(G). The maximum positive integer k such that G has a k edge covered coloring is called the edge covered chromatic index of G and is denoted by . A graph G is said to be of class if and otherwise of class. A pair of vertices {u,v} is said to be critical if . A graph G is said to be edge covered critical if it is of class and every edge with vertices in V(G) not belonging to E(G) is critical. Some properties about edge covered critical graphs are considered.     

Bi-complement Reducible Graphs

We introduce a new family of bipartite graphs which is the bipartite analogue of the class ofcomplement reduciblegraphs orcographs. Abi-complement reduciblegraph orbi-cographis a bipartite graphG = (W ∪ B, E) that can be reduced to single vertices by recursively bi-complementing the edge set of all connected bipartite subgraphs. Thebi-complementedgraphofGis the graph having the same vertex setW ∪ BasG, while its edge set is equal toW × B − E. The aim of this paper is to show that there exists an equivalent definition of bi-cographs by three forbidden configurations. We also propose a tree representation for this class of graphs.     

Some relations between rank, chromatic number and energy of graphs

The energy of a graph G, denoted by E(G), is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of G. Let G be a graph of order n and be the rank of the adjacency matrix of G. In this paper we characterize all graphs with . Among other results we show that apart from a few families of graphs, , where n is the number of vertices of G, and χ(G) are the complement and the chromatic number of G, respectively. Moreover some new lower bounds for E(G) in terms of are given.     

Cubicity, boxicity, and vertex cover

A k-dimensional box is the cartesian product R₁×R₂×?×R_k where each R_i is a closed interval on the real line. The boxicity of a graph G, denoted as box(G), is the minimum integer k such that G is the intersection graph of a collection of k-dimensional boxes. A unit cube in k-dimensional space or a k-cube is defined as the cartesian product R₁×R₂×?×R_k where each R_i is a closed interval on the real line of the form [a_i,a_i+1]. The cubicity of G, denoted as cub(G), is the minimum k such that G is the intersection graph of a collection of k-cubes. In this paper we show that cub(G)≤t+⌈log(n−t)⌉−1 and , where t is the cardinality of a minimum vertex cover of G and n is the number of vertices of G. We also show the tightness of these upper bounds.F.S. Roberts in his pioneering paper on boxicity and cubicity had shown that for a graph G, and , where n is the number of vertices of G, and these bounds are tight. We show that if G is a bipartite graph then and this bound is tight. We also show that if G is a bipartite graph then . We point out that there exist graphs of very high boxicity but with very low chromatic number. For example there exist bipartite (i.e., 2 colorable) graphs with boxicity equal to . Interestingly, if boxicity is very close to , then chromatic number also has to be very high. In particular, we show that if , s≥0, then , where χ(G) is the chromatic number of G.     

The tail is cut for Ramsey numbers of cubes

The Ramsey number R(G) of a graph G is the least integer p such that for all bicolorings of the edges of the complete graph K_p, one of the monochromatic subgraphs contains a copy of G. We show that for any positive constant c and bipartite graph G=(U,V;E) of order n where the maximum degree of vertices in U is at most , . Moreover, we show that the Ramsey number of the cube Q_n of dimension n satisfies . In both cases, the small terms are removed from the powers in the upper bounds of a earlier result of the author.     

On signed cycle domination in graphs

Let G=(V,E) be a graph, a function f:E→{−1,1} is said to be an signed cycle dominating function (SCDF) of G if ∑_e∈E(C)f(e)≥1 holds for any induced cycle C of G. The signed cycle domination number of G is defined as is an SCDF of G}. In this paper, we obtain bounds on , characterize all connected graphs G with , and determine the exact value of for some special classes of graphs G. In addition, we pose some open problems and conjectures.     

The signed star domination numbers of the Cartesian product graphs

Let G be a graph with vertex set V(G) and edge set E(G). A function f:E(G)→{-1,1} is said to be a signed star dominating function of G if for every v∈V(G), where E_G(v)={uv∈E(G)|u∈V(G)}. The minimum of the values of , taken over all signed star dominating functions f on G, is called the signed star domination number of G and is denoted by γ_SS(G). In this paper, a sharp upper bound of γ_SS(G×H) is presented.     

A spectral condition for odd cycles in graphs

Let G be a graph of sufficiently large order n, and let the largest eigenvalue μ(G) of its adjacency matrix satisfies . Then G contains a cycle of length t for every t?n/320This condition is sharp: the complete bipartite graph T₂(n) with parts of size ⌊n/2⌋ and ⌈n/2⌉ contains no odd cycles and its largest eigenvalue is equal to .This condition is stable: if μ(G) is close to and G fails to contain a cycle of length t for some t?n/321, then G resembles T₂(n).     

Acyclic edge colouring of planar graphs without short cycles

Let G=(V,E) be any finite graph. A mapping C:E→[k] is called an acyclic edgek-colouring of G, if any two adjacent edges have different colours and there are no bichromatic cycles in G. In other words, for every pair of distinct colours i and j, the subgraph induced in G by all the edges which have colour i or j, is acyclic. The smallest number k of colours, such that G has an acyclic edge k-colouring is called the acyclic chromatic index of G, denoted by .In 2001, Alon et al. conjectured that for any graph G it holds that ; here Δ(G) stands for the maximum degree of G.In this paper we prove this conjecture for planar graphs with girth at least 5 and for planar graphs not containing cycles of length 4,6,8 and 9. We also show that if G is planar with girth at least 6. Moreover, we find an upper bound for the acyclic chromatic index of planar graphs without cycles of length 4. Namely, we prove that if G is such a graph, then .     

