Every finite graph is a full subgraph of a rigid graph

We prove that every finite undirected graph is a full subgraph of a rigid graph. Our construction proceeds on taking a family of “mutually rigid” graphs and attaching them to the vertices of a given graph in a one-to-one manner; then the vertices are fixed on their place. Actually, the new graph is “strongly rigid”, which enables us to show that the category of all graphs containing a given finite graph as a full subgraph is binding.     

Containment relations in split graphs

A graph containment problem is to decide whether one graph can be modified into some other graph by using a number of specified graph operations. We consider edge deletions, edge contractions, vertex deletions and vertex dissolutions as possible graph operations permitted. By allowing any combination of these four operations we capture the following ten problems: testing on (induced) minors, (induced) topological minors, (induced) subgraphs, (induced) spanning subgraphs, dissolutions and contractions. A split graph is a graph whose vertex set can be partitioned into a clique and an independent set. Our results combined with existing results settle the parameterized complexity of all ten problems for split graphs.     

Clique-Coloring Circular-Arc Graphs

A clique-coloring of a graph is a coloring of its vertices such that no maximal clique of size at least two is monochromatic. A circular-arc graph is the intersection graph of a family of arcs in a circle. We show that every circular-arc graph is 3-clique-colorable. Moreover, we characterize which circular-arc graphs are 2-clique-colorable. Our proof is constructive and gives a polynomial-time algorithm to find an optimal clique-coloring of a given circular-arc graph.     

Homomorphisms and amalgamation

We prove that for each finite core graph G, the class of all graphs admitting a homomorphism into G is a pseudo-amalgamation class, in the sense of Fraı̈ssé. This fact gives rise to a countably infinite universal pseudo-homogeneous graph which shares some of the properties of the infinite random graph. Our methods apply simultaneously to G-colourings in several classes of relational structures, such as the classes of directed graphs or hypergraphs.     

Graph triangulations and the compatibility of unrooted phylogenetic trees

We characterize the compatibility of a collection of unrooted phylogenetic trees as a question of determining whether a graph derived from these trees — the display graph — has a specific kind of triangulation, which we call legal. Our result is a counterpart to the well-known triangulation-based characterization of the compatibility of undirected multi-state characters.     

Using matrices to link conflict evolution and resolution in a graph model

The graph model for conflict resolution provides a convenient and effective means to model and analyze a strategic conflict. Standard practice is to carry out a stability analysis of a graph model, and then to follow up with a post-stability analysis, an important component of which is status quo analysis. A graph model can be viewed as an edge-colored graph, but the fundamental problem of status quo analysis – to find a shortest colored path from the status quo node to a desired equilibrium – is different from the well-known network analysis problem of finding the shortest path between two nodes. The only matrix method that has been proposed cannot track all aspects of the evolution of a conflict from the status quo state. Our explicit algebraic approach is convenient for computer implementation and, as demonstrated with a real world case study, easy to use. It provides new insights into a graph model, not only identifying all equilibria reachable from the status quo, but also how to reach them. Moreover, this approach bridges the gap between stability analysis and status quo analysis in the graph model for conflict resolution.     

Weakly triangulated graphs

A graph is triangulated if it has no chordless cycle with four or more vertices. It follows that the complement of a triangulated graph cannot contain a chordless cycle with five or more vertices. We introduce a class of graphs (namely, weakly triangulated graphs) which includes both triangulated graphs and complements of triangulated graphs (we define a graph as weakly triangulated if neither it nor its complement contains a chordless cycle with five or more vertices). Our main result is a structural theorem which leads to a proof that weakly triangulated graphs are perfect.     

Constructing cospectral graphs via a new form of graph product

We present a new method to construct a family of co-spectral graphs. Our method is based on a new type of graph product that we define, the bipartite graph product, which may be of self-interest. Our method is different from existing techniques in the sense that it is not based on a sequence of local graph operations (e.g. Godsil–McKay switching). The explicit nature of our construction allows us, for example, to construct an infinite family of cospectral graphs and provide an easy proof of non-isomorphism. We are also able to characterize fully the spectrum of the cospectral graphs.     

Critical groups of graphs with reflective symmetry

The critical group of a graph is a finite Abelian group whose order is the number of spanning forests of the graph. For a graph G with a certain reflective symmetry, we generalize a result of Ciucu–Yan–Zhang factorizing the spanning tree number of G by interpreting this as a result about the critical group of G. Our result takes the form of an exact sequence, and explicit connections to bicycle spaces are made.     

A sufficient condition for boundedness of tolerance graphs

Golumbic, Monma, and Trotter showed that every tolerance graph for which no vertex neighborhood is contained in another vertex neighborhood is a bounded tolerance graph. We strengthen this result by weakening the neighborhood condition. In this way, more tolerance graphs can be recognized as bounded. Our argument relies on a variation of the concept of “assertive vertices”.     

Solving some NP-complete problems using split decomposition

We show how to use the split decomposition to solve some NP-hard optimization problems on graphs. We give algorithms for clique problem and domination-type problems. Our main result is an algorithm to compute a coloration of a graph using its split decomposition. Finally we show that the clique-width of a graph is bounded if and only if the clique-width of each representative graph in its split decomposition is bounded.     

