On 2-factors with cycles containing specified edges in a bipartite graph

Let k≥1 be an integer and G=(V₁,V₂;E) a bipartite graph with |V₁|=|V₂|=n such that n≥2k+2. In this paper it has been proved that if for each pair of nonadjacent vertices x∈V₁ and y∈V₂, , then for any k independent edges e₁,…,e_k of G, G has a 2-factor with k+1 cycles C₁,…,C_k+1 such that e_i∈E(C_i) and |V(C_i)|=4 for each i∈{1,…,k}. We shall also show that the conditions in this paper are sharp.     

Cycle extendability in graphs and digraphs

In 1990, Hendry conjectured that all chordal Hamiltonian graphs are cycle extendable, that is, the vertices of each non-Hamiltonian cycle are contained in a cycle of length one greater. Let A be a symmetric (0,1)-matrix with zero main diagonal such that A is the adjacency matrix of a chordal Hamiltonian graph. Hendry’s conjecture in this case is that every k×k principle submatrix of A that dominates a full cycle permutation k×k matrix is a principle submatrix of a (k+1)×(k+1) principle submatrix of A that dominates a (k+1)×(k+1) full cycle permutation matrix. This article generalizes the concept of cycle-extendability to S-extendable; that is, with S⊆{1,2,…,n} and G a graph on n vertices, G is S-extendable if the vertices of every non-Hamiltonian cycle are contained in a cycle length i greater, where i∈S. We investigate this concept in directed graphs and in particular tournaments, i.e., anti-symmetric matrices with zero main diagonal.     

Tournament immersion and cutwidth

A (loopless) digraph H is strongly immersed in a digraph G if the vertices of H are mapped to distinct vertices of G, and the edges of H are mapped to directed paths joining the corresponding pairs of vertices of G, in such a way that the paths used are pairwise edge-disjoint, and do not pass through vertices of G that are images of vertices of H. A digraph has cutwidth at most k if its vertices can be ordered {v₁,…,vn} in such a way that for each j, there are at most k edges uv such that u∈{v₁,…,vj−1} and v∈{vj,…,vn}.We prove that for every set S of tournaments, the following are equivalent:

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there is a digraph H such that H cannot be strongly immersed in any member of S,

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there exists k such that every member of S has cutwidth at most k,

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there exists k such that every vertex of every member of S belongs to at most k edge-disjoint directed cycles.

This is a key lemma towards two results that will be presented in later papers: first, that strong immersion is a well-quasi-order for tournaments, and second, that there is a polynomial time algorithm for the k edge-disjoint directed paths problem (for fixed k) in a tournament.     

On the 1-factors of n-connected graphs

L. W. Beineke and M. D. Plummer have recently proved [1] that every n-connected graph with a 1-factor has at least n different 1-factors. The main purpose of this paper is to prove that every n-connected graph with a 1-factor has at least as many as n(n − 2)(n − 4) … 4 · 2, (or: n(n − 2)(n − 4) … 5 · 3) 1-factors. The main lemma used is: if a 2-connected graph G has a 1-factor, then G contains a vertex V (and even two such vertices), such that each edge of G, incident to V, belongs to some 1-factor of G.     

Ore-type conditions for bipartite graphs containing hexagons

Let G=(V₁,V₂;E) be a bipartite graph with |V₁|=|V₂|=3k, where k>0. In this paper it is proved that if d(x)+d(y)≥4k−1 for every pair of nonadjacent vertices x∈V₁, y∈V₂, then G contains k−1 independent cycles of order 6 and a path of order 6 such that all of them are independent. Furthermore, if d(x)+d(y)≥4k for every pair of nonadjacent vertices x∈V₁, y∈V₂ and k>2, then G contains k−2 independent cycles of order 6 and a cycle of order 12 such that all of them are independent.     

