Doubly transitive 2‐factorizations

Let be a 2‐factorization of the complete graph K_v admitting an automorphism group G acting doubly transitively on the set of vertices. The vertex‐set V(K_v) can then be identified with the point‐set of AG(n, p) and each 2‐factor of is the union of p‐cycles which are obtained from a parallel class of lines of AG(n, p) in a suitable manner, the group G being a subgroup of A G L(n, p) in this case. The proof relies on the classification of 2‐(v, k, 1) designs admitting a doubly transitive automorphism group. The same conclusion holds even if G is only assumed to act doubly homogeneously. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs     

Constructing regular self‐complementary uniform hypergraphs

In this article, we examine the possible orders of t‐subset‐regular self‐complementary k‐uniform hypergraphs, which form examples of large sets of two isomorphic t‐designs. We reformulate Khosrovshahi and Tayfeh–Rezaie's necessary conditions on the order of these structures in terms of the binary representation of the rank k, and these conditions simplify to a more transparent relation between the order n and rank k in the case where k is a sum of consecutive powers of 2. Moreover, we present new constructions for 1‐subset‐regular self‐complementary uniform hypergraphs, and prove that these necessary conditions are sufficient for all k, in the case where t = 1. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 19: 439‐454, 2011     

Nilpotent 1‐factorizations of the complete graph

For which groups G of even order 2n does a 1‐factorization of the complete graph K_2n exist with the property of admitting G as a sharply vertex‐transitive automorphism group? The complete answer is still unknown. Using the definition of a starter in G introduced in 4 , we give a positive answer for new classes of groups; for example, the nilpotent groups with either an abelian Sylow 2‐subgroup or a non‐abelian Sylow 2‐subgroup which possesses a cyclic subgroup of index 2. Further considerations are given in case the automorphism group G fixes a 1‐factor. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs     

Disjoint perfect matchings in 3‐uniform hypergraphs

For a hypergraph H, let denote the minimum vertex degree in H. Kühn, Osthus, and Treglown proved that, for any sufficiently large integer n with , if H is a 3‐uniform hypergraph with order n and then H has a perfect matching, and this bound on is best possible. In this article, we show that under the same conditions, H contains at least pairwise disjoint perfect matchings, and this bound is sharp.     

Some new results on 1‐rotational 2‐factorizations of the complete graph

It is known that a necessary condition for the existence of a 1‐rotational 2‐factorization of the complete graph K_2n+1 under the action of a group G of order 2n is that the involutions of G are pairwise conjugate. Is this condition also sufficient? The complete answer is still unknown. Adapting the composition technique shown in Buratti and Rinaldi, J Combin Des, 16 (2008), 87–100, we give a positive answer for new classes of groups; for example, the groups G whose involutions lie in the same conjugacy class and having a normal subgroup whose order is the greatest odd divisor of |G|. In particular, every group of order 4t+2 gives a positive answer. Finally, we show that such a composition technique provides 2‐factorizations with a rich group of automorphisms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 18: 237–247, 2010     

Classification of edge‐transitive rose window graphs

Given natural numbers n?3 and 1?a, r?n?1, the rose window graph R_n(a, r) is a quartic graph with vertex set $\{{{x}}_{{i}}|{{i}}\in {\mathbb{Z}}_{{n}}\} \cup \{{{y}}_{{i}}|{{i}}\in{\mathbb{Z}}_{{n}}\}Given natural numbers n?3 and 1?a, r?n?1, the rose window graph R_n(a, r) is a quartic graph with vertex set $\{{{x}}_{{i}}|{{i}}\in {\mathbb{Z}}_{{n}}\} \cup \{{{y}}_{{i}}|{{i}}\in{\mathbb{Z}}_{{n}}\}$ and edge set $\{\{{{x}}_{{i}},{{x}}_{{{i+1}}}\} \mid {{i}}\in {\mathbb{Z}}_n \} \cup \{\{{{y}}_{{{i}}},{{y}}_{{{i+r}}}\}\mid {{i}} \in{\mathbb{Z}}_{{n}}\}\cup \{\{{{x}}_{{{i}}},{{y}}_{{{i}}}\} \mid {{i}}\in {\mathbb{Z}}_{{{n}}}\}\cup \{\{{{x}}_{{{i+a}}},{{y}}_{{{i}}}\} \mid{{i}} \in {\mathbb{Z}}_{{{n}}}\}$. In this article a complete classification of edge‐transitive rose window graphs is given, thus solving one of the three open problems about these graphs posed by Steve Wilson in 2001. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 65: 216–231, 2010     

Cube factorizations of complete graphs

A cube factorization of the complete graph on n vertices, K_n, is a 3‐factorization of K_n in which the components of each factor are cubes. We show that there exists a cube factorization of K_n if and only if n ≡ 16 (mod 24), thus providing a new family of uniform 3‐factorizations as well as a partial solution to an open problem posed by Kotzig in 1979. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

1‐rotational k‐factorizations of the complete graph and new solutions to the Oberwolfach problem