Matching shape graphs

Graphs are important structures to model complex relationships such as chemical compounds, proteins, geometric or hierarchical parts, and XML documents. Given a query graph, indexing has become a necessity to retrieve similar graphs quickly from large databases. We propose a novel technique for indexing databases, whose entries can be represented as graph structures. Our method starts by representing the topological structure of a graph as well as that of its subgraphs as vectors in which the components correspond to the sorted laplacian eigenvalues of the graph or subgraphs. By doing a nearest neighbor search around the query spectra, similar but not necessarily isomorphic graphs are retrieved. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Spectral partitioning with multiple eigenvectors

The graph partitioning problem is to divide the vertices of a graph into disjoint clusters to minimize the total cost of the edges cut by the clusters. A spectral partitioning heuristic uses the graph's eigenvectors to construct a geometric representation of the graph (e.g., linear orderings) which are subsequently partitioned. Our main result shows that when all the eigenvectors are used, graph partitioning reduces to a new vector partitioning problem. This result implies that as many eigenvectors as are practically possible should be used to construct a solution. This philosophy is in contrast to that of the widely used spectral bipartitioning (SB) heuristic (which uses only a single eigenvector) and several previous multi-way partitioning heuristics [8, 11, 17, 27, 38] (which use k eigenvectors to construct k-way partitionings). Our result motivates a simple ordering heuristic that is a multiple-eigenvector extension of SB. This heuristic not only significantly outperforms recursive SB, but can also yield excellent multi-way VLSI circuit partitionings as compared to [1, 11]. Our experiments suggest that the vector partitioning perspective opens the door to new and effective partitioning heuristics. The present paper updates and improves a preliminary version of this work [5].     

The structure of graph maps without periodic points

In this paper we show that any graph map without periodic points has only one minimal set. We describe a class of graph maps without periodic points. Our main result is to give a structure theorem of graph maps without periodic points, which states that any graph map without periodic points must be topologically conjugate to one of the described class. In addition, we give some applications of the structure theorem.     

Games induced by the partitioning of a graph

The paper aims at generalizing the notion of restricted game on a communication graph, introduced by Myerson. We consider communication graphs with weighted edges, and we define arbitrary ways of partitioning any subset of a graph, which we call correspondences. A particularly useful way to partition a graph is obtained by computing the strength of the graph. The strength of a graph is a measure introduced in graph theory to evaluate the resistance of networks under attacks, and it provides a natural partition of the graph (called the Gusfield correspondence) into resistant components. We perform a general study of the inheritance of superadditivity and convexity for the restricted game associated with a given correspondence. Our main result is to give for cycle-free graphs necessary and sufficient conditions for the inheritance of convexity of the restricted game associated with the Gusfield correspondence.     

Counting trees with random walks

We give a simple proof of Tutte’s matrix-tree theorem, a well-known result providing a closed-form expression for the number of rooted spanning trees in a directed graph. Our proof stems from placing a random walk on a directed graph and then applying the Markov chain tree theorem to count trees. The connection between the two theorems is not new, but it appears that only one direction of the formal equivalence between them is readily available in the literature. The proof we now provide establishes the other direction. More generally, our approach is another example showing that random walks can serve as a powerful glue between graph theory and Markov chain theory, allowing formal statements from one side to be carried over to the other.     

On parse trees and Myhill-Nerode-type tools for handling graphs of bounded rank-width

Rank-width is a structural graph measure introduced by Oum and Seymour and aimed at better handling of graphs of bounded clique-width. We propose a formal mathematical framework and tools for easy design of dynamic algorithms running directly on a rank-decomposition of a graph (on contrary to the usual approach which translates a rank-decomposition into a clique-width expression, with a possible exponential jump in the parameter). The main advantage of this framework is a fine control over the runtime dependency on the rank-width parameter. Our new approach is linked to a work of Courcelle and Kanté [7] who first proposed algebraic expressions with a so-called bilinear graph product as a better way of handling rank-decompositions, and to a parallel recent research of Bui-Xuan, Telle and Vatshelle.     

Symmetry Groups of Coloured Graphs

A perfect colouring Φ of a simple undirected connected graph G is an edge colouring such that each vertex is incident with exactly one edge of each colour. This paper concerns the problem of representing groups by graphs with perfect colourings. We define groups of graph automorphisms, which preserve the structure of the colouring, and characterize these groups up to isomorphism. Our considerations are based on the fact that every perfectly coloured graph is isomorphic to a Schreier coset graph on a group generated by involutions.     

Dynamically maintaining split graphs

We present an algorithm that supports operations for modifying a split graph by adding edges or vertices and deleting edges, such that after each modification the graph is repaired to become a split graph in a minimal way. In particular, if the graph is not split after the modification, the algorithm computes a minimal, or if desired even a minimum, split completion or deletion of the modified graph. The motivation for such operations is similar to the motivation for fully dynamic algorithms for particular graph classes. In our case we allow all modifications to the graph and repair, rather than allowing only the modifications that keep the graph split. Fully dynamic algorithms of the latter kind are known for split graphs [L. Ibarra, Fully dynamic algorithms for chordal graphs and split graphs, Technical Report DCS-262-IR, University of Victoria, Canada, 2000].Our results can be used to design linear time algorithms for some recognition and completion problems, where the input is supplied in an on-line fashion.