Odd‐angulated graphs and cancelling factors in box products

Under what conditions is it true that if there is a graph homomorphism G □ H → G □ T, then there is a graph homomorphism H→ T? Let G be a connected graph of odd girth 2k + 1. We say that G is (2k + 1)‐angulated if every two vertices of G are joined by a path each of whose edges lies on some (2k + 1)‐cycle. We call G strongly (2k + 1)‐angulated if every two vertices are connected by a sequence of (2k + 1)‐cycles with consecutive cycles sharing at least one edge. We prove that if G is strongly (2k + 1)‐angulated, H is any graph, S, T are graphs with odd girth at least 2k + 1, and ?: G□ H→S□T is a graph homomorphism, then either ? maps G□{h} to S□{t_h} for all h∈V(H) where t_h∈V(T) depends on h; or ? maps G□{h} to {s_h}□ T for all h∈V(H) where s_h∈V(S) depends on h. This theorem allows us to prove several sufficient conditions for a cancelation law of a graph homomorphism between two box products with a common factor. We conclude the article with some open questions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 58:221‐238, 2008     

Maximal σ‐polynomials of connected 3‐chromatic graphs

In the set of graphs of order n and chromatic number k the following partial order relation is defined. One says that a graph G is less than a graph H if c_i(G) ≤ c_i(H) holds for every i, k ≤ i ≤ n and at least one inequality is strict, where c_i(G) denotes the number of i‐color partitions of G. In this paper the first ? n/2 ? levels of the diagram of the partially ordered set of connected 3‐chromatic graphs of order n are described. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 210–222, 2003     

Monochromatic Hamiltonian t‐tight Berge‐cycles in hypergraphs

In any r‐uniform hypergraph for 2 ≤ t ≤ r we define an r‐uniform t‐tight Berge‐cycle of length ?, denoted by C_?^{(r, t)}, as a sequence of distinct vertices v₁, v₂, … , v_?, such that for each set (v_i, v_{i + 1}, … , v_{i + t ? 1}) of t consecutive vertices on the cycle, there is an edge E_i of that contains these t vertices and the edges E_i are all distinct for i, 1 ≤ i ≤ ?, where ? + j ≡ j. For t = 2 we get the classical Berge‐cycle and for t = r we get the so‐called tight cycle. In this note we formulate the following conjecture. For any fixed 2 ≤ c, t ≤ r satisfying c + t ≤ r + 1 and sufficiently large n, if we color the edges of K_n^(r), the complete r‐uniform hypergraph on n vertices, with c colors, then there is a monochromatic Hamiltonian t‐tight Berge‐cycle. We prove some partial results about this conjecture and we show that if true the conjecture is best possible. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 59: 34–44, 2008     

Facial non‐repetitive edge‐coloring of plane graphs

A sequence r₁, r₂, …, r_2n such that r_i=r_{n+ i} for all 1≤i≤n is called a repetition. A sequence S is called non‐repetitive if no block (i.e. subsequence of consecutive terms of S) is a repetition. Let G be a graph whose edges are colored. A trail is called non‐repetitive if the sequence of colors of its edges is non‐repetitive. If G is a plane graph, a facial non‐repetitive edge‐coloring of G is an edge‐coloring such that any facial trail (i.e. a trail of consecutive edges on the boundary walk of a face) is non‐repetitive. We denote π′_f(G) the minimum number of colors of a facial non‐repetitive edge‐coloring of G. In this article, we show that π′_f(G)≤8 for any plane graph G. We also get better upper bounds for π′_f(G) in the cases when G is a tree, a plane triangulation, a simple 3‐connected plane graph, a hamiltonian plane graph, an outerplanar graph or a Halin graph. The bound 4 for trees is tight. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66: 38–48, 2010     

Divisibility and structure constraints on automorphism groups of almost perfect 1-factorizations of

