The bondage numbers of graphs with small crossing numbers

The bondage number b(G) of a nonempty graph G is the cardinality of a smallest edge set whose removal from G results in a graph with domination number greater than the domination number γ(G) of G. Kang and Yuan proved b(G)?8 for every connected planar graph G. Fischermann, Rautenbach and Volkmann obtained some further results for connected planar graphs. In this paper, we generalize their results to connected graphs with small crossing numbers.     

Steiner intervals and Steiner geodetic numbers in distance-hereditary graphs

A Steiner tree for a set S of vertices in a connected graph G is a connected subgraph of G with a smallest number of edges that contains S. The Steiner interval I(S) of S is the union of all the vertices of G that belong to some Steiner tree for S. If S={u,v}, then I(S)=I[u,v] is called the interval between u and v and consists of all vertices that lie on some shortest u-v path in G. The smallest cardinality of a set S of vertices such that ?_u,v∈SI[u,v]=V(G) is called the geodetic number and is denoted by g(G). The smallest cardinality of a set S of vertices of G such that I(S)=V(G) is called the Steiner geodetic number of G and is denoted by sg(G). We show that for distance-hereditary graphs g(G)?sg(G) but that g(G)/sg(G) can be arbitrarily large if G is not distance hereditary. An efficient algorithm for finding the Steiner interval for a set of vertices in a distance-hereditary graph is described and it is shown how contour vertices can be used in developing an efficient algorithm for finding the Steiner geodetic number of a distance-hereditary graph.     

A Note on degree antiregular graphs

This note proves a conjecture of Merris that the minimal value of entries of the doubly stochastic matrix of the degree antiregular graph E_n of order n ≥ 3 is equal to (l/2(n + l)).     

Distance paired domination numbers of graphs

In this paper, we study a generalization of the paired domination number. Let G=(V,E) be a graph without an isolated vertex. A set D⊆V(G) is a k-distance paired dominating set of G if D is a k-distance dominating set of G and the induced subgraph 〈D〉 has a perfect matching. The k-distance paired domination number is the cardinality of a smallest k-distance paired dominating set of G. We investigate properties of the k-distance paired domination number of a graph. We also give an upper bound and a lower bound on the k-distance paired domination number of a non-trivial tree T in terms of the size of T and the number of leaves in T and we also characterize the extremal trees.     

A Note on degree antiregular graphs

This note proves a conjecture of Merris that the minimal value of entries of the doubly stochastic matrix of the degree antiregular graph E_n of order n ≥ 3 is equal to (l/2(n + l)).     

Crossing graphs of fiber-complemented graphs

Fiber-complemented graphs form a vast non-bipartite generalization of median graphs. Using a certain natural coloring of edges, induced by parallelism relation between prefibers of a fiber-complemented graph, we introduce the crossing graph of a fiber-complemented graph G as the graph whose vertices are colors, and two colors are adjacent if they cross on some induced 4-cycle in G. We show that a fiber-complemented graph is 2-connected if and only if its crossing graph is connected. We characterize those fiber-complemented graphs whose crossing graph is complete, and also those whose crossing graph is chordal.     

Vertex-minimal graphs with dihedral symmetry I

Let $D_{2n}$ denote the dihedral group of order $2n$, where $n\ge 3$. In this article, we build upon the findings of Haggard and McCarthy who, for certain values of $n$, produced a vertex-minimal graph with dihedral symmetry. Specifically, Haggard considered the situation when $\frac{n}{2}$ or $n$ is a prime power, and McCarthy investigated the case when $n$ is not divisible by $2$, $3$ or $5$. In this article, we assume $n$ is not divisible by $4$ and construct a vertex-minimal graph whose automorphism group is isomorphic to $D_{2n}$.     

Reciprocal complementary Wiener numbers of trees, unicyclic graphs and bicyclic graphs

The reciprocal complementary Wiener number of a connected graph G is defined as

where V(G) is the vertex set, d(u,v|G) is the distance between vertices u and v, d is the diameter of G. We determine the trees with the smallest, the second smallest and the third smallest reciprocal complementary Wiener numbers, and the unicyclic and bicyclic graphs with the smallest and the second smallest reciprocal complementary Wiener numbers.     

