Minimal Connected τ-Critical Hypergraphs

A hypergraph is τ-critical if τ(−{E})<τ() for every edge E ∈ , where τ() denotes the transversal number of . We show that if is a connected τ-critical hypergraph, then −{E} can be partitioned into τ()−1 stars of size at least two, for every edge E ∈ . An immediate corollary is that a connected τ-critical hypergraph has at least 2τ()−1 edges. This extends, in a very natural way, a classical theorem of Gallai on colour-critical graphs, and is equivalent to a theorem of Füredi on t-stable hypergraphs. We deduce a lower bound on the size of τ-critical hypergraphs of minimum degree at least two.     

The Maximum Size of 3-Wise Intersecting and 3-Wise Union Families

Let be an n-uniform hypergraph on 2n vertices. Suppose that and holds for all F₁,F₂,F₃ ∈ . We prove that the size of is at most . The second author was supported by MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 16340027     

On Resolvable Multipartite G-Designs II

In this paper, it has been proved that and are factorable, where ⊗ denotes wreath product of graphs. As a consequence, a resolvable (k,n,k,2λ) multipartite –design exists for even k. These results generalize the results of Ushio on –factorizations of complete tripartite graphs.     

On the Circumference of 3-Connected Quasi-Claw-Free Graphs

A graph G is quasi-claw-free if it satisfies the property: d(x,y)=2 ⇒ there exists such that . In the paper, we prove that the circumference of a 3-connected quasi-claw-free graph G on n vertices is at least min{4δ−2,n} and G is hamiltonian if n≤5δ−5.     

New Local Conditions for a Graph to be Hamiltonian

For a vertex w of a graph G the ball of radius 2 centered at w is the subgraph of G induced by the set M₂(w) of all vertices whose distance from w does not exceed 2. We prove the following theorem: Let G be a connected graph where every ball of radius 2 is 2-connected and d(u)+d(v)≥|M₂(w)|−1 for every induced path uwv. Then either G is hamiltonian or for some p≥2 where ∨ denotes join. As a corollary we obtain the following local analogue of a theorem of Nash-Williams: A connected r-regular graph G is hamiltonian if every ball of radius 2 is 2-connected and for each vertex w of G. Supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR)     

An Extremal Problem on Contractible Edges in 3-Connected Graphs

An edge e in a 3-connected graph G is contractible if the contraction G/e is still 3-connected. The existence of contractible edges is a very useful induction tool. Let G be a simple 3-connected graph with at least five vertices. Wu [7] proved that G has at most vertices that are not incident to contractible edges. In this paper, we characterize all simple 3-connected graphs with exactly vertices that are not incident to contractible edges. We show that all such graphs can be constructed from either a single vertex or a 3-edge-connected graph (multiple edges are allowed, but loops are not allowed) by a simple graph operation. Research partially supported by an ONR grant under grant number N00014-01-1-0917     

Non-Jumping Numbers for 4-Uniform Hypergraphs

Let r≥2 be an integer. A real number α ∈ [0,1) is a jump for r if for any Open image in new window >0 and any integer m, m≥r, any r-uniform graph with n>n₀( Open image in new window ,m) vertices and at least Open image in new window edges contains a subgraph with m vertices and at least Open image in new window edges, where c=c(α) does not depend on Open image in new window and m. It follows from a theorem of Erd?s, Stone and Simonovits that every α ∈ [0,1) is a jump for r=2. Erd?s asked whether the same is true for r≥3. Frankl and Rödl gave a negative answer by showing that Open image in new window is not a jump for r if r≥3 and l>2r. Following a similar approach, we give several sequences of non-jumping numbers generalizing the above result for r=4.     

Some q-convexity properties of coverings of complex manifolds

Let C be a nowhere dense compact analytic subset of a 2-dimensional complex manifold X. A result of Napier is the construction of a neighborhood V of C such that for any covering space in which is holomorphically convex, there is a C ^∞ exhaustion function φ on which is strictly plurisubharmonic on π^-1(V) away from the compact irreducible components of . Colţoiu and Vajaitu obtained a q-convex version of this result for C a q-dimensional fiber of a proper surjective submersion X→Y. The goal of this paper is a similar version for Cprojective.     

Consistent Cycles in Graphs and Digraphs

Let Γ be a finite digraph and let G be a subgroup of the automorphism group of Γ. A directed cycle of Γ is called G-consistent whenever there is an element of G whose restriction to is the 1-step rotation of . Consistent cycles in finite arc-transitive graphs were introduced by J. H. Conway in his public lectures at the Second British Combinatorial Conference in 1971. He observed that the number of G-orbits of G-consistent cycles of an arc-transitive group G is precisely one less than the valency of the graph. In this paper, we give a detailed proof of this result in a more general setting of arbitrary groups of automorphisms of graphs and digraphs. Supported in part by ``Ministrstvo za šolstvo, znanost in šport Republike Slovenije', bilateral project BI-USA/04-05/38.     

