Minimal Obstructions for 1‐Immersions and Hardness of 1‐Planarity Testing

A graph is 1‐planar if it can be drawn on the plane so that each edge is crossed by no more than one other edge (and any pair of crossing edges cross only once). A non‐1‐planar graph G is minimal if the graph is 1‐planar for every edge e of G. We construct two infinite families of minimal non‐1‐planar graphs and show that for every integer , there are at least nonisomorphic minimal non‐1‐planar graphs of order n. It is also proved that testing 1‐planarity is NP‐complete.     

Improvements on the density of maximal 1‐planar graphs

A graph is 1‐planar if it can be drawn in the plane such that each edge is crossed at most once. A graph, together with a 1‐planar drawing is called 1‐plane. A graph is maximal 1‐planar (1‐plane), if we cannot add any missing edge so that the resulting graph is still 1‐planar (1‐plane). Brandenburg et al. showed that there are maximal 1‐planar graphs with only edges and maximal 1‐plane graphs with only edges. On the other hand, they showed that a maximal 1‐planar graph has at least edges, and a maximal 1‐plane graph has at least edges. We improve both lower bounds to .     

One‐way infinite 2‐walks in planar graphs

We prove that every 3‐connected 2‐indivisible infinite planar graph has a 1‐way infinite 2‐walk. (A graph is 2‐indivisible if deleting finitely many vertices leaves at most one infinite component, and a 2‐walk is a spanning walk using every vertex at most twice.) This improves a result of Timar, which assumed local finiteness. Our proofs use Tutte subgraphs, and allow us to also provide other results when the graph is bipartite or an infinite analog of a triangulation: then the prism over the graph has a spanning 1‐way infinite path.     

Counting 5‐connected planar triangulations

Let t_n be the number of rooted 5‐connected planar triangulations with 2n faces. We find t_n exactly for small n, as well as an asymptotic formula for n → ∞. Our results are found by compositions of lower connectivity maps whose faces are triangles or quadrangles. We also find the asymptotic number of cyclically 5‐edge connected cubic planar graphs. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 38: 18–35, 2001     

The complexity of the matching‐cut problem for planar graphs and other graph classes

The Matching‐Cut problem is the problem to decide whether a graph has an edge cut that is also a matching. Previously this problem was studied under the name of the Decomposable Graph Recognition problem, and proved to be ‐complete when restricted to graphs with maximum degree four. In this paper it is shown that the problem remains ‐complete for planar graphs with maximum degree four, answering a question by Patrignani and Pizzonia. It is also shown that the problem is ‐complete for planar graphs with girth five. The reduction is from planar graph 3‐colorability and differs from earlier reductions. In addition, for certain graph classes polynomial time algorithms to find matching‐cuts are described. These classes include claw‐free graphs, co‐graphs, and graphs with fixed bounded tree‐width or clique‐width. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62: 109–126, 2009     

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     

6‐regular 4‐critical graph

P. Erd?s conjectured in [2] that r‐regular 4‐critical graphs exist for every r ≥ 3 and noted that no such graphs are known for r ≥ 6. This article contains the first example of a 6‐regular 4‐critical graph. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 41: 286–291, 2002     

(2 + ϵ)‐Coloring of planar graphs with large odd‐girth

The odd‐girth of a graph is the length of a shortest odd circuit. A conjecture by Pavol Hell about circular coloring is solved in this article by showing that there is a function ƒ(ϵ) for each ϵ : 0 < ϵ < 1 such that, if the odd‐girth of a planar graph G is at least ƒ(ϵ), then G is (2 + ϵ)‐colorable. Note that the function ƒ(ϵ) is independent of the graph G and ϵ → 0 if and only if ƒ(ϵ) → ∞. A key lemma, called the folding lemma, is proved that provides a reduction method, which maintains the odd‐girth of planar graphs. This lemma is expected to have applications in related problems. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 33: 109–119, 2000     

Connected subgraphs with small degree sums in 3‐connected planar graphs

It is well‐known that every planar graph has a vertex of degree at most five. Kotzig proved that every 3‐connected planar graph has an edge xy such that deg(x) + deg (y) ≤ 13. In this article, considering a similar problem for the case of three or more vertices that induce a connected subgraph, we show that, for a given positive integer t, every 3‐connected planar graph G with |V(G)| ≥ t has a connected subgraph H of order t such that Σ_x∈V(H) deg_G(x) ≤ 8t − 1. As a tool for proving this result, we consider decompositions of 3‐connected planar graphs into connected subgraphs of order at least t and at most 2t − 1. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 30: 191–203, 1999     

Acyclic 4‐Choosability of Planar Graphs with No 4‐ and 5‐Cycles

Every planar graph is known to be acyclically 7‐choosable and is conjectured to be acyclically 5‐choosable (O. V. Borodin, D. G. Fon‐Der‐Flaass, A. V. Kostochka, E. Sopena, J Graph Theory 40 (2002), 83–90). This conjecture if proved would imply both Borodin's (Discrete Math 25 (1979), 211–236) acyclic 5‐color theorem and Thomassen's (J Combin Theory Ser B 62 (1994), 180–181) 5‐choosability theorem. However, as yet it has been verified only for several restricted classes of graphs. Some sufficient conditions are also obtained for a planar graph to be acyclically 4‐ and 3‐choosable. In particular, the acyclic 4‐choosability was proved for the following planar graphs: without 3‐, 4‐, and 5‐cycles (M. Montassier, P. Ochem, and A. Raspaud, J Graph Theory 51 (2006), 281–300), without 4‐, 5‐, and 6‐cycles, or without 4‐, 5‐, and 7‐cycles, or without 4‐, 5‐, and intersecting 3‐cycles (M. Montassier, A. Raspaud, W. Wang, Topics Discrete Math (2006), 473–491), and neither 4‐ and 5‐cycles nor 8‐cycles having a triangular chord (M. Chen and A. Raspaud, Discrete Math. 310(15–16) (2010), 2113–2118). The purpose of this paper is to strengthen these results by proving that each planar graph without 4‐ and 5‐cycles is acyclically 4‐choosable.     