An Ore-type condition for arbitrarily vertex decomposable graphs

Let G be a graph of order n and r, 1≤r≤n, a fixed integer. G is said to be r-vertex decomposable if for each sequence (n₁,…,n_r) of positive integers such that n₁+?+n_r=n there exists a partition (V₁,…,V_r) of the vertex set of G such that for each i∈{1,…,r}, V_i induces a connected subgraph of G on n_i vertices. G is called arbitrarily vertex decomposable if it is r-vertex decomposable for each r∈{1,…,n}.In this paper we show that if G is a connected graph on n vertices with the independence number at most ⌈n/2⌉ and such that the degree sum of any pair of non-adjacent vertices is at least n−3, then G is arbitrarily vertex decomposable or isomorphic to one of two exceptional graphs. We also exhibit the integers r for which the graphs verifying the above degree-sum condition are not r-vertex decomposable.     

Circumferences of regular claw-free graphs

A known result obtained independently by Fan and Jung is that every 3-connected k-regular graph on n vertices contains a cycle of length at least min{3k,n}. This raises the question of how much can be said about the circumferences of 3-connected k-regular claw-free graphs. In this paper, we show that every 3-connected k-regular claw-free graph on n vertices contains a cycle of length at least min{6k-17,n}.     

On the girth of extremal graphs without shortest cycles

Let EX(ν;{C₃,…,C_n}) denote the set of graphs G of order ν that contain no cycles of length less than or equal to n which have maximum number of edges. In this paper we consider a problem posed by several authors: does G contain an n+1 cycle? We prove that the diameter of G is at most n−1, and present several results concerning the above question: the girth of G is g=n+1 if (i) ν≥n+5, diameter equal to n−1 and minimum degree at least 3; (ii) ν≥12, ν∉{15,80,170} and n=6. Moreover, if ν=15 we find an extremal graph of girth 8 obtained from a 3-regular complete bipartite graph subdividing its edges. (iii) We prove that if ν≥2n−3 and n≥7 the girth is at most 2n−5. We also show that the answer to the question is negative for ν≤n+1+⌊(n−2)/2⌋.     

The two-dimensional Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem

In this paper we generalize the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem (PTE) to any dimension. The one-dimensional PTE problem is the classical PTE problem. We concentrate on the two-dimensional version which asks, given parameters n,k∈N, for two different multi-sets {(x₁,y₁),…,(xn,yn)}, of points from Z² such that for all d,j∈{0,…,k} with j?d. We present parametric solutions for n∈{2,3,4,6} with optimal size, i.e., with k=n−1. We show that these solutions come from convex 2n-gons with all vertices in Z² such that every line parallel to a side contains an even number of vertices and prove that such convex 2n-gons do not exist for other values of n. Furthermore we show that solutions to the two-dimensional PTE problem yield solutions to the one-dimensional PTE problem. Finally, we address the PTE problem over the Gaussian integers.     

Weak cycle partition involving degree sum conditions

Let G be a graph of order n and k a positive integer. A set of subgraphs H={H₁,H₂,…,H_k} is called a k-degenerated cycle partition (abbreviated to k-DCP) of G if H₁,…,H_k are vertex disjoint subgraphs of G such that and for all i, 1≤i≤k, H_i is a cycle or K₁ or K₂. If, in addition, for all i, 1≤i≤k, H_i is a cycle or K₁, then H is called a k-weak cycle partition (abbreviated to k-WCP) of G. It has been shown by Enomoto and Li that if |G|=n≥k and if the degree sum of any pair of nonadjacent vertices is at least n−k+1, then G has a k-DCP, except G≅C₅ and k=2. We prove that if G is a graph of order n≥k+12 that has a k-DCP and if the degree sum of any pair of nonadjacent vertices is at least , then either G has a k-WCP or k=2 and G is a subgraph of K₂∪K_n−2∪{e}, where e is an edge connecting V(K₂) and V(K_n−2). By using this, we improve Enomoto and Li’s result for n≥max{k+12,10k−9}.     

