On kernels in perfect graphs

A kernel of a digraphD is a set of vertices which is both independent and absorbant. In 1983, C. Berge and P. Duchet conjectured that an undirected graphG is perfect if and only if the following condition is fulfilled: ifD is an orientation ofG (where pairs of opposite arcs are allowed) and if every clique ofD has a kernel thenD has a kernel. We prove here the conjecture for the complements of strongly perfect graphs and establish that a minimal counterexample to the conjecture is not a complete join of an independent set with another graph.     

Legal coloring of graphs

The following computational problem was initiated by Manber and Tompa (22nd FOCS Conference, 1981): Given a graphG=(V, E) and a real functionf:V→R which is a proposed vertex coloring. Decide whetherf is a proper vertex coloring ofG. The elementary steps are taken to be linear comparisons. Lower bounds on the complexity of this problem are derived using the chromatic polynomial ofG. It is shown how geometric parameters of a space partition associated withG influence the complexity of this problem. Existing methods for analyzing such space partitions are suggested as a powerful tool for establishing lower bounds for a variety of computational problems.     

A note on perfect graphs

Let the lines of a complete graph be 3-colored so that no triangle gets 3 different colors. If two of these colors form perfect graphs then so does the third.     

Effective on-line coloring ofP 5-free graphs

An on-line algorithm is given that colors anyP ₅-free graph withf() colors, wheref is a function of the clique number of the graph.     

Counting perfect matchings in n-extendable graphs

The structural theory of matchings is used to establish lower bounds on the number of perfect matchings in n-extendable graphs. It is shown that any such graph on p vertices and q edges contains at least ⌈(n+1)!/4[q-p-(n-1)(2Δ-3)+4]⌉ different perfect matchings, where Δ is the maximum degree of a vertex in G.     

Equitable coloring of random graphs

An equitable coloring of a graph is a proper vertex coloring such that the sizes of any two color classes differ by at most one. The least positive integer k for which there exists an equitable coloring of a graph G with k colors is said to be the equitable chromatic number of G and is denoted by χ₌(G). The least positive integer k such that for any k′ ≥ k there exists an equitable coloring of a graph G with k′ colors is said to be the equitable chromatic threshold of G and is denoted by χ₌*(G). In this paper, we investigate the asymptotic behavior of these coloring parameters in the probability space G(n,p) of random graphs. We prove that if n^?1/5+? < p < 0.99 for some 0 < ?, then almost surely χ(G(n,p)) ≤ χ₌(G(n,p)) = (1 + o(1))χ(G(n,p)) holds (where χ(G(n,p)) is the ordinary chromatic number of G(n,p)). We also show that there exists a constant C such that if C/n < p < 0.99, then almost surely χ(G(n,p)) ≤ χ₌(G(n,p)) ≤ (2 + o(1))χ(G(n,p)). Concerning the equitable chromatic threshold, we prove that if n^?(1??) < p < 0.99 for some 0 < ?, then almost surely χ(G(n,p)) ≤ χ₌* (G(n,p)) ≤ (2 + o(1))χ(G(n,p)) holds, and if < p < 0.99 for some 0 < ?, then almost surely we have χ(G(n,p)) ≤ χ₌*(G(n,p)) = O_?(χ(G(n,p))). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2009     

Coloring planar perfect graphs by decomposition

This paper describes a decomposition scheme for coloring perfect graphs. Based on this scheme, one need only concentrate on coloring highly connected (at least 3-connected) perfect graphs. This idea is illustrated on planar perfect graphs, which yields a straightforward coloring algorithm. We suspect that, under appropriate definition, highly connected perfect graphs might possess certain regular properties that are amenable to coloring algorithms. This research has been supported in part by National Science Foundation under grant ECS—8105989 to Northwestern University.     

On coloring graphs with locally small chromatic number

In 1973, P. Erdös conjectured that for eachkε2, there exists a constantc _k so that ifG is a graph onn vertices andG has no odd cycle with length less thanc _k n ^1/k , then the chromatic number ofG is at mostk+1. Constructions due to Lovász and Schriver show thatc _k , if it exists, must be at least 1. In this paper we settle Erdös’ conjecture in the affirmative. We actually prove a stronger result which provides an upper bound on the chromatic number of a graph in which we have a bound on the chromatic number of subgraphs with small diameter.     

On the index of tricyclic graphs with perfect matchings

Let T(2k) be the set of all tricyclic graphs on 2k(k?2) vertices with perfect matchings. In this paper, we discuss some properties of the connected graphs with perfect matchings, and then determine graphs with the largest index in T(2k).     

Independence and coloring properties of direct products of some vertex-transitive graphs

Let α(G) and χ(G) denote the independence number and chromatic number of a graph G, respectively. Let G×H be the direct product graph of graphs G and H. We show that if G and H are circular graphs, Kneser graphs, or powers of cycles, then α(G×H)=max{α(G)|V(H)|,α(H)|V(G)|} and χ(G×H)=min{χ(G),χ(H)}.     

Entropy splitting for antiblocking corners and perfect graphs

We characterize pairs of convex setsA, B in thek-dimensional space with the property that every probability distribution (p ₁,...,p _k ) has a repsesentationp _i =a _l .b _i , aA, bB.Minimal pairs with this property are antiblocking pairs of convex corners. This result is closely related to a new entropy concept. The main application is an information theoretic characterization of perfect graphs.Research was partially sponsored by the Hungarian National Foundation, Scientific Research Grants No 1806 and 1812.     

