Spectra of short monadic sentences about sparse random graphs

A random graph G(n, p) is said to obey the (monadic) zero–one k-law if, for any monadic formula of quantifier depth k, the probability that it is true for the random graph tends to either zero or one. In this paper, following J. Spencer and S. Shelah, we consider the case p = n ^?α. It is proved that the least k for which there are infinitely many α such that a random graph does not obey the zero–one k-law is equal to 4.     

When does the zero-one <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-law fail?

The limit probabilities of the first-order properties of a random graph in the Erd?s–Rényi model G(n, n^?α), α ∈ (0, 1), are studied. A random graph G(n, n^?α) is said to obey the zero-one k-law if, given any property expressed by a formula of quantifier depth at most k, the probability of this property tends to either 0 or 1. As is known, for α = 1? 1/(2^k?1 + a/b), where a > 2^k?1, the zero-one k-law holds. Moreover, this law does not hold for b = 1 and a ≤ 2^k?1 ? 2. It is proved that the k-law also fails for b > 1 and a ≤ 2^k?1 ? (b + 1)².     

Universal zero-one <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-law

The limit probabilities of first-order properties of a random graph in the Erd?s–Rényi model G(n, n^?α), α ∈ (0, 1), are studied. For any positive integer k ≥ 4 and any rational number t/s ∈ (0, 1), an interval with right endpoint t/s is found in which the zero-one k-law holds (the zero-one k-law describes the behavior of the probabilities of first-order properties expressed by formulas of quantifier depth at most k).Moreover, it is proved that, for rational numbers t/s with numerator not exceeding 2, the logarithm of the length of this interval is of the same order of smallness (as n→∞) as that of the length of the maximal interval with right endpoint t/s in which the zero-one k-law holds.     

Hamiltonian Type Properties in Claw-Free $$P_5$$-Free Graphs

A graph G on n vertices is said to be (k, m)-pancyclic if every set of k vertices in G is contained in a cycle of length r for each integer r in the set \(\{ m, m + 1, \ldots , n \}\). This property, which generalizes the notion of a vertex pancyclic graph, was defined by Faudree et al. in (Graphs Combin 20:291–310, 2004). The notion of (k, m)-pancyclicity provides one way to measure the prevalence of cycles in a graph. Broersma and Veldman showed in (Contemporary methods in graph theory, BI-Wiss.-Verlag, Mannheim, Wien, Zürich, pp 181–194, 1990) that any 2-connected claw-free \(P_5\)-free graph must be hamiltonian. In fact, every non-hamiltonian cycle in such a graph is either extendable or very dense. We show that any 2-connected claw-free \(P_5\)-free graph is (k, 3k)-pancyclic for each integer \(k \ge 2\). We also show that such a graph is (1, 5)-pancyclic. Examples are provided which show that these results are best possible. Each example we provide represents an infinite family of graphs.     

Generalized competition index of primitive digraphs

For any positive integers k and m, the k-step m-competition graph C _m ^k (D) of a digraph D has the same set of vertices as D and there is an edge between vertices x and y if and only if there are distinct m vertices v₁, v₂, · · ·, v _m in D such that there are directed walks of length k from x to v _i and from y to v _i for all 1 ≤ i ≤ m. The m-competition index of a primitive digraph D is the smallest positive integer k such that C _m ^k (D) is a complete graph. In this paper, we obtained some sharp upper bounds for the m-competition indices of various classes of primitive digraphs.     

A new estimate for the vertex number of an edge-regular graph

Given a connected edge-regular graph Γ with parameters (v, k, λ) and b ₁ = k ? λ ? 1, we prove that in the case k ≥ 3b ₁ ?2 either |Γ₂(u)|(k?2b ₁ + 2) < kb ₁ for every vertex u or Γ is a polygon, the edge graph of a trivalent graph without triangles that has diameter greater than 2, the icosahedral graph, the complete multipartite graph K _r×2, the 3 × 3-grid, the triangular graph T(m) with m ≤ 7, the Clebsch graph, or the Schläfli graph.     

On judicious bipartitions of graphs

For a positive integer m, let f(m) be the maximum value t such that any graph with m edges has a bipartite subgraph of size at least t, and let g(m) be the minimum value s such that for any graph G with m edges there exists a bipartition V (G)=V ₁?V ₂ such that G has at most s edges with both incident vertices in V _i . Alon proved that the limsup of \(f\left( m \right) - \left( {m/2 + \sqrt {m/8} } \right)\) tends to infinity as m tends to infinity, establishing a conjecture of Erd?s. Bollobás and Scott proposed the following judicious version of Erd?s' conjecture: the limsup of \(m/4 + \left( {\sqrt {m/32} - g(m)} \right)\) tends to infinity as m tends to infinity. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture. Moreover, we extend this conjecture to k-partitions for all even integers k. On the other hand, we generalize Alon's result to multi-partitions, which should be useful for generalizing the above Bollobás-Scott conjecture to k-partitions for odd integers k.     