A generalization of Fan’s results: Distribution of cycle lengths in graphs

Fan [G. Fan, Distribution of cycle lengths in graphs, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 84 (2002) 187-202] proved that if G is a graph with minimum degree δ(G)≥3k for any positive integer k, then G contains k+1 cycles C₀,C₁,…,C_k such that k+1<|E(C₀)|<|E(C₁)|<?<|E(C_k)|, |E(C_i)−E(C_i−1)|=2, 1≤i≤k−1, and 1≤|E(C_k)|−|E(C_k−1)|≤2, and furthermore, if δ(G)≥3k+1, then |E(C_k)|−|E(C_k−1)|=2. In this paper, we generalize Fan’s result, and show that if we let G be a graph with minimum degree δ(G)≥3, for any positive integer k (if k≥2, then δ(G)≥4), if d_G(u)+d_G(v)≥6k−1 for every pair of adjacent vertices u,v∈V(G), then G contains k+1 cycles C₀,C₁,…,C_k such that k+1<|E(C₀)|<|E(C₁)|<?<|E(C_k)|, |E(C_i)−E(C_i−1)|=2, 1≤i≤k−1, and 1≤|E(C_k)|−|E(C_k−1)|≤2, and furthermore, if d_G(u)+d_G(v)≥6k+1, then |E(C_k)|−|E(C_k−1)|=2.     

Metric characterization of apartments in dual polar spaces

Let Π be a polar space of rank n and let Gk(Π), k∈{0,…,n−1} be the polar Grassmannian formed by k-dimensional singular subspaces of Π. The corresponding Grassmann graph will be denoted by Γk(Π). We consider the polar Grassmannian Gn−1(Π) formed by maximal singular subspaces of Π and show that the image of every isometric embedding of the n-dimensional hypercube graph Hn in Γn−1(Π) is an apartment of Gn−1(Π). This follows from a more general result concerning isometric embeddings of Hm, m?n in Γn−1(Π). As an application, we classify all isometric embeddings of Γn−1(Π) in Γn^′−1(Π^′), where Π^′ is a polar space of rank n^′?n.     

On the sum of the Laplacian eigenvalues of a tree

Given an n-vertex graph G=(V,E), the Laplacian spectrum of G is the set of eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix L=D-A, where D and A denote the diagonal matrix of vertex-degrees and the adjacency matrix of G, respectively. In this paper, we study the Laplacian spectrum of trees. More precisely, we find a new upper bound on the sum of the k largest Laplacian eigenvalues of every n-vertex tree, where k∈{1,…,n}. This result is used to establish that the n-vertex star has the highest Laplacian energy over all n-vertex trees, which answers affirmatively to a question raised by Radenkovi? and Gutman [10].     

On the existence of cycle frames and almost resolvable cycle systems

Suppose H is a complete m-partite graph K_m(n₁,n₂,…,n_m) with vertex set V and m independent sets G₁,G₂,…,G_m of n₁,n₂,…,n_m vertices respectively. Let G={G₁,G₂,…,G_m}. If the edges of λH can be partitioned into a set C of k-cycles, then (V,G,C) is called a k-cycle group divisible design with index λ, denoted by (k,λ)-CGDD. A (k,λ)-cycle frame is a (k,λ)-CGDD (V,G,C) in which C can be partitioned into holey 2-factors, each holey 2-factor being a partition of V?G_i for some G_i∈G. Stinson et al. have resolved the existence of (3,λ)-cycle frames of type g^u. In this paper, we show that there exists a (k,λ)-cycle frame of type g^u for k∈{4,5,6} if and only if , , u≥3 when k∈{4,6}, u≥4 when k=5, and (k,λ,g,u)≠(6,1,6,3). A k-cycle system of order n whose cycle set can be partitioned into (n−1)/2 almost parallel classes and a half-parallel class is called an almost resolvable k-cycle system, denoted by k-ARCS(n). Lindner et al. have considered the general existence problem of k-ARCS(n) from the commutative quasigroup for . In this paper, we give a recursive construction by using cycle frames which can also be applied to construct k-ARCS(n)s when . We also update the known results and prove that for k∈{3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,14} there exists a k-ARCS(2kt+1) for each positive integer t with three known exceptions and four additional possible exceptions.     