Linear Ramsey numbers of sparse graphs

The Ramsey number R(G₁,G₂) of two graphs G₁ and G₂ is the least integer p so that either a graph G of order p contains a copy of G₁ or its complement G^c contains a copy of G₂. In 1973, Burr and Erd?s offered a total of $25 for settling the conjecture that there is a constant c = c(d) so that R(G,G)≤ c|V(G)| for all d‐degenerate graphs G, i.e., the Ramsey numbers grow linearly for d‐degenerate graphs. We show in this paper that the Ramsey numbers grow linearly for degenerate graphs versus some sparser graphs, arrangeable graphs, and crowns for example. This implies that the Ramsey numbers grow linearly for degenerate graphs versus graphs with bounded maximum degree, planar graphs, or graphs without containing any topological minor of a fixed clique, etc. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Dominating direct products of graphs

An upper bound for the domination number of the direct product of graphs is proved. It in particular implies that for any graphs G and H, γ(G×H)?3γ(G)γ(H). Graphs with arbitrarily large domination numbers are constructed for which this bound is attained. Concerning the upper domination number we prove that Γ(G×H)?Γ(G)Γ(H), thus confirming a conjecture from [R. Nowakowski, D.F. Rall, Associative graph products and their independence, domination and coloring numbers, Discuss. Math. Graph Theory 16 (1996) 53-79]. Finally, for paired-domination of direct products we prove that γ_pr(G×H)?γ_pr(G)γ_pr(H) for arbitrary graphs G and H, and also present some infinite families of graphs that attain this bound.     

The number of spanning trees of plane graphs with reflective symmetry

A plane graph is called symmetric if it is invariant under the reflection across some straight line (called symmetry axis). Let G be a symmetric plane graph. We prove that if there is no edge in G intersected by its symmetry axis then the number of spanning trees of G can be expressed in terms of the product of the number of spanning trees of two smaller graphs, each of which has about half the number of vertices of G.     

The partition dimension of circulant graphs

Let Π = {S₁, S₂, . . . , S_k} be an ordered partition of the vertex set V (G) of a graph G. The partition representation of a vertex v ∈ V (G) with respect to Π is the k-tuple r(v|Π) = (d(v, S₁), d(v, S₂), . . . , d(v, S_k)), where d(v, S) is the distance between v and a set S. If for every pair of distinct vertices u, v ∈ V (G), we have r(u|Π) ≠ r(v|Π), then Π is a resolving partition and the minimum cardinality of a resolving partition of V (G) is called the partition dimension of G. We study the partition dimension of circulant graphs, which are Cayley graphs of cyclic groups. Grigorious et al. [On the partition dimension of circulant graphs] proved that pd(C_n(1, 2, . . . , t)) ≥ t + 1 for n ≥ 3. We disprove this statement by showing that if t ≥ 4 is even, then there exists an infinite set of values of n, such that . We also present exact values of the partition dimension of circulant graphs with 3 generators.     

The convexity spectra of graphs

Let D be a connected oriented graph. A set S⊆V(D) is convex in D if, for every pair of vertices x,y∈S, the vertex set of every x-y geodesic (x-y shortest dipath) and y-x geodesic in D is contained in S. The convexity numbercon(D) of a nontrivial oriented graph D is the maximum cardinality of a proper convex set of D. Let G be a graph. We define that S_C(G)={con(D):D is an orientation of G} and S_SC(G)={con(D):D is a strongly connected orientation of G}. In the paper, we show that, for any n?4, 1?a?n-2, and a≠2, there exists a 2-connected graph G with n vertices such that S_C(G)=S_SC(G)={a,n-1} and there is no connected graph G of order n?3 with S_SC(G)={n-1}. Then, we determine that S_C(K₃)={1,2}, S_C(K₄)={1,3}, S_SC(K₃)=S_SC(K₄)={1}, S_C(K₅)={1,3,4}, S_C(K₆)={1,3,4,5}, S_SC(K₅)=S_SC(K₆)={1,3}, S_C(K_n)={1,3,5,6,…,n-1}, S_SC(K_n)={1,3,5,6,…,n-2} for n?7. Finally, we prove that, for any integers n, m, and k with , 1?k?n-1, and k≠2,4, there exists a strongly connected oriented graph D with n vertices, m edges, and convexity number k.     

Note on the energy of regular graphs

For a simple graph G, the energy E(G) is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all the eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix A(G). Let n,m, respectively, be the number of vertices and edges of G. One well-known inequality is that , where λ₁ is the spectral radius. If G is k-regular, we have . Denote . Balakrishnan [R. Balakrishnan, The energy of a graph, Linear Algebra Appl. 387 (2004) 287-295] proved that for each ?>0, there exist infinitely many n for each of which there exists a k-regular graph G of order n with k<n-1 and , and proposed an open problem that, given a positive integer n?3, and ?>0, does there exist a k-regular graph G of order n such that . In this paper, we show that for each ?>0, there exist infinitely many such n that . Moreover, we construct another class of simpler graphs which also supports the first assertion that .     

The competition numbers of complete tripartite graphs

For a graph G, it is known to be a hard problem to compute the competition number k(G) of the graph G in general. In this paper, we give an explicit formula for the competition numbers of complete tripartite graphs.