On the automorphism group of the Aschbacher graph

A Moore graph is a regular graph of degree k and diameter d with v vertices such that v ≤ 1 + k + k(k ? 1) + ... + k(k ? 1)^d?1. It is known that a Moore graph of degree k ≥ 3 has diameter 2; i.e., it is strongly regular with parameters λ = 0, µ = 1, and v = k ² + 1, where the degree k is equal to 3, 7, or 57. It is unknown whether there exists a Moore graph of degree k = 57. Aschbacher showed that a Moore graph with k = 57 is not a graph of rank 3. In this connection, we call a Moore graph with k = 57 the Aschbacher graph and investigate its automorphism group G without additional assumptions (earlier, it was assumed that G contains an involution).     

The graph Kre(4) does not exist

Suppose that a strongly regular graph Γ with parameters (v, k, λ, μ) has eigenvalues k, r, and s. If the graphs Γ and \(\bar \Gamma \) are connected, then the following inequalities, known as Krein’s conditions, hold: (i) (r + 1)(k + r + 2rs) ≤ (k + r)(s + 1)² and (ii) (s + 1)(k + s + 2rs) ≤ (k + s)(r + 1)². We say that Γ is a Krein graph if one of Krein’s conditions (i) and (ii) is an equality for this graph. A triangle-free Krein graph has parameters ((r ² + 3r)², r ³ + 3r ² + r, 0, r ² + r). We denote such a graph by Kre(r). It is known that, in the cases r = 1 and r = 2, the graphs Kre(r) exist and are unique; these are the Clebsch and Higman–Sims graphs, respectively. The latter was constructed in 1968 together with the Higman–Sims sporadic simple group. A.L. Gavrilyuk and A.A. Makhnev have proved that the graph Kre(3) does not exist. In this paper, it is proved that the graph Kre(4) (a strongly regular graph with parameters (784, 116, 0, 20)) does not exist either.     

On Substructure Densities of Hypergraphs

A real number α ∈ [0, 1) is a jump for an integer r ≥ 2 if there exists c > 0 such that for any ∈ > 0 and any integer m ≥ r, there exists an integer n ₀ such that any r-uniform graph with n > n ₀ vertices and density ≥ α + ∈ contains a subgraph with m vertices and density ≥ α + c. It follows from a fundamental theorem of Erdös and Stone that every α ∈ [0, 1) is a jump for r = 2. Erdös also showed that every number in [0, r!/r ^r ) is a jump for r ≥ 3 and asked whether every number in [0, 1) is a jump for r ≥ 3 as well. Frankl and Rödl gave a negative answer by showing a sequence of non-jumps for every r ≥ 3. Recently, more non-jumps were found for some r ≥ 3. But there are still a lot of unknowns on determining which numbers are jumps for r ≥ 3. The set of all previous known non-jumps for r = 3 has only an accumulation point at 1. In this paper, we give a sequence of non-jumps having an accumulation point other than 1 for every r ≥ 3. It generalizes the main result in the paper ‘A note on the jumping constant conjecture of Erdös’ by Frankl, Peng, Rödl and Talbot published in the Journal of Combinatorial Theory Ser. B. 97 (2007), 204–216.     

On the k-polygonal numbers and the mean value of Dedekind sums

For any positive integer k ≥ 3, it is easy to prove that the k-polygonal numbers are a_n(k) = (2n+n(n?1)(k?2))/2. The main purpose of this paper is, using the properties of Gauss sums and Dedekind sums, the mean square value theorem of Dirichlet L-functions and the analytic methods, to study the computational problem of one kind mean value of Dedekind sums S(a_n(k)ā_m(k), p) for k-polygonal numbers with 1 ≤ m, n ≤ p ? 1, and give an interesting computational formula for it.     

Edge-colouring of graphs and hereditary graph properties

Edge-colourings of graphs have been studied for decades. We study edge-colourings with respect to hereditary graph properties. For a graph G, a hereditary graph property P and l ? 1 we define \(X{'_{P,l}}\)(G) to be the minimum number of colours needed to properly colour the edges of G, such that any subgraph of G induced by edges coloured by (at most) l colours is in P. We present a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of \(X{'_{P,l}}\)(G). We focus on edge-colourings of graphs with respect to the hereditary properties O_k and S_k, where O_k contains all graphs whose components have order at most k+1, and S_k contains all graphs of maximum degree at most k. We determine the value of \(X{'_{{S_k},l}}(G)\) for any graph G, k ? 1, l ? 1, and we present a number of results on \(X{'_{{O_k},l}}(G)\).     

Token Graphs

For a graph G and integer k ≥ 1, we define the token graph F _k (G) to be the graph with vertex set all k-subsets of V(G), where two vertices are adjacent in F _k (G) whenever their symmetric difference is a pair of adjacent vertices in G. Thus vertices of F _k (G) correspond to configurations of k indistinguishable tokens placed at distinct vertices of G, where two configurations are adjacent whenever one configuration can be reached from the other by moving one token along an edge from its current position to an unoccupied vertex. This paper introduces token graphs and studies some of their properties including: connectivity, diameter, cliques, chromatic number, Hamiltonian paths, and Cartesian products of token graphs.     

