A note on arrays of dots with distinct slopes

We prove that the maximum number of dots in ann×n array of dots with distinct slopes is at leastcn ^2/3(logn)^–1/3 withc>0. This improves a previous result ofcn ^1/2. An upper bound isO(n ^4/5).This research is supported in part by NSF under the grant NCR-8905052.     

Bounds on the eigenvalues of graphs with cut vertices or edges

In this paper, we characterize the extremal graph having the maximal Laplacian spectral radius among the connected bipartite graphs with n vertices and k cut vertices, and describe the extremal graph having the minimal least eigenvalue of the adjacency matrices of all the connected graphs with n vertices and k cut edges. We also present lower bounds on the least eigenvalue in terms of the number of cut vertices or cut edges and upper bounds on the Laplacian spectral radius in terms of the number of cut vertices.     

Bounds on the convex label number of trees

A convex labelling of a tree is an assignment of distinct non-negative integer labels to vertices such that wheneverx, y andz are the labels of vertices on a path of length 2 theny≦(x+z)/2. In addition if the tree is rooted, a convex labelling must assign 0 to the root. The convex label number of a treeT is the smallest integerm such thatT has a convex labelling with no label greater thanm. We prove that every rooted tree (and hence every tree) withn vertices has convex label number less than 4n. We also exhibitn-vertex trees with convex label number 4n/3+o(n), andn-vertex rooted trees with convex label number 2n +o(n). The research by M. B. and A. W. was partly supported by NSF grant MCS—8311422.     

On the sum of the reciprocals of cycle lengths in sparse graphs

For a graphG let ℒ(G)=Σ{1/k contains a cycle of lengthk}. Erdős and Hajnal [1] introduced the real functionf(α)=inf {ℒ (G)|E(G)|/|V(G)|≧α} and suggested to study its properties. Obviouslyf(1)=0. We provef (k+1/k)≧(300k logk)⁻¹ for all sufficiently largek, showing that sparse graphs of large girth must contain many cycles of different lengths.     

Bounds and conjectures for the signless Laplacian index of graphs

Using the AutoGraphiX system, we obtain conjectures of the form l(n)?q₁⊕i(G)?u(n) where q₁ denotes the signless Laplacian index of graph is one the four operations is another invariant chosen among minimum, average and maximum degree, average distance, diameter, radius, girth, proximity, remoteness, vertex, edge and algebraic connectivities, independence number, domination number, clique number, chromatic number and matching number, Randi? index, l(n) and u(n) are best possible lower and upper bounds function of the order n of G. Algebraic conjectures are obtained in 120 cases out of 152 and structural conjectures in 12 of the remaining cases. These conjectures are known, immediate or proved in this paper, except for 17 of them, which remain open.     

Bounds on a generalized domination parameter

Abstract

If n is an integer, n ≥ 2 and u and v are vertices of a graph G, then u and v are said to be K_n-adjacent vertices of G if there is a subgraph of G, isomorphic to K_n , containing u and v. For n ≥ 2, a K_n- dominating set of G is a set D of vertices such that every vertex of G belongs to D or is K_n-adjacent to a vertex of D. The K_n-domination number γK_n (G) of G is the minimum cardinality among the K_n-dominating sets of vertices of G. It is shown that, for n ε {3,4}, if G is a graph of order p with no K_n-isolated vertex, then γK_n (G) ≤ p/n. We establish that this is a best possible upper bound. It is shown that the result is not true for n ≥ 5.     

Bounds on cost effective domination numbers

A vertex υ in a set S is said to be cost effective if it is adjacent to at least as many vertices in V\S as it is in S and is very cost effective if it is adjacent to more vertices in V\S than to vertices in S. A dominating set S is (very) cost effective if every vertex in S is (very) cost effective. The minimum cardinality of a (very) cost effective dominating set of G is the (very) cost effective domination number of G. Our main results include a quadratic upper bound on the very cost effective domination number of a graph in terms of its domination number. The proof of this result gives a linear upper bound for hereditarily sparse graphs which include trees. We show that no such linear bound exists for graphs in general, even when restricted to bipartite graphs. Further, we characterize the extremal trees attaining the bound. Noting that the very cost effective domination number is bounded below by the domination number, we show that every value of the very cost effective domination number between these lower and upper bounds for trees is realizable. Similar results are given for the cost effective domination number.     

