On the roots of independence polynomials of almost all very well-covered graphs

If s_k denotes the number of stable sets of cardinality k in graph G, and α(G) is the size of a maximum stable set, then is the independence polynomial of G [I. Gutman, F. Harary, Generalizations of the matching polynomial, Utilitas Math. 24 (1983) 97-106]. A graph G is very well-covered [O. Favaron, Very well-covered graphs, Discrete Math. 42 (1982) 177-187] if it has no isolated vertices, its order equals 2α(G) and it is well-covered, i.e., all its maximal independent sets are of the same size [M.D. Plummer, Some covering concepts in graphs, J. Combin. Theory 8 (1970) 91-98]. For instance, appending a single pendant edge to each vertex of G yields a very well-covered graph, which we denote by G^*. Under certain conditions, any well-covered graph equals G^* for some G [A. Finbow, B. Hartnell, R.J. Nowakowski, A characterization of well-covered graphs of girth 5 or greater, J. Combin. Theory Ser B 57 (1993) 44-68].The root of the smallest modulus of the independence polynomial of any graph is real [J.I. Brown, K. Dilcher, R.J. Nowakowski, Roots of independence polynomials of well-covered graphs, J. Algebraic Combin. 11 (2000) 197-210]. The location of the roots of the independence polynomial in the complex plane, and the multiplicity of the root of the smallest modulus are investigated in a number of articles.In this paper we establish formulae connecting the coefficients of I(G;x) and I(G^*;x), which allow us to show that the number of roots of I(G;x) is equal to the number of roots of I(G^*;x) different from -1, which appears as a root of multiplicity α(G^*)-α(G) for I(G^*;x). We also prove that the real roots of I(G^*;x) are in [-1,-1/2α(G^*)), while for a general graph of order n we show that its roots lie in |z|>1/(2n-1).Hoede and Li [Clique polynomials and independent set polynomials of graphs, Discrete Math. 125 (1994) 219-228] posed the problem of finding graphs that can be uniquely defined by their clique polynomials (clique-unique graphs). Stevanovic [Clique polynomials of threshold graphs, Univ. Beograd Publ. Elektrotehn. Fac., Ser. Mat. 8 (1997) 84-87] proved that threshold graphs are clique-unique. Here, we demonstrate that the independence polynomial distinguishes well-covered spiders among well-covered trees.     

The complexity of a class of infinite graphs

IfG _k is the family of countable graphs with nok vertex (or edge) disjoint circuits (1<k<) then there is a countableG _k G _k such that every member ofG _k is an (induced) subgraph of some member ofG _k , but no finiteG _k suffices.     

Planar graphs and poset dimension

We view the incidence relation of a graph G=(V. E) as an order relation on its vertices and edges, i.e. a<_G b if and only of a is a vertex and b is an edge incident on a. This leads to the definition of the order-dimension of G as the minimum number of total orders on V E whose intersection is <_G. Our main result is the characterization of planar graphs as the graphs whose order-dimension does not exceed three. Strong versions of several known properties of planar graphs are implied by this characterization. These properties include: each planar graph has arboricity at most three and each planar graph has a plane embedding whose edges are straight line segments. A nice feature of this embedding is that the coordinates of the vertices have a purely combinatorial meaning.     

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.     

Posets with interval upper bound graphs

Competition graphs of transitive acyclic digraphs are strict upper bound graphs. This paper characterizes those posets, which can be considered transitive acyclic digraphs, which have upper bound graphs that are interval graphs. The results proved here may shed some light on the open question of those digraphs which have interval competition graphs.This material is taken from Chapter 3 of my (maiden name Diny) PhD Dissertation.     

Zero-divisor graphs of amalgamated duplication of a ring along an ideal

Let R be a commutative ring with identity and let I be an ideal of R. Let R?I be the subring of R×R consisting of the elements (r,r+i) for r∈R and i∈I. We study the diameter and girth of the zero-divisor graph of the ring R?I.     