Clique-Coloring Claw-Free Graphs

A clique is defined as a complete subgraph maximal under inclusion and having at least two vertices. A k-clique-coloring of a graph G is an assignment of k colors to the vertices of G such that no clique of G is monochromatic. Bacsó et al. (SIAM J Discrete Math 17:361–376, 2004) noted that the clique-coloring number is unbounded even for the line graphs of complete graphs. In this paper, we prove that a claw-free graph with maximum degree at most 7, except an odd cycle longer than 3, has a 2-clique-coloring by using a decomposition theorem of Chudnovsky and Seymour (J Combin Theory Ser B 98:839–938, 2008) and the limitation of the degree 7 is necessary since the line graph of \(K_{6}\) is a graph with maximum degree 8 but its clique-coloring number is 3 by the Ramsey number \(R(3,3)=6\). In addition, we point out that, if an arbitrary line graph of maximum degree at most d is m-clique-colorable (\(m\ge 3\)), then an arbitrary claw-free graph of maximum degree at most d is also m-clique-colorable.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>- critical 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>- connected graphs

A graph G is called an (n,k)-graph if κ(G-S)=n-|S| for any S ? V(G) with |S| ≤ k, where ?(G) denotes the connectivity of G. Mader conjectured that for k ≥ 3 the graph K_2k+2?(1-factor) is the unique (2k, k)-graph. Kriesell has settled two special cases for k = 3,4. We prove the conjecture for the general case k ≥ 5.     

Degree sequences and edge connectivity

For each positive integer k, we give a finite list C(k) of Bondy–Chvátal type conditions on a nondecreasing sequence \(d=(d_1,\dots ,d_n)\) of nonnegative integers such that every graph on n vertices with degree sequence at least d is k-edge-connected. These conditions are best possible in the sense that whenever one of them fails for d then there is a graph on n vertices with degree sequence at least d which is not k-edge-connected. We prove that C(k) is and must be large by showing that it contains p(k) many logically irredundant conditions, where p(k) is the number of partitions of k. Since, in the corresponding classic result on vertex connectivity, one needs just one such condition, this is one of the rare statements where the edge connectivity version is much more difficult than the vertex connectivity version. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to handle other types of edge-connectivity, such as, for example, essential k-edge-connectivity. We prove that any sublist equivalent to C(k) has length at least p(k), where p(k) is the number of partitions of k, which is in contrast to the corresponding classic result on vertex connectivity where one needs just one such condition. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to handle other types of edge-connectivity, such as, for example, essential k-edge-connectivity. Finally, we informally describe a simple and fast procedure which generates the list C(k). Specialized to \(k=3\), this verifies a conjecture of Bauer, Hakimi, Kahl, and Schmeichel, and for \(k=2\) we obtain an alternative proof for their result on bridgeless connected graphs. The explicit list for \(k=4\) is given, too.     

Orientations of infinite graphs with prescribed edge-connectivity

We prove a decomposition result for locally finite graphs which can be used to extend results on edge-connectivity from finite to infinite graphs. It implies that every 4k-edge-connected graph G contains an immersion of some finite 2k-edge-connected Eulerian graph containing any prescribed vertex set (while planar graphs show that G need not containa subdivision of a simple finite graph of large edge-connectivity). Also, every 8k-edge connected infinite graph has a k-arc-connected orientation, as conjectured in 1989.     

Nonlinear trigonometric approximations of multivariate function classes

Order-sharp estimates are established for the best N-term approximations of functions from Nikol’skii–Besov type classes B_pq^sm(T^k) with respect to the multiple trigonometric system T^(k) in the metric of L_r(T^k) for a number of relations between the parameters s, p, q, r, and m (s = (s₁,..., s_n) ∈ R₊ⁿ, 1 ≤ p, q, r ≤ ∞, m = (m₁,..., m_n) ∈ Nⁿ, k = m₁ +... + m_n). Constructive methods of nonlinear trigonometric approximation—variants of the so-called greedy algorithms—are used in the proofs of upper estimates.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Trails: recognition,complexity, and approximations

The notion of degree-constrained spanning hierarchies, also called k-trails, was recently introduced in the context of network routing problems. They describe graphs that are homomorphic images of connected graphs of degree at most k. First results highlight several interesting advantages of k-trails compared to previous routing approaches. However, so far, only little is known regarding computational aspects of k-trails. In this work we aim to fill this gap by presenting how k-trails can be analyzed using techniques from algorithmic matroid theory. Exploiting this connection, we resolve several open questions about k-trails. In particular, we show that one can recognize efficiently whether a graph is a k-trail, and every graph containing a k-trail is a \((k+1)\)-trail. Moreover, further leveraging the connection to matroids, we consider the problem of finding a minimum weight k-trail contained in a graph G. We show that one can efficiently find a \((2k-1)\)-trail contained in G whose weight is no more than the cheapest k-trail contained in G, even when allowing negative weights. The above results settle several open questions raised by Molnár, Newman, and Seb?.