Let G be a permutation group acting on a set with N elements such that every permutation with more than m fixed points is the identity. It is easy to verify that |G| divides N(N − 1) ··· (N − m). We show that if gcd(|G|, m!) = 1, then |G| divides (N − i)(N − j) for some i and j satisfying 0 ≤ i < j ≤ m. We use this to show that any almost perfect 1-factorization of K_2n has an automorphism group whose cardinality divides (2n − i)(2n − j) for some i and j with 0 ≤ i < j ≤ 2 as long as n is odd. An almost perfect 1-factorization (or APOF) is a 1-factorization in which the union of any three distinct 1-factors is connected. This result contrasts with an example of an APOF on K₁₂ given by Cameron which has PSL(2, ℤ₁₁) as its automorphism group [with cardinality 12(11)(5)]. When n is even and the automorphism group is solvable, we show that either G acts vertex transitively and n is a power of two, or |G| divides 2n − 2^a for some integer a with 2^a dividing 2n, or else |G| divides (2n − i)(2n − j) for some i and j with 0 ≤ i < j ≤ 2. We also give a number of structure results concerning these automorphism groups. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 6: 355–380, 1998     

Partitions of a graph into paths with prescribed endvertices and lengths

For a graph G, let σ₂(G) denote the minimum degree sum of a pair of nonadjacent vertices. We conjecture that if |V(G)| = n = Σ^k_{i = 1} a_i and σ₂(G) ≥ n + k − 1, then for any k vertices v₁, v₂,…, v_k in G, there exist vertex‐disjoint paths P₁, P₂,…, P_k such that |V(P_i)| = a_i and v_i is an endvertex of P_i for 1 ≤ i ≤ k. In this paper, we verify the conjecture for the cases where almost all a_i ≤ 5, and the cases where k ≤ 3. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 34: 163–169, 2000     

Containment properties of product and power graphs

In this paper, we study containment properties of graphs in relation with the Cartesian product operation. These results can be used to derive embedding results for interconnection networks for parallel architectures.First, we show that the isomorphism of two Cartesian powers G^r and H^r implies the isomorphism of G and H, while G^r⊆H^r does not imply G⊆H, even for the special cases when G and H are prime, and when they are connected and have the same number of nodes at the same time.Then, we find a simple sufficient condition under which the containment of products implies the containment of the factors: if , where all graphs G_i are connected and no graph H_j has 4-cycles, then each G_i is a subgraph of a different graph H_j. Hence, if G is connected and H has no 4-cycles, then G^r⊆H^r implies G⊆H.Finally, we focus on the particular case of products of graphs with the linear array. We show that the fact that G×L_n⊆H×L_n does not imply that G⊆H even in the case when G and H are connected and have the same number of nodes. However, we find a sufficient condition under which G×L_n⊆H×L_n implies G⊆H.     

Partitioning complete multipartite graphs by monochromatic trees

The tree partition number of an r‐edge‐colored graph G, denoted by t_r(G), is the minimum number k such that whenever the edges of G are colored with r colors, the vertices of G can be covered by at most k vertex‐disjoint monochromatic trees. We determine t₂(K(n₁, n₂,…, n_k)) of the complete k‐partite graph K(n₁, n₂,…, n_k). In particular, we prove that t₂(K(n, m)) = ? (m‐2)/2ⁿ? + 2, where 1 ≤ n ≤ m. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 48: 133–141, 2005     

Component structure of the vacant set induced by a random walk on a random graph

We consider random walks on several classes of graphs and explore the likely structure of the vacant set, i.e. the set of unvisited vertices. Let Γ(t) be the subgraph induced by the vacant set of the walk at step t. We show that for random graphs G_n,p (above the connectivity threshold) and for random regular graphs G_r,r ≥ 3, the graph Γ(t) undergoes a phase transition in the sense of the well‐known ErdJW‐RSAT1100590x.png ‐Renyi phase transition. Thus for t ≤ (1 ‐ ε)t^*, there is a unique giant component, plus components of size O(log n), and for t ≥ (1 + ε)t^* all components are of size O(log n). For G_n,p and G_r we give the value of t^*, and the size of Γ(t). For G_r, we also give the degree sequence of Γ(t), the size of the giant component (if any) of Γ(t) and the number of tree components of Γ(t) of a given size k = O(log n). We also show that for random digraphs D_n,p above the strong connectivity threshold, there is a similar directed phase transition. Thus for t ≤ (1 ‐ ε)t^*, there is a unique strongly connected giant component, plus strongly connected components of size O(log n), and for t ≥ (1 + ε)t^* all strongly connected components are of size O(log n). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2012     

Perfect codes in direct products of cycles—a complete characterization

Let be a direct product of cycles. It is known that for any r1, and any n2, each connected component of G contains a so-called canonical r-perfect code provided that each ℓ_i is a multiple of rⁿ+(r+1)ⁿ. Here we prove that up to a reasonably defined equivalence, these are the only perfect codes that exist.     

