On the size of special class 1 graphs and (P3;k)-co-critical graphs

A well-known theorem of Vizing states that if G is a simple graph with maximum degree Δ, then the chromatic index ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ of G is Δ or $\mathrm{\Delta }+1$. A graph G is class 1 if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }$, and class 2 if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }+1$; G is Δ-critical if it is connected, class 2 and ${\chi }^{\prime }(G-e)<{\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ for every $e\in E(G)$. A long-standing conjecture of Vizing from 1968 states that every Δ-critical graph on n vertices has at least $(n(\mathrm{\Delta }-1)+3)/2$ edges. We initiate the study of determining the minimum number of edges of class 1 graphs G, in addition, ${\chi }^{\prime }(G+e)={\chi }^{\prime }(G)+1$ for every $e\in E(\bar{G})$. Such graphs have intimate relation to $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graphs, where a non-complete graph G is $(P_3;k)$-co-critical if there exists a k-coloring of $E(G)$ such that G does not contain a monochromatic copy of $P_3$ but every k-coloring of $E(G+e)$ contains a monochromatic copy of $P_3$ for every $e\in E(\bar{G})$. We use the bound on the size of the aforementioned class 1 graphs to study the minimum number of edges over all $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graphs. We prove that if G is a $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graph on $n\ge k+2$ vertices, then$e(G)\ge \frac{k}{2}(n-\lceil \frac{k}{2}\rceil -\epsilon )+\left(\begin{array}{c}\lceil k/2\rceil +\epsilon \\ 2\end{array}\right),$ where ε is the remainder of $n-\lceil k/2\rceil$ when divided by 2. This bound is best possible for all $k\ge 1$ and $n\ge \lceil 3k/2\rceil +2$.     

Classification of metabelian 2-groups G with Gab ≃ (2,2n),n ≥ 2, and rank d(G′)=2; Applications to real quadratic number fields

We characterize all finite metabelian 2-groups G whose abelianizations $G^{\mathrm{ab}}$ are of type $(2,2^n)$, with $n\ge 2$, and for which their commutator subgroups $G^{\prime }$ have $\text{rank}=2$. This is given in terms of the order of the abelianizations of the maximal subgroups and the structure of the abelianizations of those normal subgroups of index 4 in G. We then translate these group theoretic properties to give a characterization of number fields k with 2-class group ${\mathrm{Cl}}_2(k)?(2,2^n)$, $n\ge 2$, such that the rank of ${\mathrm{Cl}}_2(k^1)=2$ where $k^1$ is the Hilbert 2-class field of k. In particular, we apply all this to real quadratic number fields whose discriminants are a sum of two squares.     

Compactness of sign-changing solutions to scalar curvature-type equations with bounded negative part

We consider the equation ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_{g}u+hu=|u{|}^{2^{?}?2}u$ in a closed Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, where $h\in C^{0,\theta }(M)$, $\theta \in (0,1)$ and $2^{?}=\frac{2n}{n?2}$, $n:=\dim ?(M)\ge 3$. We obtain a sharp compactness result on the sets of sign-changing solutions whose negative part is a priori bounded. We obtain this result under the conditions that $n\ge 7$ and $h<\frac{n?2}{4(n?1)}{\text{Scal}}_g$ in M, where ${\text{Scal}}_g$ is the Scalar curvature of the manifold. We show that these conditions are optimal by constructing examples of blowing-up solutions, with arbitrarily large energy, in the case of the round sphere with a constant potential function h.     

A plurality problem with three colors and query size three

The Plurality problem - introduced by Aigner - has many variants. In this article we deal with the following version: suppose we are given n balls, each of them colored by one of three colors. A plurality ball is one such that its color class is strictly larger than any other color class. Questioner asks a triplet (or a k-set in general), and Adversary as an answer gives the partition of the triplet (or the k-set) into color classes. Questioner wants to find a plurality ball as soon as possible or show that there is no such ball, while Adversary wants to postpone this.We denote by $A_p(n,k)$ the largest number of queries needed to ask in the worst case if both play optimally. We provide an almost precise result in the case of even n by proving that for $n\ge 4$ even we have$\frac{3}{4}n?2\le A_p(n,3)\le \frac{3}{4}n?\frac{1}{2},$ and for $n\ge 3$ odd we have$\frac{3}{4}n?O(\log ?n)\le A_p(n,3)\le \frac{3}{4}n?\frac{1}{2}.$We also prove some bounds on the number of queries needed to ask in the case $k\ge 3$.     