Colouring Cubic Graphs by Small Steiner Triple Systems

Given a Steiner triple system , we say that a cubic graph G is -colourable if its edges can be coloured by points of in such way that the colours of any three edges meeting at a vertex form a triple of . We prove that there is Steiner triple system of order 21 which is universal in the sense that every simple cubic graph is -colourable. This improves the result of Grannell et al. [J. Graph Theory 46 (2004), 15–24] who found a similar system of order 381. On the other hand, it is known that any universal Steiner triple system must have order at least 13, and it has been conjectured that this bound is sharp (Holroyd and Škoviera [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 91 (2004), 57–66]). Research partially supported by APVT, project 51-027604. Research partially supported by VEGA, grant 1/3022/06.     

On Cross-intersecting Families of Sets

A family of -element subsets and a family of k-element subsets of an n-element set are cross-intersecting if every set from has a nonempty intersection with every set from . We compare two previously established inequalities each related to the maximization of the product , and give a new and short proof for one of them. We also determine the maximum of for arbitrary positive weights ,_k.     

Positive Projective Space of a <Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis>*-Algebra with a Tracial Conditional Expectation

Let be a C*-algebra, a subalgebra of its center and Φ: → a tracial faithful conditional expectation. We define the positive projective space as the quotient where G⁺ is the space of positive invertible elements of , and if there exists g invertible in such that a′ = |g|²a. When is abelian, this space is a set of representatives for probability densities equivalent to a given one. The aim of this paper is to endow ℙ⁺ with differentiable structure, a linear connection and a Finsler metric. This is done in a way that given any pair of elements in ℙ⁺, there is a unique geodesic of this connection, which is the shortest curve joining such endpoints for the given metric. The metric space ℙ⁺ with the given geodesic distance is non positively curved.     

Spanning Trails Connecting Given Edges

Suppose that is the set of connected graphs such that a graph G if and only if G satisfies both (F1) if X is an edge cut of G with |X|3, then there exists a vertex v of degree |X| such that X consists of all the edges incident with v in G, and (F2) for every v of degree 3, v lies in a k-cycle of G, where 2k3.In this paper, we show that if G and (G)3, then for every pair of edges e,fE(G), G has a trail with initial edge e and final edge f which contains all vertices of G. This result extends several former results.     

Reconstructing under Group Actions

We give a bound on the reconstructibility of an action GX in terms of the reconstructibility of a the action NX, where N is a normal subgroup of G, and the reconstructibility of the quotient G/N. We also show that if the action GX is locally finite, in the sense that every point is either in an orbit by itself or has finite stabilizer, then the reconstructibility of GX is at most the reconstructibility of G. Finally, we give some applications to geometric reconstruction problems.     

A Lower Bound for the Rectilinear Crossing Number

We give a new lower bound for the rectilinear crossing number of the complete geometric graph K_n. We prove that and we extend the proof of the result to pseudolinear drawings of K_n. Dedicated to the memory of our good friend and mentor Víctor Neumann-Lara. Received: April, 2003 Final version received: March 18, 2005     

Bipartite Subgraphs and Quasi-Randomness

We say that a family of graphs is p-quasi-random, 0<p<1, if it shares typical properties of the random graph G(n,p); for a definition, see below. We denote by the class of all graphs H for which and the number of not necessarily induced labeled copies of H in G_n is at most (1+o(1))p^e(H)n^v(H) imply that is p-quasi-random. In this note, we show that all complete bipartite graphs K_a,b, a,b2, belong to for all 0<p<1.Acknowledgments We would like to thank Andrew Thomason for fruitful discussions and Yoshi Kohayakawa for organizing Extended Workshop on Combinatorics in eq5 Paulo, Ubatuba, and Rio de Janeiro, where a part of this work was done. We also thank the referees for their careful work.The first author was partially supported by NSF grant INT-0072064The second author was partially supported by NSF grants DMS-9970622, DMS-0301228 and INT-0072064Final version received: October 24, 2003     

A Note on Convex Decompositions of a Set of Points in the Plane

For any set P of n points in general position in the plane there is a convex decomposition of P with at most elements. Moreover, any minimal convex decomposition of such a set P has at most elements, where k is the number of points in the boundary of the convex hull of P.Partially supported by Conacyt, MexicoFinal version received: November 10, 2003     

Alternating Paths along Axis-Parallel Segments

It is shown that for a set S of n pairwise disjoint axis-parallel line segments in the plane there is a simple alternating path of length . This bound is best possible in the worst case. In the special case that the n pairwise disjoint axis-parallel line segments are protruded (that is, if the intersection point of the lines through every two nonparallel segments is not visible from both segments), there is a simple alternating path of length n. Work on this paper was partially supported by National Science Foundation grants CCR-0049093 and IIS-0121562. A preliminary version of this paper has appeared in the Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Algorithms and Data Structures (Ottawa, ON, 2003), vol. 2748 of Lecture Notes on Computer Science, Springer, Berlin, 2003, pp. 389–400.     

New shape functions for triangular p-FEM using integrated Jacobi polynomials

In this paper, the second order boundary value problem −∇·((x,y)∇u)=f is discretized by the Finite Element Method using piecewise polynomial functions of degree p on a triangular mesh. On the reference element, we define integrated Jacobi polynomials as interior ansatz functions. If is a constant function on each triangle and each triangle has straight edges, we prove that the element stiffness matrix has not more than nonzero matrix entries. An application for preconditioning is given. Numerical examples show the advantages of the proposed basis.