Edge local complementation and equivalence of binary linear codes

Orbits of graphs under the operation edge local complementation (ELC) are defined. We show that the ELC orbit of a bipartite graph corresponds to the equivalence class of a binary linear code. The information sets and the minimum distance of a code can be derived from the corresponding ELC orbit. By extending earlier results on local complementation (LC) orbits, we classify the ELC orbits of all graphs on up to 12 vertices. We also give a new method for classifying binary linear codes, with running time comparable to the best known algorithm.     

Graph polynomials from principal pivoting

The recursive computation of the interlace polynomial introduced by Arratia, Bollobás and Sorkin is defined in terms of a new pivoting operation on undirected simple graphs. In this paper, we interpret the new pivoting operation on graphs in terms of standard pivoting (on matrices). Specifically, we show that, up to swapping vertex labels, Arratia et al.'s pivoting operation on a graph is equivalent to a principal pivot transform on the graph's adjacency matrix, provided that all computations are performed in the Galois field F₂. Principal pivoting on adjacency matrices over F₂ has a natural counterpart on isotropic systems. Thus, our view of the interlace polynomial is closely related to the one by Aigner and van der Holst.The observations that adjacency matrices of undirected simple graphs are skew-symmetric in F₂ and that principal pivoting preserves skew-symmetry in all fields suggest to extend Arratia et al.'s pivoting operation to fields other than F₂. Thus, the interlace polynomial extends to polynomials on gain graphs, namely bidirected edge-weighted graphs whereby reversed edges carry non-zero weights that differ only by their sign. Extending a proof by Aigner and van der Holst, we show that the extended interlace polynomial can be represented in a non-recursive form analogous to the non-recursive form of the original interlace polynomial, i.e., the Martin polynomial.For infinite fields it is shown that the extended interlace polynomial does not depend on the (non-zero) gains, as long as they obey a non-singularity condition. These gain graphs are all supported by a single undirected simple graph. Thus, a new graph polynomial is defined for undirected simple graphs. The recursive computation of the new polynomial can be done such that all ends of the recursion correspond to independent sets. Moreover, its degree equals the independence number. However, the new graph polynomial is different from the independence polynomial.     

On the reconstruction of graph invariants

The reconstruction conjecture has remained open for simple undirected graphs since it was suggested in 1941 by Kelly and Ulam. In an attempt to prove the conjecture, many graph invariants have been shown to be reconstructible from the vertex-deleted deck, and in particular, some prominent graph polynomials. Among these are the Tutte polynomial, the chromatic polynomial and the characteristic polynomial. We show that the interlace polynomial, the U-polynomial, the universal edge elimination polynomial ξ and the colored versions of the latter two are reconstructible.We also present a method of reconstructing boolean graph invariants, or in other words, proving recognizability of graph properties (of colored or uncolored graphs), using first order logic.     

On graphs whose Laplacian matrix’s multipartite separability is invariant under graph isomorphism

Normalized Laplacian matrices of graphs have recently been studied in the context of quantum mechanics as density matrices of quantum systems. Of particular interest is the relationship between quantum physical properties of the density matrix and the graph theoretical properties of the underlying graph. One important aspect of density matrices is their entanglement properties, which are responsible for many nonintuitive physical phenomena. The entanglement property of normalized Laplacian matrices is in general not invariant under graph isomorphism. In recent papers, graphs were identified whose entanglement and separability properties are invariant under isomorphism. The purpose of this note is to completely characterize the set of graphs whose separability is invariant under graph isomorphism. In particular, we show that this set consists of K_2,2 and its complement, all complete graphs and no other graphs.     

The interlace polynomial of a graph

Motivated by circle graphs, and the enumeration of Euler circuits, we define a one-variable “interlace polynomial” for any graph. The polynomial satisfies a beautiful and unexpected reduction relation, quite different from the cut and fuse reduction characterizing the Tutte polynomial.It emerges that the interlace graph polynomial may be viewed as a special case of the Martin polynomial of an isotropic system, which underlies its connections with the circuit partition polynomial and the Kauffman brackets of a link diagram. The graph polynomial, in addition to being perhaps more broadly accessible than the Martin polynomial for isotropic systems, also has a two-variable generalization that is unknown for the Martin polynomial. We consider extremal properties of the interlace polynomial, its values for various special graphs, and evaluations which relate to basic graph properties such as the component and independence numbers.     

Mixed recurrence relations and interlacing of the zeros of some q-orthogonal polynomials from different sequences

We use the generating functions of some q-orthogonal polynomials to obtain mixed recurrence relations involving polynomials with shifted parameter values. These relations are used to prove interlacing results for the zeros of Al-Salam-Chihara, continuous q-ultraspherical, q-Meixner-Pollaczek and q-Laguerre polynomials of the same or adjacent degree as one of the parameters is shifted by integer values or continuously within a certain range. Numerical examples are given to illustrate situations where the zeros do not interlace.     