Large induced subgraphs with three repeated degrees

For any positive integer k, let $C(k)$ denote the least integer such that any n-vertex graph has an induced subgraph with at least $n?C(k)$ vertices, in which at least $\min ?\{k,n?C(k)\}$ vertices are of the same degree. Caro, Shapira and Yuster initially studied this parameter and showed that $\mathrm{\Omega }(k\log ?k)\le C(k)\le {(8k)}^k$. For the first nontrivial case, the authors proved that $3\le C(3)\le 6$, and the exact value was left as an open problem. In this paper, we first show that $3\le C(3)\le 4$, improving the former result as well as a recent result of Kogan. For special families of graphs, we prove that $C(3)=3$ for $K_5$-free graphs, and $C(3)=1$ for large $C_{2s+1}$-free graphs. In addition, extending a result of Erd?s, Fajtlowicz and Staton, we assert that every $K_r$-free graph is an induced subgraph of a $K_r$-free graph in which no degree occurs more than three times.     

A characterization of graphs with given maximum degree and smallest possible matching number: II

Let ${\alpha }^{\prime }(G)$ be the matching number of a graph G. A characterization of the graphs with given maximum odd degree and smallest possible matching number is given by Henning and Shozi (2021) [13]. In this paper we complete our study by giving a characterization of the graphs with given maximum even degree and smallest possible matching number. In 2018 Henning and Yeo [10] proved that if G is a connected graph of order n, size m and maximum degree k where $k\ge 4$ is even, then ${\alpha }^{\prime }(G)\ge \frac{n}{k(k+1)}+\frac{m}{k+1}?\frac{1}{k(k+1)}$, unless G is k-regular and $n\in \{k+1,k+3\}$. In this paper, we give a complete characterization of the graphs that achieve equality in this bound when the maximum degree k is even, thereby completing our study of graphs with given maximum degree and smallest possible matching number.     

Path decompositions of triangle-free graphs

Let G be a graph with n vertices. A path decomposition of G is a set of edge-disjoint paths containing all the edges of G. Let $p(G)$ denote the minimum number of paths needed in a path decomposition of G. Gallai Conjecture asserts that if G is connected, then $p(G)\le ?n/2?$. If G is allowed to be disconnected, then the upper bound $?\frac{3}{4}n?$ for $p(G)$ was obtained by Donald [7], which was improved to $?\frac{2}{3}n?$ independently by Dean and Kouider [6] and Yan [14]. For graphs consisting of vertex-disjoint triangles, $?\frac{2}{3}n?$ is reached and so this bound is tight. If triangles are forbidden in G, then $p(G)\le ?\frac{g+1}{2g}n?$ can be derived from the result of Harding and McGuinness [11], where g denotes the girth of G. In this paper, we also focus on triangle-free graphs and prove that $p(G)\le ?3n/5?$, which improves the above result with $g=4$.     

Note on rainbow cycles in edge-colored graphs

Let G be a graph of order n with an edge-coloring c, and let ${\delta }^c(G)$ denote the minimum color-degree of G. A subgraph F of G is called rainbow if all edges of F have pairwise distinct colors. There have been a lot of results on rainbow cycles of edge-colored graphs. In this paper, we show that (i) if ${\delta }^c(G)>\frac{2n?1}{3}$, then every vertex of G is contained in a rainbow triangle; (ii) if ${\delta }^c(G)>\frac{2n?1}{3}$ and $n\ge 13$, then every vertex of G is contained in a rainbow $C_4$; (iii) if G is complete, $n\ge 7k?17$ and ${\delta }^c(G)>\frac{n?1}{2}+k$, then G contains a rainbow cycle of length at least k, where $k\ge 5$.