Bandwidth of the strong product of two connected graphs

The bandwidth B(G) of a graph G is the minimum of the quantity max{|f(x)-f(y)|:xy∈E(G)} taken over all proper numberings f of G. The strong product of two graphs G and H, written as G(S_P)H, is the graph with vertex set V(G)×V(H) and with (u₁,v₁) adjacent to (u₂,v₂) if one of the following holds: (a) u₁ and v₁ are adjacent to u₂ and v₂ in G and H, respectively, (b) u₁ is adjacent to u₂ in G and v₁=v₂, or (c) u₁=u₂ and v₁ is adjacent to v₂ in H. In this paper, we investigate the bandwidth of the strong product of two connected graphs. Let G be a connected graph. We denote the diameter of G by D(G). Let d be a positive integer and let x,y be two vertices of G. Let denote the set of vertices v so that the distance between x and v in G is at most d. We define δ_d(G) as the minimum value of over all vertices x of G. Let denote the set of vertices z such that the distance between x and z in G is at most d-1 and z is adjacent to y. We denote the larger of and by . We define η(G)=1 if G is complete and η(G) as the minimum of over all pair of vertices x,y of G otherwise. Let G and H be two connected graphs. Among other results, we prove that if δ_D(H)(G)?B(G)D(H)+1 and B(H)=⌈(|V(H)|+η(H)-2)/D(H)⌉, then B(G(S_P)H)=B(G)|V(H)|+B(H). Moreover, we show that this result determines the bandwidth of the strong product of some classes of graphs. Furthermore, we study the bandwidth of the strong product of power of paths with complete bipartite graphs.     

Total restrained domination in graphs with minimum degree two

In this paper, we continue the study of total restrained domination in graphs, a concept introduced by Telle and Proskurowksi (Algorithms for vertex partitioning problems on partial k-trees, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 10 (1997) 529-550) as a vertex partitioning problem. A set S of vertices in a graph G=(V,E) is a total restrained dominating set of G if every vertex is adjacent to a vertex in S and every vertex of V?S is adjacent to a vertex in V?S. The minimum cardinality of a total restrained dominating set of G is the total restrained domination number of G, denoted by γ_tr(G). Let G be a connected graph of order n with minimum degree at least 2 and with maximum degree Δ where Δ?n-2. We prove that if n?4, then and this bound is sharp. If we restrict G to a bipartite graph with Δ?3, then we improve this bound by showing that and that this bound is sharp.     

On the degrees of a strongly vertex-magic graph

Let G=(V,E) be a finite graph, where |V|=n?2 and |E|=e?1. A vertex-magic total labeling is a bijection λ from V∪E to the set of consecutive integers {1,2,…,n+e} with the property that for every v∈V, for some constant h. Such a labeling is strong if λ(V)={1,2,…,n}. In this paper, we prove first that the minimum degree of a strongly vertex-magic graph is at least two. Next, we show that if , then the minimum degree of a strongly vertex-magic graph is at least three. Further, we obtain upper and lower bounds of any vertex degree in terms of n and e. As a consequence we show that a strongly vertex-magic graph is maximally edge-connected and hamiltonian if the number of edges is large enough. Finally, we prove that semi-regular bipartite graphs are not strongly vertex-magic graphs, and we provide strongly vertex-magic total labeling of certain families of circulant graphs.     

Edges not contained in triangles and the number of contractible edges in a 4-connected graph

Let G be a 4-connected graph, and let E_c(G) denote the set of 4-contractible edges of G and let denote the set of those edges of G which are not contained in a triangle. Under this notation, we show that if , then we have .     

(2,1)-Total labelling of outerplanar graphs

The (2,1)-total labelling number of a graph G is the width of the smallest range of integers that suffices to label the vertices and the edges of G such that no two adjacent vertices have the same label, no two adjacent edges have the same label and the difference between the labels of a vertex and its incident edges is at least 2. In this paper we prove that if G is an outerplanar graph with maximum degree Δ(G), then if Δ(G)?5, or Δ(G)=3 and G is 2-connected, or Δ(G)=4 and G contains no intersecting triangles.     

Subgraph induced by the set of degree 5 vertices in a contraction critically 5-connected graph

An edge of a 5-connected graph is said to be contractible if the contraction of the edge results in a 5-connected graph. A 5-connected graph with no contractible edge is said to be contraction critically 5-connected. Let G be a contraction critically 5-connected graph and let H be a component of the subgraph induced by the set of degree 5 vertices of G. Then it is known that |V(H)|≥4. We prove that if |V(H)|=4, then , where stands for the graph obtained from K₄ by deleting one edge. Moreover, we show that either |N_G(V(H))|=5 or |N_G(V(H))|=6 and around H there is one of two specified structures called a -configuration and a split -configuration.     

On NP-hardness of the clique partition—Independence number gap recognition and related problems

We show that for a graph G it is NP-hard to decide whether its independence number α(G) equals its clique partition number even when some minimum clique partition of G is given. This implies that any α(G)-upper bound provably better than is NP-hard to compute.To establish this result we use a reduction of the quasigroup completion problem (QCP, known to be NP-complete) to the maximum independent set problem. A QCP instance is satisfiable if and only if the independence number α(G) of the graph obtained within the reduction is equal to the number of holes h in the QCP instance. At the same time, the inequality always holds. Thus, QCP is satisfiable if and only if . Computing the Lovász number ?(G) we can detect QCP unsatisfiability at least when . In the other cases QCP reduces to gap recognition, with one minimum clique partition of G known.