Critically indecomposable graphs

An undirected graph G=(V,E) with a specific subset X⊂V is called X-critical if G and G(X), induced subgraph on X, are indecomposable but G(V−{w}) is decomposable for every w∈V−X. This is a generalization of critically indecomposable graphs studied by Schmerl and Trotter [J.H. Schmerl, W.T. Trotter, Critically indecomposable partially ordered sets, graphs, tournaments and other binary relational structures, Discrete Mathematics 113 (1993) 191-205] and Bonizzoni [P. Bonizzoni, Primitive 2-structures with the (n−2)-property, Theoretical Computer Science 132 (1994) 151-178], who deal with the case where X is empty.We present several structural results for this class of graphs and show that in every X-critical graph the vertices of V−X can be partitioned into pairs (a₁,b₁),(a₂,b₂),…,(a_m,b_m) such that G(V−{a_j1,b_j1,…,a_jk,b_jk}) is also an X-critical graph for arbitrary set of indices {j₁,…,j_k}. These vertex pairs are called commutative elimination sequence. If G is an arbitrary indecomposable graph with an indecomposable induced subgraph G(X), then the above result establishes the existence of an indecomposability preserving sequence of vertex pairs (x₁,y₁),…,(x_t,y_t) such that x_i,y_i∈V−X. As an application of the commutative elimination sequence of an X-critical graph we present algorithms to extend a 3-coloring (similarly, 1-factor) of G(X) to entire G.     

Degree conditions for the partition of a graph into cycles, edges and isolated vertices

Let k,n be integers with 2≤k≤n, and let G be a graph of order n. We prove that if max{d_G(x),d_G(y)}≥(n−k+1)/2 for any x,y∈V(G) with x≠y and xy∉E(G), then G has k vertex-disjoint subgraphs H₁,…,H_k such that V(H₁)∪?∪V(H_k)=V(G) and H_i is a cycle or K₁ or K₂ for each 1≤i≤k, unless k=2 and G=C₅, or k=3 and G=K₁∪C₅.     

A new class of Ramsey-Turán problems

We introduce and study a new class of Ramsey-Turán problems, a typical example of which is the following one:Let ε>0 and G be a graph of sufficiently large order n with minimum degree δ(G)>3n/4. If the edges of G are colored in blue or red, then for all k∈[4,⌊(1/8−ε)n⌋], there exists a monochromatic cycle of length k.     

Geodesic-pancyclic graphs

A shortest path connecting two vertices u and v is called a u-v geodesic. The distance between u and v in a graph G, denoted by d_G(u,v), is the number of edges in a u-v geodesic. A graph G with n vertices is panconnected if, for each pair of vertices u,v∈V(G) and for each integer k with d_G(u,v)?k?n-1, there is a path of length k in G that connects u and v. A graph G with n vertices is geodesic-pancyclic if, for each pair of vertices u,v∈V(G), every u-v geodesic lies on every cycle of length k satisfying max{2d_G(u,v),3}?k?n. In this paper, we study sufficient conditions of geodesic-pancyclic graphs. In particular, we show that most of the known sufficient conditions of panconnected graphs can be applied to geodesic-pancyclic graphs.     

Global stability in difference equations satisfying the generalized Yorke condition

We present several conditions sufficient for global stability of the zero solution of nonautonomous difference equation xn+1=qxn+fn(xn,…,xn−k), n∈Z, when the nonlinearities fn satisfy a sort of negative feedback condition. Moreover, for every k∈N, we indicate qk such that one of our stability conditions is sharp if q∈(0,qk]. We apply our results to discrete versions of Nicholson's blowflies equation, the Mackey-Glass equations, and the Wazewska and Lasota equation.     

Properties of connected graphs having minimum degree distance

The degree distance of a connected graph, introduced by Dobrynin, Kochetova and Gutman, has been studied in mathematical chemistry. In this paper some properties of graphs having minimum degree distance in the class of connected graphs of order n and size m≥n−1 are deduced. It is shown that any such graph G has no induced subgraph isomorphic to P₄, contains a vertex z of degree n−1 such that G−z has at most one connected component C such that |C|≥2 and C has properties similar to those of G.For any fixed k such that k=0,1 or k≥3, if m=n+k and n≥k+3 then the extremal graph is unique and it is isomorphic to K₁+(K_1,k+1∪(n−k−3)K₁).