Graphs with bounded valency that do not embed in the projective plane

In 1930 Kuratowski proved that a graph does not embed in the real plane R² if and only if it contains a subgraph homeomorphic to one of two graphs, K₅ or K₃₃. Let I_n(P) denote the minimal set of graphs whose vertices have miximal valency n such that any graph which does not embed in the real projective plane (or equivalently, does not embed in the Möbius band) contains a subgraph homeomorphic to a graph in I_n(P) for some positive integer n. Glover and Huneke and Milgram proved that there are only 6 graphs in I₃(P). This note proves that for each n, I_n(P) is finite.     

The set of irreducible graphs for the projective plane is finite

In 1930 Kuratowski proved that a graph does not embed in the real plane R² if and only if it contains a subgraph homeomorphic to one of two graphs, K₅ or K_{3, 3}. For positive integer n, let I_n (P) denote a smallest set of graphs whose maximal valency is n and such that any graph which does not embed in the real projective plane contains a subgraph homeomorphic to a graph in I_n (P) for some n. Glover and Huneke and Milgram proved that there are only 6 graphs in I₃ (P), and Glover and Huneke proved that I_n (P) is finite for all n. This note proves that I_n (P) is empty for all but a finite number of n. Hence there is a finite set of graphs for the projective plane analogous to Kuratowski's two graphs for the plane.     

Extensions and the Induced Characters of Cyclic p-Groups

For a prime p, we denote by B_n the cyclic group of order pⁿ. Let φ be a faithful irreducible character of B_n, where p is an odd prime. We study the p-group G containing B_n such that the induced character φ^G is also irreducible. The purpose of this article is to determine the subgroup N_G(N_G(B_n)) of G under the hypothesis [N_G(B_n):B_n]⁴ ≦ pⁿ.     

Hamiltonicity of 4-connected graphs

Let σk（G） denote the minimum degree sum of k independent vertices in G and α（G） denote the number of the vertices of a maximum independent set of G. In this paper we prove that if G is a 4-connected graph of order n and σ5（G） 〉 n ＋ 3σ（G） ＋ 11, then G is Hamiltonian.     

On the domination number of the cartesian product of the cycle of length n and any graph

Let γ(G) denote the domination number of a graph G and let C_n□G denote the cartesian product of C_n, the cycle of length n?3, and G. In this paper, we are mainly concerned with the question: which connected nontrivial graphs satisfy γ(C_n□G)=γ(C_n)γ(G)? We prove that this equality can only hold if n≡1 (mod 3). In addition, we characterize graphs which satisfy this equality when n=4 and provide infinite classes of graphs for general n≡1 (mod 3).     

Vertices of simple modules and normal subgroups ofp-solvable groups

Let π be a set of prime numbers andG a finite π-separable group. Let θ be an irreducible π′-partial character of a normal subgroupN ofG and denote by I_π′ (G‖θ), the set of all irreducible π′-partial characters Φ ofG such that θ is a constituent of Φ_N. In this paper, we obtain some information about the vertices of the elements in I_π′ (G‖θ). As a consequence, we establish an analogue of Fong's theorem on defect groups of covering blocks, for the vertices of the simple modules (in characteristicsp) of a finitep-solvable group lying over a fixed simple module of a normal subgroup.     

Covering genus-reducing edges by Kuratowski subgraphs

If G is a graph that minimally does not embed in a nonorientable surface, then each edge of G is in a subdivision of either K_3,3 or K₅. However, there is an example of a graph that minimally does not embed in the torus and some edge is in no subdivision of either K_3.3 or K₅. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Note on the cochromatic number of several surfaces

The cochromatic number of a graph G, denoted by z(G), is the minimum number of subsets into which the vertex set of G can be partitioned so that each subset induces an empty or a complete subgraph of G. In an earlier work, the author considered the problem of determining z(S), the maximum cochromatic number among all graphs that embed in a surface S. The value of z(S) was found for the sphere, the Klein bottle, and for the nonorientable surface of genus 4. In this note, some recent results of Albertson and Hutchinson are used to determine the cochromatic numbers of the projective plane and the nonorientable surface of genus 3. These results lend further evidence to support the conjecture that z(S) is equal to the maximum n for which the graph G_n = K₁ U K₂ U … U K_n embeds in S.     