Bounds on the chromatic polynomial and on the number of acyclic orientations of a graph

An upper bound is given on the number of acyclic orientations of a graph, in terms of the spectrum of its Laplacian. It is shown that this improves upon the previously known bound, which depended on the degree sequence of the graph. Estimates on the new bound are provided.A lower bound on the number of acyclic orientations of a graph is given, with the help of the probabilistic method. This argument can take advantage of structural properties of the graph: it is shown how to obtain stronger bounds for small-degree graphs of girth at least five, than are possible for arbitrary graphs. A simpler proof of the known lower bound for arbitrary graphs is also obtained.Both the upper and lower bounds are shown to extend to the general problem of bounding the chromatic polynomial from above and below along the negative real axis.Partially supported by the NSF under grant CCR-9404113. Most of this research was done while the author was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contracts N00014-92-J-1799 and N00014-91-J-1698, the Air Force under Contract F49620-92-J-0125, and the Army under Contract DAAL-03-86-K-0171.Supported by an ONR graduate fellowship, grants NSF 8912586 CCR and AFOSR 89-0271, and an NSF postdoctoral fellowship.     

Sharp Bounds For Some Multicolor Ramsey Numbers

Let H ₁,H ₂, . . .,H _k+1 be a sequence of k+1 finite, undirected, simple graphs. The (multicolored) Ramsey number r(H ₁,H ₂,...,H _k+1) is the minimum integer r such that in every edge-coloring of the complete graph on r vertices by k+1 colors, there is a monochromatic copy of H _i in color i for some 1ik+1. We describe a general technique that supplies tight lower bounds for several numbers r(H ₁,H ₂,...,H _k+1) when k2, and the last graph H _k+1 is the complete graph K _m on m vertices. This technique enables us to determine the asymptotic behaviour of these numbers, up to a polylogarithmic factor, in various cases. In particular we show that r(K ₃,K ₃,K _m ) = (m ³ poly logm), thus solving (in a strong form) a conjecture of Erdos and Sós raised in 1979. Another special case of our result implies that r(C ₄,C ₄,K _m ) = (m ² poly logm) and that r(C ₄,C ₄,C ₄,K _m ) = (m ²/log² m). The proofs combine combinatorial and probabilistic arguments with spectral techniques and certain estimates of character sums.* Research supported in part by a State of New Jersey grant, by a USA Israeli BSF grant and by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation. Research supported by NSF grant DMS 9704114.     

Bounds on total domination in claw-free cubic graphs

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a total dominating set, denoted by TDS, of G if every vertex of G is adjacent to some vertex in S (other than itself). The minimum cardinality of a TDS of G is the total domination number of G, denoted by γ_t(G). If G does not contain K_1,3 as an induced subgraph, then G is said to be claw-free. It is shown in [D. Archdeacon, J. Ellis-Monaghan, D. Fischer, D. Froncek, P.C.B. Lam, S. Seager, B. Wei, R. Yuster, Some remarks on domination, J. Graph Theory 46 (2004) 207-210.] that if G is a graph of order n with minimum degree at least three, then γ_t(G)?n/2. Two infinite families of connected cubic graphs with total domination number one-half their orders are constructed in [O. Favaron, M.A. Henning, C.M. Mynhardt, J. Puech, Total domination in graphs with minimum degree three, J. Graph Theory 34(1) (2000) 9-19.] which shows that this bound of n/2 is sharp. However, every graph in these two families, except for K₄ and a cubic graph of order eight, contains a claw. It is therefore a natural question to ask whether this upper bound of n/2 can be improved if we restrict G to be a connected cubic claw-free graph of order at least 10. In this paper, we answer this question in the affirmative. We prove that if G is a connected claw-free cubic graph of order n?10, then γ_t(G)?5n/11.     