3‐Coloring Triangle‐Free Planar Graphs with a Precolored 8‐Cycle

Let G be a planar triangle‐free graph and let C be a cycle in G of length at most 8. We characterize all situations where a 3‐coloring of C does not extend to a proper 3‐coloring of the whole graph.     

Two‐arc closed subsets of graphs

A subset of vertices of a graph is said to be 2‐arc closed if it contains every vertex that is adjacent to at least two vertices in the subset. In this paper, 2‐arc closed subsets generated by pairs of vertices at distance at most 2 are studied. Several questions are posed about the structure of such subsets and the relationships between two such subsets, and examples are given from the class of partition graphs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 42: 350–364, 2003     

On perfect Γ‐decompositions of the complete graph

Generalizing the well‐known concept of an i‐perfect cycle system, Pasotti [Pasotti, in press, Australas J Combin] defined a Γ‐decomposition (Γ‐factorization) of a complete graph K_v to be i‐perfect if for every edge [x, y] of K_v there is exactly one block of the decomposition (factor of the factorization) in which x and y have distance i. In particular, a Γ‐decomposition (Γ‐factorization) of K_v that is i‐perfect for any i not exceeding the diameter of a connected graph Γ will be said a Steiner (Kirkman) Γ‐system of order v. In this article we first observe that as a consequence of the deep theory on decompositions of edge‐colored graphs developed by Lamken and Wilson [Lamken and Wilson, 2000, J Combin Theory Ser A 89, 149–200], there are infinitely many values of v for which there exists an i‐perfect Γ‐decomposition of K_v provided that Γ is an i‐equidistance graph, namely a graph such that the number of pairs of vertices at distance i is equal to the number of its edges. Then we give some concrete direct constructions for elementary abelian Steiner Γ‐systems with Γ the wheel on 8 vertices or a circulant graph, and for elementary abelian 2‐perfect cube‐factorizations. We also present some recursive constructions and some results on 2‐transitive Kirkman Γ‐systems. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 197–209, 2009     

Decomposition of the complete graph plus a 1‐factor into cycles of equal length

We determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a decomposition of the complete graph of even order with a 1‐factor added into cycles of equal length. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 11: 170–207, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10019     

Acyclic 5‐choosability of planar graphs without small cycles

A proper vertex coloring of a graph G = (V,E) is acyclic if G contains no bicolored cycle. A graph G is acyclically L‐list colorable if for a given list assignment L = {L(v): v: ∈ V}, there exists a proper acyclic coloring ? of G such that ?(v) ∈ L(v) for all v ∈ V. If G is acyclically L‐list colorable for any list assignment with |L (v)|≥ k for all v ∈ V, then G is acyclically k‐choosable. In this article, we prove that every planar graph G without 4‐ and 5‐cycles, or without 4‐ and 6‐cycles is acyclically 5‐choosable. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 54: 245–260, 2007     

Acyclic 5‐choosability of planar graphs without adjacent short cycles

The conjecture on acyclic 5‐choosability of planar graphs [Borodin et al., 2002] as yet has been verified only for several restricted classes of graphs. None of these classes allows 4‐cycles. We prove that a planar graph is acyclically 5‐choosable if it does not contain an i‐cycle adjacent to a j‐cycle where 3?j?5 if i = 3 and 4?j?6 if i = 4. This result absorbs most of the previous work in this direction. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 68:169‐176, 2011     

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     

A Closure for 1‐Hamilton‐Connectedness in Claw‐Free Graphs

A graph G is 1‐Hamilton‐connected if is Hamilton‐connected for every vertex . In the article, we introduce a closure concept for 1‐Hamilton‐connectedness in claw‐free graphs. If is a (new) closure of a claw‐free graph G, then is 1‐Hamilton‐connected if and only if G is 1‐Hamilton‐connected, is the line graph of a multigraph, and for some , is the line graph of a multigraph with at most two triangles or at most one double edge. As applications, we prove that Thomassen's Conjecture (every 4‐connected line graph is hamiltonian) is equivalent to the statement that every 4‐connected claw‐free graph is 1‐Hamilton‐connected, and we present results showing that every 5‐connected claw‐free graph with minimum degree at least 6 is 1‐Hamilton‐connected and that every 4‐connected claw‐free and hourglass‐free graph is 1‐Hamilton‐connected.     

Group divisible ‐packings with any minimum leave

A decomposition of , the complete n‐partite equipartite graph with a subgraph L (called the leave) removed, into edge disjoint copies of a graph G is called a maximum group divisible packing of with G if L contains as few edges as possible. We examine all possible minimum leaves for maximum group divisible ‐packings. Necessary and sufficient conditions are established for their existences.     

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