The Ramsey number for a cycle of length six versus a clique of order eight

For two given graphs G₁ and G₂, the Ramsey number R(G₁,G₂) is the smallest integer n such that for any graph G of order n, either G contains G₁ or the complement of G contains G₂. Let C_m denote a cycle of length m and K_n a complete graph of order n. In this paper, it is shown that R(C₆,K₈)=36.     

List coloring of graphs having cycles of length divisible by a given number

Let G be a graph and χ_l(G) denote the list chromatic number of G. In this paper we prove that for every graph G for which the length of each cycle is divisible by l (l≥3), χ_l(G)≤3.     

The characterization of sort sequences

A sort sequenceS _n is a sequence of all unordered pairs of indices inI _n = 1, 2, ...,n. With a sort sequenceS _n, we associate a sorting algorithmA(S _n) to sort input setX = x ₁, x₂, ..., x_n as follows. An execution of the algorithm performs pairwise comparisons of elements in the input setX as defined by the sort sequenceS _n, except that the comparisons whose outcomes can be inferred from the outcomes of the previous comparisons are not performed. Let χ(S _n) denote the average number of comparisons required by the algorithmA(S _n assuming all input orderings are equally likely. Let χ*(n) and χ°(n) denote the minimum and maximum values, respectively, of χ(S _n) over all sort sequencesS _n. Exact determination of χ*(n), χO(n) and associated extremal sort sequences seems difficult. Here, we obtain bounds on χ*(n) and χO(n).     

An upper bound on the domination number of a graph with minimum degree 2

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a dominating set of G if every vertex of V(G)?S is adjacent to some vertex in S. The minimum cardinality of a dominating set of G is the domination number of G, denoted as γ(G). Let P_n and C_n denote a path and a cycle, respectively, on n vertices. Let k₁(F) and k₂(F) denote the number of components of a graph F that are isomorphic to a graph in the family {P₃,P₄,P₅,C₅} and {P₁,P₂}, respectively. Let L be the set of vertices of G of degree more than 2, and let G−L be the graph obtained from G by deleting the vertices in L and all edges incident with L. McCuaig and Shepherd [W. McCuaig, B. Shepherd, Domination in graphs with minimum degree two, J. Graph Theory 13 (1989) 749-762] showed that if G is a connected graph of order n≥8 with δ(G)≥2, then γ(G)≤2n/5, while Reed [B.A. Reed, Paths, stars and the number three, Combin. Probab. Comput. 5 (1996) 277-295] showed that if G is a graph of order n with δ(G)≥3, then γ(G)≤3n/8. As an application of Reed’s result, we show that if G is a graph of order n≥14 with δ(G)≥2, then .     

Sets in Abelian groups with distinct sums of pairs

A subset S={s₁,…,sk} of an Abelian group G is called an St-set of size k if all sums of t different elements in S are distinct. Let s(G) denote the cardinality of the largest S₂-set in G. Let v(k) denote the order of the smallest Abelian group for which s(G)?k. In this article, bounds for s(G) are developed and v(k) is determined for k?15 by computing s(G) for Abelian groups of order up to 183 using exhaustive backtrack search with isomorph rejection.     

On the Davenport constant and on the structure of extremal zero-sum free sequences

Let $G = C_{n_1 } \oplus \cdots \oplus C_{n_r }$ with 1 < n ₁ | ?? | n _r be a finite abelian group, d*(G) = n ₁ +??+n _r ?r, and let d(G) denote the maximal length of a zerosum free sequence over G. Then d(G) ?? d*(G), and the standing conjecture is that equality holds for G = C _n ^r . We show that equality does not hold for C ₂ ?? C _2n ^r , where n ?? 3 is odd and r ?? 4. This gives new information on the structure of extremal zero-sum free sequences over C _2n ^r .     