Towards a spectral theory of graphs based on the signless Laplacian, II

A spectral graph theory is a theory in which graphs are studied by means of eigenvalues of a matrix M which is in a prescribed way defined for any graph. This theory is called M-theory. We outline a spectral theory of graphs based on the signless Laplacians Q and compare it with other spectral theories, in particular to those based on the adjacency matrix A and the Laplacian L. As demonstrated in the first part, the Q-theory can be constructed in part using various connections to other theories: equivalency with A-theory and L-theory for regular graphs, common features with L-theory for bipartite graphs, general analogies with A-theory and analogies with A-theory via line graphs and subdivision graphs. In this part, we introduce notions of enriched and restricted spectral theories and present results on integral graphs, enumeration of spanning trees, characterizations by eigenvalues, cospectral graphs and graph angles.     

Constructing Ramsey graphs from Boolean function representations

Explicit construction of Ramsey graphs or graphs with no large clique or independent set, has remained a challenging open problem for a long time. While Erdös’ probabilistic argument shows the existence of graphs on 2n vertices with no clique or independent set of size 2 ⁿ , the best explicit constructions achieve a far weaker bound. There is a connection between Ramsey graph constructions and polynomial representations of Boolean functions due to Grolmusz; a low degree representation for the OR function can be used to explicitly construct Ramsey graphs [17,18]. We generalize the above relation by proposing a new framework. We propose a new definition of OR representations: a pair of polynomials represent the OR function if the union of their zero sets contains all points in {0, 1} ⁿ except the origin. We give a simple construction of a Ramsey graph using such polynomials. Furthermore, we show that all the known algebraic constructions, ones to due to Frankl-Wilson [12], Grolmusz [18] and Alon [2] are captured by this framework; they can all be derived from various OR representations of degree O(√n) based on symmetric polynomials. Thus the barrier to better Ramsey constructions through such algebraic methods appears to be the construction of lower degree representations. Using new algebraic techniques, we show that better bounds cannot be obtained using symmetric polynomials.     

On the extremal values of the second largest Q-eigenvalue

We study extremal graphs for the extremal values of the second largest Q-eigenvalue of a connected graph. We first characterize all simple connected graphs with second largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue at most 3. The second part of the present paper is devoted to the study of the graphs that maximize the second largest Q-eigenvalue. We construct families of such graphs and prove that some of theses families are minimal for the fact that they maximize the second largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue.     

The edge-forwarding index of orbital regular graphs

We define a graph as orbital regular if there is a subgroup of its automorphism group that acts regularly on the set of edges of the graph as well as on all its orbits of ordered pairs of distinct vertices of the graph. For these graphs there is an explicit formula for the edge-forwarding index, an important traffic parameter for routing in interconnection networks. Using the arithmetic properties of finite fields we construct infinite families of graphs with low edge-forwarding properties. In particular, the edge-forwarding index of Paley graphs is determined. A connection with the Waring problem over finite fields and the coset weight enumeration of certain cyclic codes is established.     

Higher-order matching polynomials and d-orthogonality

We show combinatorially that the higher-order matching polynomials of several families of graphs are d-orthogonal polynomials. The matching polynomial of a graph is a generating function for coverings of a graph by disjoint edges; the higher-order matching polynomial corresponds to coverings by paths. Several families of classical orthogonal polynomials—the Chebyshev, Hermite, and Laguerre polynomials—can be interpreted as matching polynomials of paths, cycles, complete graphs, and complete bipartite graphs. The notion of d-orthogonality is a generalization of the usual idea of orthogonality for polynomials and we use sign-reversing involutions to show that the higher-order Chebyshev (first and second kinds), Hermite, and Laguerre polynomials are d-orthogonal. We also investigate the moments and find generating functions of those polynomials.     

Counterexamples to a conjecture by Gross,Mansour and Tucker on partial-dual genus polynomials of ribbon graphs

Gross, Mansour and Tucker introduced the partial-dual orientable genus polynomial and the partial-dual Euler genus polynomial. They computed these two partial-dual genus polynomials of four families of ribbon graphs, posed some research problems and made some conjectures. In this paper, we introduce the notion of signed interlace sequences of bouquets and obtain the partial-dual Euler genus polynomials for all ribbon graphs with the number of edges less than 4 and the partial-dual orientable genus polynomials for all orientable ribbon graphs with the number of edges less than 5 in terms of signed interlace sequences. We check all the conjectures and find a counterexample to the Conjecture 3.1 in their paper: There is no orientable ribbon graph having a non-constant partial-dual genus polynomial with only one non-zero coefficient. Motivated by this counterexample, we further find an infinite family of counterexamples to the conjecture.     