We consider k‐factorizations of the complete graph that are 1‐rotational under an assigned group G, namely that admit G as an automorphism group acting sharply transitively on all but one vertex. After proving that the k‐factors of such a factorization are pairwise isomorphic, we focus our attention to the special case of k = 2, a case in which we prove that the involutions of G necessarily form a unique conjugacy class. We completely characterize, in particular, the 2‐factorizations that are 1‐rotational under a dihedral group. Finally, we get infinite new classes of previously unknown solutions to the Oberwolfach problem via some direct and recursive constructions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 87–100, 2008     

On a question of Sós about 3‐uniform friendship hypergraphs

The well‐known Friendship Theorem states that if G is a graph in which every pair of vertices has exactly one common neighbor, then G has a single vertex joined to all others (a “universal friend”). V. Sós defined an analogous friendship property for 3‐uniform hypergraphs, and gave a construction satisfying the friendship property that has a universal friend. We present new 3‐uniform hypergraphs on 8, 16, and 32 vertices that satisfy the friendship property without containing a universal friend. We also prove that if n ≤ 10 and n ≠ 8, then there are no friendship hypergraphs on n vertices without a universal friend. These results were obtained by computer search using integer programming. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 253–261, 2008     

Locally 2‐arc transitive graphs,homogeneous factorizations,and partial linear spaces

We establish natural bijections between three different classes of combinatorial objects; namely certain families of locally 2‐arc transitive graphs, partial linear spaces, and homogeneous factorizations of arc‐transitive graphs. Moreover, the bijections intertwine the actions of the relevant automorphism groups. Thus constructions in any of these areas provide examples for the others. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 139–148, 2006     

One‐factorizations of complete graphs with vertex‐regular automorphism groups

We consider one‐factorizations of K_2n possessing an automorphism group acting regularly (sharply transitively) on vertices. We present some upper bounds on the number of one‐factors which are fixed by the group; further information is obtained when equality holds in these bounds. The case where the group is dihedral is studied in some detail, with some non‐existence statements in case the number of fixed one‐factors is as large as possible. Constructions both for dihedral groups and for some classes of abelian groups are given. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 1–16, 2002     

Realizing finite edge‐transitive orientable maps

J.E. Graver and M.E. Watkins, Memoirs Am. Math. Soc. 126 (601) ( 5 ) established that the automorphism group of an edge‐transitive, locally finite map manifests one of exactly 14 algebraically consistent combinations (called types) of the kinds of stabilizers of its edges, its vertices, its faces, and its Petrie walks. Exactly eight of these types are realized by infinite, locally finite maps in the plane. H.S.M. Coxeter (Regular Polytopes, 2nd ed., McMillan, New York, 1963) had previously observed that the nine finite edge‐transitive planar maps realize three of the eight planar types. In the present work, we show that for each of the 14 types and each integer n ≥ 11 such that n ≡ 3,11 (mod 12), there exist finite, orientable, edge‐transitive maps whose various stabilizers conform to the given type and whose automorphism groups are (abstractly) isomorphic to the symmetric group Sym(n). Exactly seven of these types (not a subset of the planar eight) are shown to admit infinite families of finite, edge‐transitive maps on the torus, and their automorphism groups are determined explicitly. Thus all finite, edge‐transitive toroidal maps are classified according to this schema. Finally, it is shown that exactly one of the 14 types can be realized as an abelian group of an edge‐transitive map, namely, as ?_n × ?₂ where n ≡ 2 (mod 4). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 37: 1–34, 2001     

Edge‐coloring linear hypergraphs with medium‐sized edges

Motivated by the Erdos?‐Faber‐Lovász (EFL) conjecture for hypergraphs, we consider the list edge coloring of linear hypergraphs. We show that if the hyper‐edge sizes are bounded between i and inclusive, then there is a list edge coloring using colors. The dependence on n in the upper bound is optimal (up to the value of C_i,?).     

Coloring uniform hypergraphs with few edges

A hypergraph is b‐simple if no two distinct edges share more than b vertices. Let m(r, t, g) denote the minimum number of edges in an r‐uniform non‐t‐colorable hypergraph of girth at least g. Erd?s and Lovász proved that A result of Szabó improves the lower bound by a factor of r^2?? for sufficiently large r. We improve the lower bound by another factor of r and extend the result to b‐simple hypergraphs. We also get a new lower bound for hypergraphs with a given girth. Our results imply that for fixed b, t, and ? > 0 and sufficiently large r, every r‐uniform b‐simple hypergraph with maximum edge‐degree at most t^rr^1?? is t‐colorable. Some results hold for list coloring, as well. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2009     

The maximum spectral radius of uniform hypergraphs with given number of pendant edges

In this paper, we introduce the operations of grafting an edge and subdividing an edge on hypergraphs, and consider how spectral radius of a hypergraph behaves by grafting an edge or subdividing an edge. As an application, we determine the unique hypergraphs with the maximum spectral radius among all the uniform supertrees and all the connected uniform unicyclic hypergraphs with given number of pendant edges, respectively. Moreover, we determine the unique uniform supertree which attains the maximum spectral radius among all the uniform supertrees with given number of pendant vertices.     

Constructing cubic edge‐ but not vertex‐transitive graphs

An infinite family of cubic edge‐transitive but not vertex‐transitive graphs with edge stabilizer isomorphic to ℤ₂ is constructed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 35: 152–160, 2000