Enumeration of simple complete topological graphs

A simple topological graph $T=(V(T),E(T))$ is a drawing of a graph in the plane, where every two edges have at most one common point (an end-point or a crossing) and no three edges pass through a single crossing. Topological graphs G and H are isomorphic if H can be obtained from G by a homeomorphism of the sphere, and weakly isomorphic if G and H have the same set of pairs of crossing edges. We prove that the number of isomorphism classes of simple complete topological graphs on n vertices is $2^{\mathrm{\Theta }(n^4)}$. We also show that the number weak isomorphism classes of simple complete topological graphs with n vertices and $\left(\begin{array}{c}\hfill n\hfill \\ \hfill 4\hfill \end{array}\right)$ crossings is at least $2^{n(\log n-O(1))}$, which improves the estimate of Harborth an Mengersen.     

A result on the total colouring of powers of cycles

The total chromatic number χ_T(G) is the least number of colours needed to colour the vertices and edges of a graph G such that no incident or adjacent elements (vertices or edges) receive the same colour. The Total Colouring Conjecture (TCC) states that for every simple graph G, χ_T(G)?Δ(G)+2. This work verifies the TCC for powers of cycles even and 2<k<n/2, showing that there exists and can be polynomially constructed a (Δ(G)+2)-total colouring for these graphs.     

Sparse partition universal graphs for graphs of bounded degree

In 1983, Chvátal, Trotter and the two senior authors proved that for any Δ there exists a constant B such that, for any n, any 2-colouring of the edges of the complete graph KN with N?Bn vertices yields a monochromatic copy of any graph H that has n vertices and maximum degree Δ. We prove that the complete graph may be replaced by a sparser graph G that has N vertices and edges, with N=⌈B^′n⌉ for some constant B^′ that depends only on Δ. Consequently, the so-called size-Ramsey number of any H with n vertices and maximum degree Δ is . Our approach is based on random graphs; in fact, we show that the classical Erd?s–Rényi random graph with the numerical parameters above satisfies a stronger partition property with high probability, namely, that any 2-colouring of its edges contains a monochromatic universal graph for the class of graphs on n vertices and maximum degree Δ.The main tool in our proof is the regularity method, adapted to a suitable sparse setting. The novel ingredient developed here is an embedding strategy that allows one to embed bounded degree graphs of linear order in certain pseudorandom graphs. Crucial to our proof is the fact that regularity is typically inherited at a scale that is much finer than the scale at which it is assumed.     

On the spectral radii and the signless Laplacian spectral radii of c-cyclic graphs with fixed maximum degree

If G is a connected undirected simple graph on n vertices and n+c-1 edges, then G is called a c-cyclic graph. Specially, G is called a tricyclic graph if c=3. Let Δ(G) be the maximum degree of G. In this paper, we determine the structural characterizations of the c-cyclic graphs, which have the maximum spectral radii (resp. signless Laplacian spectral radii) in the class of c-cyclic graphs on n vertices with fixed maximum degree . Moreover, we prove that the spectral radius of a tricyclic graph G strictly increases with its maximum degree when , and identify the first six largest spectral radii and the corresponding graphs in the class of tricyclic graphs on n vertices.     

Graphs with maximal signless Laplacian spectral radius

By the signless Laplacian of a (simple) graph G we mean the matrix Q(G)=D(G)+A(G), where A(G),D(G) denote respectively the adjacency matrix and the diagonal matrix of vertex degrees of G. It is known that connected graphs G that maximize the signless Laplacian spectral radius ρ(Q(G)) over all connected graphs with given numbers of vertices and edges are (degree) maximal. For a maximal graph G with n vertices and r distinct vertex degrees δ_r>δ_r-1>?>δ₁, it is proved that ρ(Q(G))<ρ(Q(H)) for some maximal graph H with n+1 (respectively, n) vertices and the same number of edges as G if either G has precisely two dominating vertices or there exists an integer such that δ_i+δ_r+1-i?n+1 (respectively, δ_i+δ_r+1-i?δ_l+δ_r-l+1). Graphs that maximize ρ(Q(G)) over the class of graphs with m edges and m-k vertices, for k=0,1,2,3, are completely determined.     

Adjoint polynomials of bridge–path and bridge–cycle graphs and Chebyshev polynomials

The chromatic polynomial of a simple graph G with n>0 vertices is a polynomial of degree n, where α_k(G) is the number of k-independent partitions of G for all k. The adjoint polynomial of G is defined to be , where is the complement of G. We find explicit formulas for the adjoint polynomials of the bridge–path and bridge–cycle graphs. Consequence, we find the zeros of the adjoint polynomials of several families of graphs.     

Some graft transformations and its application on a distance spectrum

Let D(G)=(d_i,j)_n×n denote the distance matrix of a connected graph G with order n, where d_ij is equal to the distance between v_i and v_j in G. The largest eigenvalue of D(G) is called the distance spectral radius of graph G, denoted by ?(G). In this paper, we give some graft transformations that decrease and increase ?(G) and prove that the graph (obtained from the star S_n on n (n is not equal to 4, 5) vertices by adding an edge connecting two pendent vertices) has minimal distance spectral radius among unicyclic graphs on n vertices; while (obtained from a triangle K₃ by attaching pendent path P_n−3 to one of its vertices) has maximal distance spectral radius among unicyclic graphs on n vertices.     