Primes dividing the degrees of the real characters

Let G be a finite group and let Irr(G) denote the set of all complex irreducible characters of G. The Ito–Michler Theorem asserts that if a prime p does not divide the degree of any χ Irr(G) then a Sylow p-subgroup P of G is normal in G. We prove a real-valued version of this theorem, where instead of Irr(G) we only consider the subset Irr_rv(G) consisting of all real-valued irreducible characters of G. We also prove that the character degree graph associated to Irr_rv(G) has at most 3 connected components. Similar results for the set of real conjugacy classes of G have also been obtained. Part of this paper was done while the second author visited the Mathematics Department of the Università di Firenze. He would like to thank the Department for its hospitality. The authors are also grateful to F. Lübeck for helping them with some computer calculations. The research of the first author was partially supported by MIUR research program “Teoria dei gruppi ed applicazioni”. This research of the second author was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia proyecto MTM2004-06067-C02-01. The third author gratefully acknowledges the support of the NSA and the NSF.     

Cochromatic Number and the Genus of a Graph

The cochromatic number of a graph G, denoted by z(G), is the minimum number of subsets into which the vertex set of G can be partitioned so that each sbuset induces an empty or a complete subgraph of G. In this paper we introduce the problem of determining for a surface S, z(S), which is the maximum cochromatic number among all graphs G that embed in S. Some general bounds are obtained; for example, it is shown that if S is orientable of genus at least one, or if S is nonorientable of genus at least four, then z(S) is nonorientable of genus at least four, then z(S)≤χ(S). Here χ(S) denotes the chromatic number S. Exact results are obtained for the sphere, the Klein bottle, and for S. It is conjectured that z(S) is equal to the maximum n for which the graph G_n = K₁ ∪ K₂ ∪ … ∪ K_n embeds in S.     

Homogeneity results for invariant distributions of a reductive p-adic group

Let k denote a complete nonarchimedean local field with finite residue field. Let G be the group of k-rational points of a connected reductive linear algebraic group defined over k. Subject to some conditions, we establish a range of validity for the Harish-Chandra-Howe local expansion for characters of admissible irreducible representations of G. Subject to some restrictions, we also verify two analogues of this result.     

The average degree of an irreducible character of a finite group

Given a finite group G, we write acd(G) to denote the average of the degrees of the irreducible characters of G. We show that if acd(G) ≤ 3, then G is solvable. Also, if acd(G) < 3/2, then G is supersolvable, and if acd(G) < 4/3, then G is nilpotent.     

Some results on the spectral radii of bicyclic graphs

A bicyclic graph is a connected graph in which the number of edges equals the number of vertices plus one. Let Δ(G) and ρ(G) denote the maximum degree and the spectral radius of a graph G, respectively. Let B(n) be the set of bicyclic graphs on n vertices, and B(n,Δ)={G∈B(n)∣Δ(G)=Δ}. When Δ≥(n+3)/2 we characterize the graph which alone maximizes the spectral radius among all the graphs in B(n,Δ). It is also proved that for two graphs G₁ and G₂ in B(n), if Δ(G₁)>Δ(G₂) and Δ(G₁)≥⌈7n/9⌉+9, then ρ(G₁)>ρ(G₂).     

Hamiltonian cycles and dominating cycles passing through a linear forest

Let G be an (m+2)-graph on n vertices, and F be a linear forest in G with |E(F)|=m and ω₁(F)=s, where ω₁(F) is the number of components of order one in F. We denote by σ₃(G) the minimum value of the degree sum of three vertices which are pairwise non-adjacent. In this paper, we give several σ₃ conditions for a dominating cycle or a hamiltonian cycle passing through a linear forest. We first prove that if σ₃(G)≥n+2m+2+max{s−3,0}, then every longest cycle passing through F is dominating. Using this result, we prove that if σ₃(G)≥n+κ(G)+2m−1 then G contains a hamiltonian cycle passing through F. As a corollary, we obtain a result that if G is a 3-connected graph and σ₃(G)≥n+κ(G)+2, then G is hamiltonian-connected.