Weakly central-vertex complete graphs with applications to commutative rings

The zero-divisor graph of a commutative ring R is the graph whose vertices consist of the nonzero zero-divisors of R such that distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if and only if xy=0. In this paper, a decomposition theorem is provided to describe weakly central-vertex complete graphs of radius 1. This characterization is then applied to the class of zero-divisor graphs of commutative rings. For finite commutative rings whose zero-divisor graphs are not isomorphic to that of Z₄[X]/(X²), it is shown that weak central-vertex completeness is equivalent to the annihilator condition. Furthermore, a schema for describing zero-divisor graphs of radius 1 is provided.     

Dominating sets of the comaximal and ideal-based zero-divisor graphs of commutative rings

Abstract

Let R be a commutative ring with nonzero identity, and let I be an ideal of R. The ideal-based zero-divisor graph of R, denoted by Γ_I (R), is the graph whose vertices are the set {x ∈ R \ I| xy ∈ I for some y∈ R \ I} and two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if and only if xy ∈ I. Define the comaximal graph of R, denoted by CG(R), to be a graph whose vertices are the elements of R, where two distinct vertices a and b are adjacent if and only if Ra+Rb=R. A nonempty set S ? V of a graph G=(V, E) is a dominating set of G if every vertex in V is either in S or is adjacent to a vertex in S. The domination number γ(G) of G is the minimum cardinality among the dominating sets of G. The main object of this paper is to study the dominating sets and domination number of Γ_I (R) and the comaximal graph CG₂(R) \ J (R) (or CGJ (R) for short) where CG₂(R) is the subgraph of CG(R) induced on the nonunit elements of R and J (R) is the Jacobson radical of R.     

Eliminating graphs by means of parallel knock-out schemes

In 1997 Lampert and Slater introduced parallel knock-out schemes, an iterative process on graphs that goes through several rounds. In each round of this process, every vertex eliminates exactly one of its neighbors. The parallel knock-out number of a graph is the minimum number of rounds after which all vertices have been eliminated (if possible). The parallel knock-out number is related to well-known concepts like perfect matchings, hamiltonian cycles, and 2-factors.We derive a number of combinatorial and algorithmic results on parallel knock-out numbers: for families of sparse graphs (like planar graphs or graphs of bounded tree-width), the parallel knock-out number grows at most logarithmically with the number n of vertices; this bound is basically tight for trees. Furthermore, there is a family of bipartite graphs for which the parallel knock-out number grows proportionally to the square root of n. We characterize trees with parallel knock-out number at most 2, and we show that the parallel knock-out number for trees can be computed in polynomial time via a dynamic programming approach (whereas in general graphs this problem is known to be NP-hard). Finally, we prove that the parallel knock-out number of a claw-free graph is either infinite or less than or equal to 2.     

Pfaffian graphs, <Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>-joins and crossing numbers

We characterize Pfaffian graphs in terms of their drawings in the plane. We generalize the techniques used in the proof of this characterization, and prove a theorem about the numbers of crossings in T-joins in different drawings of a fixed graph. As a corollary we give a new proof of a theorem of Kleitman on the parity of crossings in drawings of K _2j+1 and K _2j+1,2k+1. Partially supported by NSF grants DMS-0200595 and DMS-0701033.     

The gallai-younger conjecture for planar graphs

Younger conjectured that for everyk there is ag(k) such that any digraphG withoutk vertex disjoint cycles contains a setX of at mostg(k) vertices such thatG–X has no directed cycles. Gallai had previously conjectured this result fork=1. We prove this conjecture for planar digraphs. Specifically, we show that ifG is a planar digraph withoutk vertex disjoint directed cycles, thenG contains a set of at mostO(klog(k)log(log(k))) vertices whose removal leaves an acyclic digraph. The work also suggests a conjecture concerning an extension of Vizing's Theorem for planar graphs.     

Vertex and edge PI indices of Cartesian product graphs

The Padmakar-Ivan (PI) index of a graph G is the sum over all edges uv of G of the number of edges which are not equidistant from u and v. In this paper, the notion of vertex PI index of a graph is introduced. We apply this notion to compute an exact expression for the PI index of Cartesian product of graphs. This extends a result by Klavzar [On the PI index: PI-partitions and Cartesian product graphs, MATCH Commun. Math. Comput. Chem. 57 (2007) 573-586] for bipartite graphs. Some important properties of vertex PI index are also investigated.     

