On the weak 2-coloring number of planar graphs

For a graph $G=(V,E)$, a total ordering L on V, and a vertex $v\in V$, let ${\mathrm{Wcol}}_2[G,L,v]$ be the set of vertices $w\in V$ for which there is a path from v to w whose length is 0, 1 or 2 and whose L-least vertex is w. The weak 2-coloring number ${\mathrm{wcol}}_2(G)$ of G is the least k such that there is a total ordering L on V with $|{\mathrm{Wcol}}_2[G,L,v]|\le k$ for all vertices $v\in V$. We improve the known upper bound on the weak 2-coloring number of planar graphs from 28 to 23. As the weak 2-coloring number is the best known upper bound on the star list chromatic number of planar graphs, this bound is also improved.     

Maximum w-cyclic holey group divisible packings and their application to three-dimensional optical orthogonal codes

Motivated by the application to three-dimensional optical orthogonal codes, we consider the construction for a w-cyclic holey group divisible packing of type $(u,w^v)$ with block size three (3-HGDP for short). A maximum w-cyclic 3-HGDP of type $(u,w^v)$ contains the largest possible number of base blocks. When $u\equiv 0,1(\mathrm{mod}3)$, the exact size of maximum w-cyclic 3-HGDP of type $(u,w^v)$ has been determined in our previous work. Based on recursive constructions, in this paper we establish a framework to construct maximum w-cyclic 3-HGDPs of type $(u,w^v)$ where $u\equiv 2$ (mod 3). In the process, direct constructions on several key auxiliary designs are displayed by choosing appropriate automorphism groups. Eventually, the sizes of maximum w-cyclic 3-HGDPs of type $(u,w^v)$ are determined for all positive integers $u,v$ and w, only leaving a small fraction of possible exceptions unresolved. Furthermore, application of our results to three-dimensional optical orthogonal codes is presented.     

Flow number and circular flow number of signed cubic graphs

Let $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )$ and ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )$ denote the flow number and the circular flow number of a flow-admissible signed graph $(G,\sigma )$, respectively. It is known that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G)=?{\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G)?$ for every unsigned graph G. Based on this fact, in 2011 Raspaud and Zhu conjectured that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )?{\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )<1$ holds also for every flow-admissible signed graph $(G,\sigma )$. This conjecture was disproved by Schubert and Steffen using graphs with bridges and vertices of large degree. In this paper we focus on cubic graphs, since they play a crucial role in many open problems in graph theory. For cubic graphs we show that $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )=3$ if and only if ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )=3$ and if $\mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )\in \{4,5\}$, then $4\le {\mathrm{\Phi }}_c(G,\sigma )\le \mathrm{\Phi }(G,\sigma )$. We also prove that all pairs of flow number and circular flow number that fulfil these conditions can be achieved in the family of bridgeless cubic graphs and thereby disprove the conjecture of Raspaud and Zhu even for bridgeless signed cubic graphs. Finally, we prove that all currently known flow-admissible graphs without nowhere-zero 5-flow have flow number and circular flow number 6 and propose several conjectures in this area.     

Spectra of strongly Deza graphs

A Deza graph G with parameters $(n,k,b,a)$ is a k-regular graph with n vertices such that any two distinct vertices have b or a common neighbours. The children $G_A$ and $G_B$ of a Deza graph G are defined on the vertex set of G such that every two distinct vertices are adjacent in $G_A$ or $G_B$ if and only if they have a or b common neighbours, respectively. A strongly Deza graph is a Deza graph with strongly regular children. In this paper we give a spectral characterisation of strongly Deza graphs, show relationships between eigenvalues, and study strongly Deza graphs which are distance-regular.     

Subgroup regular sets in Cayley graphs

Let Γ be a graph with vertex set V, and let a and b be nonnegative integers. A subset C of V is called an $(a,b)$-regular set in Γ if every vertex in C has exactly a neighbors in C and every vertex in $V?C$ has exactly b neighbors in C. In particular, $(0,1)$-regular sets and $(1,1)$-regular sets in Γ are called perfect codes and total perfect codes in Γ, respectively. A subset C of a group G is said to be an $(a,b)$-regular set of G if there exists a Cayley graph of G which admits C as an $(a,b)$-regular set. In this paper we prove that, for any generalized dihedral group G or any group G of order 4p or pq for some primes p and q, if a nontrivial subgroup H of G is a $(0,1)$-regular set of G, then it must also be an $(a,b)$-regular set of G for any $0?a?|H|?1$ and $0?b?|H|$ such that a is even when $|H|$ is odd. A similar result involving $(1,1)$-regular sets of such groups is also obtained in the paper.