On the diameter of i‐center in a graph without long induced paths

A graph G is said to be P_t‐free if it does not contain an induced path on t vertices. The i‐center C_i(G) of a connected graph G is the set of vertices whose distance from any vertex in G is at most i. Denote by I(t) the set of natural numbers i, ⌊t/2⌋ ≤ i ≤ t − 2, with the property that, in every connected P_t‐free graph G, the i‐center C_i(G) of G induces a connected subgraph of G. In this article, the sharp upper bound on the diameter of G[C_i(G)] is established for every i ∈ I(t). The sharp lower bound on I(t) is obtained consequently. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 30: 235–241, 1999     

Covering the vertices of a graph by cycles of prescribed length

The main theorem of that paper is the following: let G be a graph of order n, of size at least (n² - 3n + 6)/2. For any integers k, n₁, n₂,…,n_k such that n = n₁ + n₂ +. + n_k and n_i ? 3, there exists a covering of the vertices of G by disjoint cycles (C_i) =l…k with |C_i| = ni, except when n = 6, n₁ = 3, n₂ = 3, and G is isomorphic to G₁, the complement of G₁ consisting of a C₃ and a stable set of three vertices, or when n = 9, n₁ = n₂ = n₃ = 3, and G is isomorphic to G₂, the complement of G₂ consisting of a complete graph on four vertices and a stable set of five vertices. We prove an analogous theorem for bipartite graphs: let G be a bipartite balanced graph of order 2n, of size at least n² - n + 2. For any integers s, n₁, n₂,…,n_s with n_i ? 2 and n = n₁ + n₂ + ? + n_s, there exists a covering of the vertices of G by s disjoint cycles C_i, with |C_i| = 2n_i.     

Sharp bounds for the number of 3‐independent partitions and the chromaticity of bipartite graphs

Given a graph G and an integer k ≥ 1, let α(G, k) denote the number of k‐independent partitions of G. Let ??^?s(p,q) (resp., ??₂^?s(p,q)) denote the family of connected (resp., 2‐connected) graphs which are obtained from the complete bipartite graph K_p,q by deleting a set of s edges, where p ≥ q ≥ 2. This paper first gives a sharp upper bound for α(G,3), where G ∈ ?? ^?s(p,q) and 0 ≤ s ≤ (p ? 1)(q ? 1) (resp., G ∈ ?? ₂^?s(p,q) and 0 ≤ s ≤ p + q ? 4). These bounds are then used to show that if G ∈ ?? ^?s(p,q) (resp., G ∈ ?? ₂^?s (p,q)), then the chromatic equivalence class of G is a subset of the union of the sets ??^?s_i(p+i,q?i) where max and s_i = s ? i(p?q+i) (resp., a subset of ??₂^?s(p,q), where either 0 ≤ s ≤ q ? 1, or s ≤ 2q ? 3 and p ≥ q + 4). By applying these results, we show finally that any 2‐connected graph obtained from K_p,q by deleting a set of edges that forms a matching of size at most q ? 1 or that induces a star is chromatically unique. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 37: 48–77, 2001     

On 2‐factors of a bipartite graph

In this article, we consider the following problem: Given a bipartite graph G and a positive integer k, when does G have a 2‐factor with exactly k components? We will prove that if G = (V₁, V₂, E) is a bipartite graph with |V₁| = |V₂| = n ≥ 2k + 1 and δ (G) ≥ ⌈n/2⌉ + 1, then G contains a 2‐factor with exactly k components. We conjecture that if G = (V₁, V₂; E) is a bipartite graph such that |V₁| = |V₂| = n ≥ 2 and δ (G) ≥ ⌈n/2⌉ + 1, then, for any bipartite graph H = (U₁, U₂; F) with |U₁| ≤ n, |U₂| ≤ n and Δ (H) ≤ 2, G contains a subgraph isomorphic to H. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 31: 101–106, 1999     

Mixed ramsey numbers: Chromatic numbers versus graphs

For positive integers n₁, n₂, …, n_I and graphs G_I+1, G_I+2, …, G_k, 1 ≤ / < k, the mixed Ramsey number _χ(n₁, …, n₁, G_I+1, …, G_k) is define as the least positive integer p such that for each factorization K_p = F₁⊕ … ⊕ F_⊕ F_I+1⊕ … ⊕ F_k, it it follows that χ(F_i) ≥ n_i for some i, 1 ? i ? l, or G_i is a subgraph of F_i for some i, l < i ? k. Formulas are presented for maxed Ramsey numbers in which the graphs G_I+1, G_I+2, …, G_k are connected, and in which k = I+1 and G_I+1 is arbitray.     