The Randi? index and the diameter of graphs

The Randi? indexR(G) of a graph G is defined as the sum of over all edges uv of G, where d_u and d_v are the degrees of vertices u and v, respectively. Let D(G) be the diameter of G when G is connected. Aouchiche et al. (2007) [1] conjectured that among all connected graphs G on n vertices the path P_n achieves the minimum values for both R(G)/D(G) and R(G)−D(G). We prove this conjecture completely. In fact, we prove a stronger theorem: If G is a connected graph, then , with equality if and only if G is a path with at least three vertices.     

Two remarks on the Burr–Erdős conjecture

The Ramsey number r(H) of a graph H is the minimum positive integer N such that every two-coloring of the edges of the complete graph K_N on N vertices contains a monochromatic copy of H. A graph H is d-degenerate if every subgraph of H has minimum degree at most d. Burr and Erdős in 1975 conjectured that for each positive integer d there is a constant c_d such that r(H)≤c_dn for every d-degenerate graph H on n vertices. We show that for such graphs , improving on an earlier bound of Kostochka and Sudakov. We also study Ramsey numbers of random graphs, showing that for d fixed, almost surely the random graph G(n,d/n) has Ramsey number linear in n. For random bipartite graphs, our proof gives nearly tight bounds.     

Independence polynomials of k-tree related graphs

An independent set of a graph G is a set of pairwise non-adjacent vertices. Let α(G) denote the cardinality of a maximum independent set and f_s(G) for 0≤s≤α(G) denote the number of independent sets of s vertices. The independence polynomial defined first by Gutman and Harary has been the focus of considerable research recently. Wingard bounded the coefficients f_s(T) for trees T with n vertices: for s≥2. We generalize this result to bounds for a very large class of graphs, maximal k-degenerate graphs, a class which includes all k-trees. Additionally, we characterize all instances where our bounds are achieved, and determine exactly the independence polynomials of several classes of k-tree related graphs. Our main theorems generalize several related results known before.     

On the dual rigidity matrix

A novel characterization of bar-and-joint framework rigidity was introduced in [A.Y. Alfakih. Graph rigidity via Euclidean distance matrices. Linear Algebra Appl., 310 (2000) 149-165; A.Y. Alfakih. On rigidity and realizability of weighted graphs. Linear Algebra Appl., 325 (2001) 57-70]. This characterization uses the notion of normal cones of convex sets to define a matrix whose rank determines whether or not a given generic framework is rigid. Furthermore, this characterization was derived under the assumption that the framework of interest G(p) has an equivalent framework G(q) in R^n-1, where n is the number of vertices of G(p). In this paper we show that the matrix corresponding to a framework G(p) contains the same information as the well-known rigidity matrix R. Whereas the entries of R are a function of the positions of the vertices of G(p), the entries of are a function of the Gale matrix corresponding to G(p). Furthermore, while the number of rows of R is equal to the number of edges of G(p), the number of columns of is equal to the number of missing edges of G(p). We also show that the assumption of the existence of an equivalent framework G(q) in R^n-1 can be dropped and we give the precise relation between the left-nullspaces, and consequently the nullspaces, of R and .     

Finding large cycles in Hamiltonian graphs

We show how to find in Hamiltonian graphs a cycle of length n^{Ω(1/loglogn)}=exp(Ω(logn/loglogn)). This is a consequence of a more general result in which we show that if G has a maximum degree d and has a cycle with k vertices (or a 3-cyclable minor H with k vertices), then we can find in O(n³) time a cycle in G of length k^Ω(1/logd). From this we infer that if G has a cycle of length k, then one can find in O(n³) time a cycle of length k^{Ω(1/(log(n/k)+loglogn))}, which implies the result for Hamiltonian graphs. Our results improve, for some values of k and d, a recent result of Gabow (2004) [11] showing that if G has a cycle of length k, then one can find in polynomial time a cycle in G of length . We finally show that if G has fixed Euler genus g and has a cycle with k vertices (or a 3-cyclable minor H with k vertices), then we can find in polynomial time a cycle in G of length f(g)k^Ω(1), running in time O(n²) for planar graphs.     

The first order definability of graphs: Upper bounds for quantifier depth

Let D(G) denote the minimum quantifier depth of a first order sentence that defines a graph G up to isomorphism in terms of the adjacency and equality relations. Call two vertices of G similar if they have the same adjacency to any other vertex and denote the maximum number of pairwise similar vertices in G by σ(G). We prove that σ(G)+1?D(G)?max{σ(G)+2,(n+5)/2}, where n denotes the number of vertices of G. In particular, D(G)?(n+5)/2 for every G with no transposition in the automorphism group. If G is connected and has maximum degree d, we prove that for a constant . A linear lower bound for graphs of maximum degree 3 with no transposition in the automorphism group follows from an earlier result by Cai, Fürer, and Immerman [An optimal lower bound on the number of variables for graph identification, Combinatorica 12(4) (1992) 389-410]. Our upper bounds for D(G) hold true even if we allow only definitions with at most one alternation in any sequence of nested quantifiers.In passing we establish an upper bound for a related number D(G,G^′), the minimum quantifier depth of a first order sentence which is true on exactly one of graphs G and G^′. If G and G^′ are non-isomorphic and both have n vertices, then D(G,G^′)?(n+3)/2. This bound is tight up to an additive constant of 1. If we additionally require that a sentence distinguishing G and G^′ is existential, we prove only a slightly weaker bound D(G,G^′)?(n+5)/2.     

