On the number of noncritical vertices in strongly connected digraphs

By definition, a vertex w of a strongly connected (or, simply, strong) digraph D is noncritical if the subgraph D — w is also strongly connected. We prove that if the minimal out (or in) degree k of D is at least 2, then there are at least k noncritical vertices in D. In contrast to the case of undirected graphs, this bound cannot be sharpened, for a given k, even for digraphs of large order. Moreover, we show that if the valency of any vertex of a strong digraph of order n is at least 3/4n, then it contains at least two noncritical vertices. The proof makes use of the results of the theory of maximal proper strong subgraphs established by Mader and developed by the present author. We also construct a counterpart of this theory for biconnected (undirected) graphs.     

Minimum orders of eulerian oriented digraphs with given diameter

A digraph D is oriented if it does not contain 2-cycles.If an oriented digraph D has a directed eulerian path,it is an oriented eulerian digraph.In this paper,when an oriented eulerian digraph D has minimum out-degree 2 and a diameter d,we find the minimum order of D.In addition,when D is 2-regular with diameter 4m(m ≥ 2),we classify the extremal cases.     

On commutativity of two unary digraph operations: Subdividing and line-digraphing

For a digraph D, let L(D) and S(D) denote its line digraph and subdivision digraph, respectively. The motivation of this paper is to solve the digraph equation L(S(D))=S(L(D)). We show that L(S(D)) and S(L(D)) are cospectral if and only if D and L(D) have the same number of arcs. Further, we characterize the situation that L(S(D)) and S(L(D)) are isomorphic. Our approach introduces the new notion, the proper image D^* of a digraph D, and a new type of connectedness for digraphs. The concept D^* plays an important role in the main result of this paper. It is also useful in other aspects of the study of line digraphs. For example, L(D) is connected if and only if D^* is connected; L(D) is functional (contrafunctional) if and only if D^* is functional (contrafunctional). Some related results are also presented.     

On the structure of the adjacency matrix of the line digraph of a regular digraph

We show that the adjacency matrix M of the line digraph of a d-regular digraph D on n vertices can be written as M=AB, where the matrix A is the Kronecker product of the all-ones matrix of dimension d with the identity matrix of dimension n and the matrix B is the direct sum of the adjacency matrices of the factors in a dicycle factorization of D.     

On large vertex-symmetric digraphs

There is special interest in the design of large vertex-symmetric graphs and digraphs as models of interconnection networks for implementing parallelism. In these systems, a large number of nodes are connected with relatively few links and short paths between the nodes, and each node may execute the same communication software without modifications.In this paper, a method for obtaining new general families of large vertex-symmetric digraphs is put forward. To be more precise, from a k-reachable vertex-symmetric digraph and another (k+1)-reachable digraph related to the previous one, and using a new special composition of digraphs, new families of vertex-symmetric digraphs with small diameter are presented. With these families we obtain new vertex-symmetric digraphs that improve various values of the table of the largest known vertex-symmetric (Δ,D)-digraphs. The paper also contains the (Δ,D)-table for vertex-symmetric digraphs, for Δ≤13 and D≤12.     

Chronological orderings of interval graphs

If an undirected graph is the intersection graph of a set of intervals of the real line, it is called an interval graph and the set of intervals is called an interval representation of the graph. An interval graph typically has many representations that differ in the order of the endpoints of the intervals along the line. This paper gives three methods for describing these differences and shows how these methods can be used to determine whether a graph has a representation satisfying various restrictions on the relative positions of the intervals. It concludes with an application of these results to the subject of interval counts of interval graphs.     

Interval <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Graphs and Orders

An interval k-graph is the intersection graph of a family of intervals of the real line partitioned into k classes with vertices adjacent if and only if their corresponding intervals intersect and belong to different classes. In this paper we study the cocomparability interval k-graphs; that is, the interval k-graphs whose complements have a transitive orientation and are therefore the incomparability graphs of strict partial orders. For brevity we call these orders interval k-orders. We characterize the kind of interval representations a cocomparability interval k-graph must have, and identify the structure that guarantees an order is an interval k-order. The case k =?2 is peculiar: cocomparability interval 2-graphs (equivalently proper- or unit-interval bigraphs, bipartite permutation graphs, and complements of proper circular-arc graphs to name a few) have been characterized in many ways, but we show that analogous characterizations do not hold if k >?2. We characterize the cocomparability interval 3-graphs via one forbidden subgraph and hence interval 3-orders via one forbidden suborder.     