1-Factorizations of cartesian products of regular graphs

Let G₁, G₂…, G_n be regular graphs and H be the Cartesian product of these graphs (H = G₁ × G₂ × … × G_n). The following will be proved: If the set {G₁, G₂…, G_n} has at leat one of the following properties: (*) for at leat one i ? {1, 2,…, n}, there exists a 1-factorization of G_i or (**) there exists at least two numbers i and j such that 1 ≤ i < j ≤ n and both the Graphs G_i and G_j contain at least one 1-factor, then there exists a 1-factorization of H. Further results: Let F be a cycle of length greater than three and let G be an arbitrary cubic graph. Then there exists a 1-factorization of the 5-regular graph H = F × G. The last result shows that neither (*) nor (**) is a necessary condition for the existence of a 1-factorization of a Cartesian product of regular graphs.     

On Optimal Orientations of Cartesian Products of Trees

. Let d(D) (resp., d(G)) denote the diameter and r(D) (resp., r(G)) the radius of a digraph D (resp., graph G). Let G×H denote the cartesian product of two graphs G and H. An orientation D of G is said to be (r, d)-invariant if r(D)=r(G) and d(D)=d(G). Let {T _i }, i=1,…,n, where n≥2, be a family of trees. In this paper, we show that the graph ∏ _{i =1} ⁿ T _i admits an (r, d)-invariant orientation provided that d(T ₁)≥d(T ₂)≥4 for n=2, and d(T ₁)≥5 and d(T ₂)≥4 for n≥3. Received: July 30, 1997 Final version received: April 20, 1998     

The symmetric (2k,k)‐graphs

A noncomplete graph G is called an (n, k)‐graph if it is n‐connected and G − X is not (n − |X| + 1)‐connected for any X ⊆ V(G) with |X| ≤ k. Mader conjectured that for k ≥ 3 the graph K_{2k + 2} − (1‐factor) is the unique (2k, k)‐graph. We settle this conjecture for strongly regular graphs, for edge transitive graphs, and for vertex transitive graphs. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 36: 35–51, 2001     

On three zero-sum Ramsey-type problems

For a graph G whose number of edges is divisible by k, let R(G,Z_k) denote the minimum integer r such that for every function f: E(K_r) ? Z_k there is a copy G¹ of G in K_r so that Σe∈E(G¹) f(e) = 0 (in Z_k). We prove that for every integer k₁ R(K_n, Z_k) ≤ n + O(k³ log k) provided n is sufficiently large as a function of k and k divides (). If, in addition, k is an odd prime-power then R(K_n, Z_k) ≤ n + 2k - 2 and this is tight if k is a prime that divides n. A related result is obtained for hypergraphs. It is further shown that for every graph G on n vertices with an even number of edges R(G,Z₂) ≤ n + 2. This estimate is sharp. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Large Kr‐free subgraphs in Ks‐free graphs and some other Ramsey‐type problems

In this paper we present three Ramsey‐type results, which we derive from a simple and yet powerful lemma, proved using probabilistic arguments. Let 3 ≤ r < s be fixed integers and let G be a graph on n vertices not containing a complete graph K_s on s vertices. More than 40 years ago Erd?s and Rogers posed the problem of estimating the maximum size of a subset of G without a copy of the complete graph K_r. Our first result provides a new lower bound for this problem, which improves previous results of various researchers. It also allows us to solve some special cases of a closely related question posed by Erd?s. For two graphs G and H, the Ramsey number R(G, H) is the minimum integer N such that any red‐blue coloring of the edges of the complete graph K_N, contains either a red copy of G or a blue copy of H. The book with n pages is the graph B_n consisting of n triangles sharing one edge. Here we study the book‐complete graph Ramsey numbers and show that R(B_n, K_n) ≤ O(n³/log^3/2n), improving the bound of Li and Rousseau. Finally, motivated by a question of Erd?s, Hajnal, Simonovits, Sós, and Szemerédi, we obtain for all 0 < δ < 2/3 an estimate on the number of edges in a K₄‐free graph of order n which has no independent set of size n^1‐δ. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2005