The Laplacian spectral radius of some bipartite graphs

In this paper, we study the largest Laplacian spectral radius of the bipartite graphs with n vertices and k cut edges and the bicyclic bipartite graphs, respectively. Identifying the center of a star K_1,k and one vertex of degree n of K_m,n, we denote by the resulting graph. We show that the graph (1?k?n-4) is the unique graph with the largest Laplacian spectral radius among the bipartite graphs with n vertices and k cut edges, and (n?7) is the unique graph with the largest Laplacian spectral radius among all the bicyclic bipartite graphs.     

Bounds relating the weakly connected domination number to the total domination number and the matching number

Let G=(V,E) be a connected graph. A dominating set S of G is a weakly connected dominating set of G if the subgraph (V,E∩(S×V)) of G with vertex set V that consists of all edges of G incident with at least one vertex of S is connected. The minimum cardinality of a weakly connected dominating set of G is the weakly connected domination number, denoted . A set S of vertices in G is a total dominating set of G if every vertex of G is adjacent to some vertex in S. The minimum cardinality of a total dominating set of G is the total domination number γ_t(G) of G. In this paper, we show that . Properties of connected graphs that achieve equality in these bounds are presented. We characterize bipartite graphs as well as the family of graphs of large girth that achieve equality in the lower bound, and we characterize the trees achieving equality in the upper bound. The number of edges in a maximum matching of G is called the matching number of G, denoted α^′(G). We also establish that , and show that for every tree T.     

Graham’s pebbling conjecture on product of thorn graphs of complete graphs

The pebbling number of a graph G, f(G), is the least n such that, no matter how n pebbles are placed on the vertices of G, we can move a pebble to any vertex by a sequence of pebbling moves, each move taking two pebbles off one vertex and placing one on an adjacent vertex. Let p₁,p₂,…,p_n be positive integers and G be such a graph, V(G)=n. The thorn graph of the graph G, with parameters p₁,p₂,…,p_n, is obtained by attaching p_i new vertices of degree 1 to the vertex u_i of the graph G, i=1,2,…,n. Graham conjectured that for any connected graphs G and H, f(G×H)≤f(G)f(H). We show that Graham’s conjecture holds true for a thorn graph of the complete graph with every by a graph with the two-pebbling property. As a corollary, Graham’s conjecture holds when G and H are the thorn graphs of the complete graphs with every .     

Construction of a family of graphs with a small induced proper subgraph with minimum degree 3

We investigate the following question proposed by Erd?s: Is there a constant c such that, for each n, if G is a graph with n vertices, 2n-1edges, andδ(G)?3, then G contains an induced proper subgraph H with at least cn vertices andδ(H)?3?Previously we showed that there exists no such constant c by constructing a family of graphs whose induced proper subgraph with minimum degree 3 contains at most vertices. In this paper we present a construction of a family of graphs whose largest induced proper subgraph with minimum degree 3 is K₄. Also a similar construction of a graph with n vertices and αn+β edges is given.     

On edges crossing few other edges in simple topological complete graphs

We study the existence of edges having few crossings with the other edges in drawings of the complete graph (more precisely, in simple topological complete graphs). A topological graphT=(V,E) is a graph drawn in the plane with vertices represented by distinct points and edges represented by Jordan curves connecting the corresponding pairs of points (vertices), passing through no other vertices, and having the property that any intersection point of two edges is either a common end-point or a point where the two edges properly cross. A topological graph is simple if any two edges meet in at most one common point.Let h=h(n) be the smallest integer such that every simple topological complete graph on n vertices contains an edge crossing at most h other edges. We show that Ω(n^3/2)≤h(n)≤O(n²/log^1/4n). We also show that the analogous function on other surfaces (torus, Klein bottle) grows as cn².     

Domination of generalized Cartesian products

The generalized prism πG of G is the graph consisting of two copies of G, with edges between the copies determined by a permutation π acting on the vertices of G. We define a generalized Cartesian product that corresponds to the Cartesian product when π is the identity, and the generalized prism when H is the graph K₂. Burger, Mynhardt and Weakley [A.P. Burger, C.M. Mynhardt, W.D. Weakley, On the domination number of prisms of graphs, Discuss. Math. Graph Theory 24 (2) (2004) 303-318.] characterized universal doublers, i.e. graphs for which γ(πG)=2γ(G) for any π. In general for any n≥2 and permutation π, and a graph attaining equality in this upper bound for all π is called a universal multiplier. We characterize such graphs.