Single polynomials that correspond to pairs of cyclotomic polynomials with interlacing zeros

We give a complete classification of all pairs of cyclotomic polynomials whose zeros interlace on the unit circle, making explicit a result essentially contained in work of Beukers and Heckman. We show that each such pair corresponds to a single polynomial from a certain special class of integer polynomials, the 2-reciprocal discbionic polynomials. We also show that each such pair also corresponds (in four different ways) to a single Pisot polynomial from a certain restricted class, the cyclogenic Pisot polynomials. We investigate properties of this class of Pisot polynomials.     

On a conjecture of Brouwer involving the connectivity of strongly regular graphs

In this paper, we study a conjecture of Andries E. Brouwer from 1996 regarding the minimum number of vertices of a strongly regular graph whose removal disconnects the graph into non-singleton components.We show that strongly regular graphs constructed from copolar spaces and from the more general spaces called Δ-spaces are counterexamples to Brouwer?s Conjecture. Using J.I. Hall?s characterization of finite reduced copolar spaces, we find that the triangular graphs T(m), the symplectic graphs Sp(2r,q) over the field Fq (for any q prime power), and the strongly regular graphs constructed from the hyperbolic quadrics O⁺(2r,2) and from the elliptic quadrics O⁻(2r,2) over the field F₂, respectively, are counterexamples to Brouwer?s Conjecture. For each of these graphs, we determine precisely the minimum number of vertices whose removal disconnects the graph into non-singleton components. While we are not aware of an analogue of Hall?s characterization theorem for Δ-spaces, we show that complements of the point graphs of certain finite generalized quadrangles are point graphs of Δ-spaces and thus, yield other counterexamples to Brouwer?s Conjecture.We prove that Brouwer?s Conjecture is true for many families of strongly regular graphs including the conference graphs, the generalized quadrangles GQ(q,q) graphs, the lattice graphs, the Latin square graphs, the strongly regular graphs with smallest eigenvalue −2 (except the triangular graphs) and the primitive strongly regular graphs with at most 30 vertices except for few cases.We leave as an open problem determining the best general lower bound for the minimum size of a disconnecting set of vertices of a strongly regular graph, whose removal disconnects the graph into non-singleton components.     

Quantum integer-valued polynomials

We define a q-deformation of the classical ring of integer-valued polynomials which we call the ring of quantum integer-valued polynomials. We show that this ring has a remarkable combinatorial structure and enjoys many positivity properties: For instance, the structure constants for this ring with respect to its basis of q-binomial coefficient polynomials belong to \(\mathbb {N}[q]\). We then classify all maps from this ring into a field, extending a known classification in the classical case where \(q=1\).     

Trees, unicyclic graphs and bicyclic graphs with exactly two Q-main eigenvalues

The signless Laplacian matrix of a graph G is defined to be the sum of its adjacency matrix and degree diagonal matrix, and its eigenvalues are called Q-eigenvalues of G. A Q-eigenvalue of a graph G is called a Q-main eigenvalue if it has an eigenvector the sum of whose entries is not equal to zero. In this work, all trees, unicyclic graphs and bicyclic graphs with exactly two Q-main eigenvalues are determined.     

Edge-connectivity of regular graphs with two orbits

Let G=(V,E) be a simple connected graph and x∈V(G). The set {x^g:g∈Aut(G)} is called an orbit of Aut(G). In this paper, we determine the edge connectivity of 3-regular and 4-regular connected graphs with two orbits, and prove the existence of k-regular m-edge-connected graphs with two orbits for some given integers k and m. Furthermore, we prove that the edge connectivity of a k-regular connected graph with two orbits and girth?5 attains its regular degree k.     

Remarks on Q-integral complete multipartite graphs

A graph is Q-integral if the spectrum of its signless Laplacian matrix consists entirely of integers. In their study of Q-integral complete multipartite graphs, [Zhao et al., Q-integral complete r-partite graphs, Linear Algebra Appl. 438 (2013) 1067–1077] posed two questions on the existence of such graphs. We resolve these questions and present some further results characterizing particular classes of Q-integral complete multipartite graphs.     

Snakes: Oriented families of periodic orbits,their sources,sinks, and continuation

Poincaré observed that for a differential equation $\text{x′ = ?(x, α)}$ depending on a parameter α, each periodic orbit generally lies in a connected family of orbits in (x, α)-space. In order to investigate certain large connected sets (denoted Q) of orbits containing a given orbit, we introduce two indices: an orbit index φ and a “center” index

defined at certain stationary points. We show that genetically there are two types of Hopf bifurcation, those we call “sources” ($\textcolor{red}{}\text{= 1}$) and “sinks” ($\textcolor{red}{}\text{= ?1}$). Generically if the set Q is bounded in (x, α)-space, and if there is an upper bound for periods of the orbits in Q, then Q must have as many source Hopf bifurcations as sink Hopf bifurcations and each source is connected to a sink by an oriented one-parameter “snake” of orbits. A “snake” is a maximal path of orbits that contains no orbits whose orbit index is 0. See Fig. 1.1.