A note on chain lengths and the Tutte polynomial

We show that the number of chains of given length in a graph G can be easily found from the Tutte polynomial of G. Hence two Tutte-equivalent graphs will have the same distribution of chain lengths. We give two applications of this latter statement.We also give the dual results for the numbers of multiple edges with given muliplicities.     

Hypergraphs in which all disjoint pairs have distinct unions

Let ℓ be a set-system ofr-element subsets on ann-element set,r≧3. It is proved that if |ℓ|>3.5 then ℓ contains four distinct membersA, B, C, D such thatA∪B=C∪D andA∩B=C∩D=0.     

NOTE New Upper Bounds for a Canonical Ramsey Problem

f (l,k) be the minimum n with the property that every coloring yields either with , or with all distinct. We prove that if , then as . This supports the conjecture of Lefmann, R?dl, and Thomas that . Received July 2, 1998     

Generalized harmonic numbers with Riordan arrays

By observing that the infinite triangle obtained from some generalized harmonic numbers follows a Riordan array, we obtain very simple connections between the Stirling numbers of both kinds and other generalized harmonic numbers. Further, we suggest that Riordan arrays associated with such generalized harmonic numbers allow us to find new generating functions of many combinatorial sums and many generalized harmonic number identities.     

Hypergraph families with bounded edge cover or transversal number

The transversal number, packing number, covering number and strong stability number of hypergraphs are denoted by τ, ν, ϱ and α, respectively. A hypergraph family t is called τ-bound (ϱ-bound) if there exists a “binding function”f(x) such that τ(H)≦f(v(H)) (ϱ(H)≦f(α(H))) for allH ∈ t. Methods are presented to show that various hypergraph families are τ-bound and/or ϱ-bound. The results can be applied to families of geometrical nature like subforests of trees, boxes, boxes of polyominoes or to families defined by hypergraph theoretic terms like the family where every subhypergraph has the Helly-property.     

Exact Bounds for Judicious Partitions of Graphs

has a bipartite subgraph of size at least . We show that every graph of size has a bipartition in which the Edwards bound holds, and in addition each vertex class contains at most edges. This is exact for complete graphs of odd order, which we show are the only extremal graphs without isolated vertices. We also give results for partitions into more than two classes. Received: December 27, 1996/Revised: Revised June 10, 1998     

Bounds for resultants of univariate and bivariate polynomials

The paper considers bounds on the size of the resultant for univariate and bivariate polynomials. For univariate polynomials we also extend the traditional representation of the resultant by the zeros of the argument polynomials to formal resultants, defined as the determinants of the Sylvester matrix for a pair of polynomials whose actual degree may be lower than their formal degree due to vanishing leading coefficients. For bivariate polynomials, the resultant is a univariate polynomial resulting by the elimination of one of the variables, and our main result is a bound on the largest coefficient of this univariate polynomial. We bring a simple example that shows that our bound is attainable and that a previous sharper bound is not correct.     

Lower Bounds in Minimum Rank Problems

The minimum rank of a graph is the smallest possible rank among all real symmetric matrices with the given graph. The minimum semidefinite rank of a graph is the minimum rank among Hermitian positive semidefinite matrices with the given graph. We explore connections between OS-sets and a lower bound for minimum rank related to zero forcing sets as well as exhibit graphs for which the difference between the minimum semidefinite rank and these lower bounds can be arbitrarily large.     

Superpolynomial Lower Bounds for Monotone Span Programs

monotone span programs computing explicit functions. The best previous lower bound was by Beimel, Gál, Paterson [7]; our proof exploits a general combinatorial lower bound criterion from that paper. Our lower bounds are based on an analysis of Paley-type bipartite graphs via Weil's character sum estimates. We prove an lower bound for the size of monotone span programs for the clique problem. Our results give the first superpolynomial lower bounds for linear secret sharing schemes. We demonstrate the surprising power of monotone span programs by exhibiting a function computable in this model in linear size while requiring superpolynomial size monotone circuits and exponential size monotone formulae. We also show that the perfect matching function can be computed by polynomial size (non-monotone) span programs over arbitrary fields. Received: August 1, 1996