Series-parallel graphs are windy postman perfect

The windy postman problem is the NP-hard problem of finding the minimum cost of a tour traversing all edges of an undirected graph, where the cost of an edge depends on the direction of traversal. Given an undirected graph G, we consider the polyhedron O(G) induced by a linear programming relaxation of the windy postman problem. We say that G is windy postman perfect if O(G) is integral. There exists a polynomial-time algorithm, based on the ellipsoid method, to solve the windy postman problem for the class of windy postman perfect graphs. By considering a family of polyhedra related to O(G), we prove that series-parallel graphs are windy postman perfect, therefore solving a conjecture of Win.     

On a geometric property of perfect graphs

LetG be a graph,VP(G) its vertex packing polytope and letA(G) be obtained by reflectingVP(G) in all Cartersian coordinates. Denoting byA*(G) the set obtained similarly from the fractional vertex packing polytope, we prove that the segment connecting any two non-antipodal vertices ofA(G) is contained in the surface ofA(G) and thatG is perfect if and only ifA*(G) has a similar property.     

Cyclotomic graphs and perfect codes

We study two families of cyclotomic graphs and perfect codes in them. They are Cayley graphs on the additive group of $\mathbb{Z}[{\zeta }_m]/A$, with connection sets $\{\pm ({\zeta }_m^i+A):0\le i\le m?1\}$ and $\{\pm ({\zeta }_m^i+A):0\le i\le ?(m)?1\}$, respectively, where ${\zeta }_m$ ($m\ge 2$) is an mth primitive root of unity, A a nonzero ideal of $\mathbb{Z}[{\zeta }_m]$, and ? Euler's totient function. We call them the mth cyclotomic graph and the second kind mth cyclotomic graph, and denote them by $G_m(A)$ and $G_m^{?}(A)$, respectively. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for $D/A$ to be a perfect t-code in $G_m^{?}(A)$ and a necessary condition for $D/A$ to be such a code in $G_m(A)$, where $t\ge 1$ is an integer and D an ideal of $\mathbb{Z}[{\zeta }_m]$ containing A. In the case when $m=3,4$, $G_m((\alpha ))$ is known as an Eisenstein–Jacobi and Gaussian networks, respectively, and we obtain necessary conditions for $(\beta )/(\alpha )$ to be a perfect t-code in $G_m((\alpha ))$, where $0\ne \alpha ,\beta \in \mathbb{Z}[{\zeta }_m]$ with β dividing α. In the literature such conditions are known to be sufficient when $m=4$ and $m=3$ under an additional condition. We give a classification of all first kind Frobenius circulants of valency 2p and prove that they are all pth cyclotomic graphs, where p is an odd prime. Such graphs belong to a large family of Cayley graphs that are efficient for routing and gossiping.     

Some perfect coloring properties of graphs

A Grundy n-coloring of a finite graph is a coloring of the points of the graph with the non-negative integers smaller than n such that each point is adjacent to some point of each smaller color but to none of the same color. The Grundy number of a graph is the maximum n for which it has a Grundy n-coloring. Characterizations are given of the families of finite graphs G such that for each induced subgraph H of G: (1) the Grundy number of H is equal to the chromatic number of H; (2) the Grundy number of H is equal to the maximum clique size of H; (3) the achromatic number of H is equal to the chromatic number of H; (4) the achromatic number of H is equal to the maximum clique size of H. The definitions are further extended to infinite graphs, and some of the above characterizations are shown to be true for denumerable graphs and locally finite graphs.     

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.     

Solution to a problem of C. D. Godsil regarding bipartite graphs with unique perfect matching

We give the solution to the following question of C. D. Godsil[2]: Among the bipartite graphsG with a unique perfect matching and such that a bipartite graph obtains when the edges of the matching are contracted, characterize those having the property thatG ⁺G, whereG ⁺ is the bipartite multigraph whose adjacency matrix,B ⁺, is diagonally similar to the inverse of the adjacency matrix ofG put in lower-triangular form. The characterization is thatG must be obtainable from a bipartite graph by adding, to each vertex, a neighbor of degree one. Our approach relies on the association of a directed graph to each pair (G, M) of a bipartite graphG and a perfect matchingM ofG.     

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.     

Spanning trees of extended graphs

A generalization of the Prüfer coding of trees is given providing a natural correspondence between the set of codes of spanning trees of a graph and the set of codes of spanning trees of theextension of the graph. This correspondence prompts us to introduce and to investigate a notion ofthe spanning tree volume of a graph and provides a simple relation between the volumes of a graph and its extension (and in particular a simple relation between the spanning tree numbers of a graph and its uniform extension). These results can be used to obtain simple purely combinatorial proofs of many previous results obtained by the Matrix-tree theorem on the number of spanning trees of a graph. The results also make it possible to construct graphs with the maximal number of spanning trees in some classes of graphs.     

Diperfect graphs

Gallai and Milgram have shown that the vertices of a directed graph, with stability number α(G), can be covered by exactly α(G) disjoint paths. However, the various proofs of this result do not imply the existence of a maximum stable setS and of a partition of the vertex-set into paths μ₁, μ₂, ..., μ_k such tht |μ_i ∩S|=1 for alli. Later, Gallai proved that in a directed graph, the maximum number of vertices in a path is at least equal to the chromatic number; here again, we do not know if there exists an optimal coloring (S ₁,S ₂, ...,S _k) and a path μ such that |μ ∩S _i|=1 for alli. In this paper we show that many directed graphs, like the perfect graphs, have stronger properties: for every maximal stable setS there exists a partition of the vertex set into paths which meet the stable set in only one point. Also: for every optimal coloring there exists a path which meets each color class in only one point. This suggests several conjecties similar to the perfect graph conjecture. Dedicated to Tibor Gallai on his seventieth birthday