Preperfect graphs

We say that a vertexx of a graph is predominant if there exists another vertexy ofG such that either every maximum clique ofG containingy containsx or every maximum stable set containingx containsy. A graph is then called preperfect if every induced subgraph has a predominant vertex. We show that preperfect graphs are perfect, and that several well-known classes of perfect graphs are preperfect. We also derive a new characterization of perfect graphs.     

Some remarks on universal graphs

LetΓ be a class of countable graphs, and let ℱ(Γ) denote the class of all countable graphs that do not contain any subgraph isomorphic to a member ofΓ. Furthermore, letTΓ andHΓ denote the class of all subdivisions of graphs inΓ and the class of all graphs contracting to a member ofΓ, respectively. As the main result of this paper it is decided which of the classes ℱ(TK ⁿ ) and ℱ(HK ⁿ ),n≦ℵ₀, contain a universal element. In fact, for ℱ(TK ⁴)=ℱ(HK ⁴) a strongly universal graph is constructed, whereas for 5≦n≦ℵ₀ the classes ℱ(TK ⁿ ) and ℱ(HK ⁿ ) have no universal elements. Dedicated to Klaus Wagner on his 75^th birthday     

Cancellation properties of products of graphs

This note extends results of Fernández, Leighton, and López-Presa on the uniqueness of rth roots for disconnected graphs with respect to the Cartesian product to other products and shows that their methods also imply new cancelation laws.     

A Dynamic location problem for graphs

We introduce a class of optimization problems, calleddynamic location problems, involving the processing of requests that occur sequentially at the nodes of a graphG. This leads to the definition of a new parameter of graphs, called the window indexWX(G), that measures how large a window into the future is needed to solve every instance of the dynamic location problem onG optimally on-line. We completely characterize this parameter:WX(G)k if and only ifG is a weak retract of a product of complete graphs of size at mostk. As a byproduct, we obtain two (polynomially recognizable) structural characterizations of such graphs, extending a result of Bandelt.     

Hadwiger's conjecture forK 6-free graphs

In 1943, Hadwiger made the conjecture that every loopless graph not contractible to the complete graph ont+1 vertices ist-colourable. Whent3 this is easy, and whent=4, Wagner's theorem of 1937 shows the conjecture to be equivalent to the four-colour conjecture (the 4CC). However, whent5 it has remained open. Here we show that whent=5 it is also equivalent to the 4CC. More precisely, we show (without assuming the 4CC) that every minimal counterexample to Hadwiger's conjecture whent=5 is apex, that is, it consists of a planar graph with one additional vertex. Consequently, the 4CC implies Hadwiger's conjecture whent=5, because it implies that apex graphs are 5-colourable.Research partially supported by NSF grants number DMS 8903132, and DMS 9103480 respectively. Both authors were also partially supported by the DIMACS Center at Rutgers University, and the research was carried out partially under a consulting agreement with Bellcore.     

On the geodetic number of median graphs

A set of vertices S in a graph is called geodetic if every vertex of this graph lies on some shortest path between two vertices from S. In this paper, minimum geodetic sets in median graphs are studied with respect to the operation of peripheral expansion. Along the way geodetic sets of median prisms are considered and median graphs that possess a geodetic set of size two are characterized.     

The classification of distance-regular graphs of type IIB

The distance-regular graphs of type IIB in Bannai and Ito [1] have intersection numbers of the form whered is the diameter of , andh, x, andt are complex constants. In this paper we show a graph of type IIB and diameterd (3d) is either the antipodal quotient of the Hamming graphH(2d+1,2), or has the same intersection numbers as the antipodal quotient ofH(2d, 2).     

On a matroid defined by ear-decompositions of graphs

A. Frank described in [1] an algorithm to determine the minimum number of edges in a graph G whose contraction leaves a factor-critical graph and he asked if there was an algorithm for the weighted version of the problem. We prove that the minimal critical-making edge-sets form the bases of a matroid and hence the matroid greedy algorithm gives rise to the desired algorithm.Partially supported by OTKA F014919, OTKA T17181 and OTKA T17580.