Weakly distance-regular digraphs

We introduce the concept of weakly distance-regular digraph and study some of its basic properties. In particular, the (standard) distance-regular digraphs, introduced by Damerell, turn out to be those weakly distance-regular digraphs which have a normal adjacency matrix. As happens in the case of distance-regular graphs, the study is greatly facilitated by a family of orthogonal polynomials called the distance polynomials. For instance, these polynomials are used to derive the spectrum of a weakly distance-regular digraph. Some examples of these digraphs, such as the butterfly and the cycle prefix digraph which are interesting for their applications, are analyzed in the light of the developed theory. Also, some new constructions involving the line digraph and other techniques are presented.     

Enumerations of vertex orders of almost Moore digraphs with selfrepeats

An almost Moore digraph G of degree d>1, diameter k>1 is a diregular digraph with the number of vertices one less than the Moore bound. If G is an almost Moore digraph, then for each vertex u∈V(G) there exists a vertex v∈V(G), called repeat of u and denoted by r(u)=v, such that there are two walks of length ?k from u to v. The smallest positive integer p such that the composition r^p(u)=u is called the order of u. If the order of u is 1 then u is called a selfrepeat. It is known that if G is an almost Moore digraph of diameter k?3 then G contains exactly k selfrepeats or none. In this paper, we propose an exact formula for the number of all vertex orders in an almost Moore digraph G containing selfrepeats, based on the vertex orders of the out-neighbours of any selfrepeat vertex.     

Acyclically pushable bipartite permutation digraphs: An algorithm

Given a digraph D=(V,A) and an X⊆V, D^X denotes the digraph obtained from D by reversing those arcs with exactly one end in X. A digraph D is called acyclically pushable when there exists an X⊆V such that D^X is acyclic. Huang, MacGillivray and Yeo have recently characterized, in terms of two excluded induced subgraphs on 7 and 8 nodes, those bipartite permutation digraphs which are acyclically pushable. We give an algorithmic proof of their result. Our proof delivers an O(m²) time algorithm to decide whether a bipartite permutation digraph is acyclically pushable and, if yes, to find a set X such that D^X is acyclic. (Huang, MacGillivray and Yeo's result clearly implies an O(n⁸) time algorithm to decide but the polynomiality of constructing X was still open.)We define a strongly acyclic digraph as a digraph D such that D^X is acyclic for every X. We show how a result of Conforti et al [Balanced cycles and holes in bipartite graphs, Discrete Math. 199 (1-3) (1999) 27-33] can be essentially regarded as a characterization of strongly acyclic digraphs and also provides linear time algorithms to find a strongly acyclic orientation of an undirected graph, if one exists. Besides revealing this connection, we add simplicity to the structural and algorithmic results first given in Conforti et al [Balanced cycles and holes in bipartite graphs, Discrete Math. 199 (1-3) (1999) 27-33]. In particular, we avoid decomposing the graph into triconnected components.We give an alternate proof of a theorem of Huang, MacGillivray and Wood characterizing acyclically pushable bipartite tournaments. Our proof leads to a linear time algorithm which, given a bipartite tournament as input, either returns a set X such that D^X is acyclic or a proof that D is not acyclically pushable.     

The recognition of the class of indecomposable digraphs under low hemimorphy

Given a digraph G=(V,A), the subdigraph of G induced by a subset X of V is denoted by G[X]. With each digraph G=(V,A) is associated its dual G^?=(V,A^?) defined as follows: for any x,y∈V, (x,y)∈A^? if (y,x)∈A. Two digraphs G and H are hemimorphic if G is isomorphic to H or to H^?. Given k>0, the digraphs G=(V,A) and H=(V,B) are k-hemimorphic if for every X⊆V, with |X|≤k, G[X] and H[X] are hemimorphic. A class C of digraphs is k-recognizable if every digraph k-hemimorphic to a digraph of C belongs to C. In another vein, given a digraph G=(V,A), a subset X of V is an interval of G provided that for a,b∈X and x∈V−X, (a,x)∈A if and only if (b,x)∈A, and similarly for (x,a) and (x,b). For example, 0?, {x}, where x∈V, and V are intervals called trivial. A digraph is indecomposable if all its intervals are trivial. We characterize the indecomposable digraphs which are 3-hemimorphic to a non-indecomposable digraph. It follows that the class of indecomposable digraphs is 4-recognizable.     

Every cycle-connected multipartite tournament has a universal arc

A digraph D is cycle-connected if for every pair of vertices u,v∈V(D) there exists a directed cycle in D containing both u and v. In 1999, Ádám [A. Ádám, On some cyclic connectivity properties of directed graphs, Acta Cybernet. 14 (1) (1999) 1-12] posed the following problem. Let D be a cycle-connected digraph. Does there exist a universal arc in D, i.e., an arc e∈A(D) such that for every vertex w∈V(D) there is a directed cycle in D containing both e and w?A c-partite or multipartite tournament is an orientation of a complete c-partite graph. Recently, Hubenko [A. Hubenko, On a cyclic connectivity property of directed graphs, Discrete Math. 308 (2008) 1018-1024] proved that each cycle-connected bipartite tournament has a universal arc. As an extension of this result, we show in this note that each cycle-connected multipartite tournament has a universal arc.     

Characterization of eccentric digraphs

The eccentric digraphED(G) of a digraph G represents the binary relation, defined on the vertex set of G, of being ‘eccentric’; that is, there is an arc from u to v in ED(G) if and only if v is at maximum distance from u in G. A digraph G is said to be eccentric if there exists a digraph H such that G=ED(H). This paper is devoted to the study of the following two questions: what digraphs are eccentric and when the relation of being eccentric is symmetric.We present a characterization of eccentric digraphs, which in the undirected case says that a graph G is eccentric iff its complement graph is either self-centered of radius two or it is the union of complete graphs. As a consequence, we obtain that all trees except those with diameter 3 are eccentric digraphs. We also determine when ED(G) is symmetric in the cases when G is a graph or a digraph that is not strongly connected.     

On Moore bipartite digraphs

In the context of the degree/diameter problem for directed graphs, it is known that the number of vertices of a strongly connected bipartite digraph satisfies a Moore‐like bound in terms of its diameter k and the maximum out‐degrees (d₁, d₂) of its partite sets of vertices. It has been proved that, when d₁d₂ > 1, the digraphs attaining such a bound, called Moore bipartite digraphs, only exist when 2 ≤ k ≤ 4. This paper deals with the problem of their enumeration. In this context, using the theory of circulant matrices and the so‐called De Bruijn near‐factorizations of cyclic groups, we present some new constructions of Moore bipartite digraphs of diameter three and composite out‐degrees. By applying the iterated line digraph technique, such constructions also provide new families of dense bipartite digraphs with arbitrary diameter. Moreover, we show that the line digraph structure is inherent in any Moore bipartite digraph G of diameter k = 4, which means that G = L G′, where G′ is a Moore bipartite digraph of diameter k = 3. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 171–187, 2003     

Common circulant homogeneous factorisations of the complete digraph

In this paper we determine the positive integers n and k for which there exists a homogeneous factorisation of a complete digraph on n vertices with k ‘common circulant’ factors. This means a partition of the arc set of the complete digraph K_n into k circulant factor digraphs, such that a cyclic group of order n acts regularly on the vertices of each factor digraph whilst preserving the edges, and in addition, an overgroup of this permutes the factor digraphs transitively amongst themselves. This determination generalises a previous result for self-complementary circulants.     

Circular‐Arc Bigraphs and Its Subclasses

In this article, we obtain two new characterizations of circular‐arc bigraphs. One of them is the representation of a circular‐arc bigraph in terms of two two‐clique circular‐arc graphs while another one represents the same as a union of an interval bigraph and a Ferrers bigraph. Finally, we introduce the notions of proper and unit circular‐arc bigraphs, characterize them and show that, as in the case of circular‐arc graphs, unit circular‐arc bigraphs form a proper subclass of the class of proper circular‐arc bigraphs.     

Intersection representation of digraphs in trees with few leaves

The leafage of a digraph is the minimum number of leaves in a host tree in which it has a subtree intersection representation. We discuss bounds on the leafage in terms of other parameters (including Ferrers dimension), obtaining a string of sharp inequalities. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 32: 340–353, 1999     

Kernels in quasi-transitive digraphs

Let D be a digraph, V(D) and A(D) will denote the sets of vertices and arcs of D, respectively.A kernel N of D is an independent set of vertices such that for every w∈V(D)-N there exists an arc from w to N. A digraph is called quasi-transitive when (u,v)∈A(D) and (v,w)∈A(D) implies (u,w)∈A(D) or (w,u)∈A(D). This concept was introduced by Ghouilá-Houri [Caractérisation des graphes non orientés dont on peut orienter les arrêtes de maniere à obtenir le graphe d’ un relation d’ordre, C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris 254 (1962) 1370-1371] and has been studied by several authors. In this paper the following result is proved: Let D be a digraph. Suppose D=D₁∪D₂ where D_i is a quasi-transitive digraph which contains no asymmetrical infinite outward path (in D_i) for i∈{1,2}; and that every directed cycle of length 3 contained in D has at least two symmetrical arcs, then D has a kernel. All the conditions for the theorem are tight.