Sparse partition universal graphs for graphs of bounded degree

In 1983, Chvátal, Trotter and the two senior authors proved that for any Δ there exists a constant B such that, for any n, any 2-colouring of the edges of the complete graph KN with N?Bn vertices yields a monochromatic copy of any graph H that has n vertices and maximum degree Δ. We prove that the complete graph may be replaced by a sparser graph G that has N vertices and edges, with N=⌈B^′n⌉ for some constant B^′ that depends only on Δ. Consequently, the so-called size-Ramsey number of any H with n vertices and maximum degree Δ is . Our approach is based on random graphs; in fact, we show that the classical Erd?s–Rényi random graph with the numerical parameters above satisfies a stronger partition property with high probability, namely, that any 2-colouring of its edges contains a monochromatic universal graph for the class of graphs on n vertices and maximum degree Δ.The main tool in our proof is the regularity method, adapted to a suitable sparse setting. The novel ingredient developed here is an embedding strategy that allows one to embed bounded degree graphs of linear order in certain pseudorandom graphs. Crucial to our proof is the fact that regularity is typically inherited at a scale that is much finer than the scale at which it is assumed.     

Decreasing the diameter of bounded degree graphs

Let f_d (G) denote the minimum number of edges that have to be added to a graph G to transform it into a graph of diameter at most d. We prove that for any graph G with maximum degree D and n > n₀ (D) vertices, f₂(G) = n − D − 1 and f₃(G) ≥ n − O(D³). For d ≥ 4, f_d (G) depends strongly on the actual structure of G, not only on the maximum degree of G. We prove that the maximum of f_d (G) over all connected graphs on n vertices is n/⌊d/2 ⌋ − O(1). As a byproduct, we show that for the n‐cycle C_n, f_d (C_n) = n/(2⌊d/2 ⌋ − 1) − O(1) for every d and n, improving earlier estimates of Chung and Garey in certain ranges. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 35: 161–172, 2000     

Polychromatic colorings of bounded degree plane graphs

A polychromatic k‐coloring of a plane graph G is an assignment of k colors to the vertices of G such that every face of G has all k colors on its boundary. For a given plane graph G, one seeks the maximum number k such that G admits a polychromatic k ‐coloring. In this paper, it is proven that every connected plane graph of order at least three, and maximum degree three, other than K₄ or a subdivision of K₄ on five vertices, admits a 3‐coloring in the regular sense (i.e., no monochromatic edges) that is also a polychromatic 3‐coloring. Our proof is constructive and implies a polynomial‐time algorithm. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 60: 269‐283, 2009     

Embedding graphs with bounded degree in sparse pseudorandom graphs

In this paper, we show the equivalence of somequasi-random properties for sparse graphs, that is, graphsG with edge densityp=|E(G)|/( ₂ ⁿ )=o(1), whereo(1)→0 asn=|V(G)|→∞. Our main result (Theorem 16) is the following embedding result. For a graphJ, writeN _J(x) for the neighborhood of the vertexx inJ, and letδ(J) andΔ(J) be the minimum and the maximum degree inJ. LetH be atriangle-free graph and setd _H=max{δ(J):J⊆H}. Moreover, putD _H=min{2d _H,Δ(H)}. LetC>1 be a fixed constant and supposep=p(n)≫n ⁻¹ D _H. We show that ifG is such that

Backbone colorings of graphs with bounded degree

We study backbone colorings, a variation on classical vertex colorings: Given a graph G and a subgraph H of G (the backbone of G), a backbone coloring for G and H is a proper vertex k-coloring of G in which the colors assigned to adjacent vertices in H differ by at least 2. The minimal k∈N for which such a coloring exists is called the backbone chromatic number of G. We show that for a graph G of maximum degree Δ where the backbone graph is a d-degenerated subgraph of G, the backbone chromatic number is at most Δ+d+1 and moreover, in the case when the backbone graph being a matching we prove that the backbone chromatic number is at most Δ+1. We also present examples where these bounds are attained.Finally, the asymptotic behavior of the backbone chromatic number is studied regarding the degrees of G and H. We prove for any sparse graph G that if the maximum degree of a backbone graph is small compared to the maximum degree of G, then the backbone chromatic number is at most .     

Acyclic colorings of graphs with bounded degree

A k-coloring (not necessarily proper) of vertices of a graph is called acyclic, if for every pair of distinct colors i and j the subgraph induced by the edges whose endpoints have colors i and j is acyclic. We consider some generalized acyclic k-colorings, namely, we require that each color class induces an acyclic or bounded degree graph. Mainly we focus on graphs with maximum degree 5. We prove that any such graph has an acyclic 5-coloring such that each color class induces an acyclic graph with maximum degree at most 4. We prove that the problem of deciding whether a graph G has an acyclic 2-coloring in which each color class induces a graph with maximum degree at most 3 is NP-complete, even for graphs with maximum degree 5. We also give a linear-time algorithm for an acyclic t-improper coloring of any graph with maximum degree d assuming that the number of colors is large enough.     

Path transferability of graphs with bounded minimum degree

We consider a path as an ordered sequence of distinct vertices with a head and a tail. Given a path, a transfer-move is to remove the tail and add a vertex at the head. A graph is n-transferable if any path with length n can be transformed into any other such path by a sequence of transfer-moves. We show that, unless it is complete or a cycle, a connected graph is δ-transferable, where δ≥2 is the minimum degree.     

Total interval number for graphs with bounded degree

The total interval number of an n-vertex graph with maximum degree Δ is at most (Δ + 1/Δ)n/2, with equality if and only if every component of the graph is K_Δ,Δ. If the graph is also required to be connected, then the maximum is Δn/2 + 1 when Δ is even, but when Δ is odd it exceeds [Δ + 1/(2.5Δ + 7.7)]n/2 for infinitely many n. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 25: 79–84, 1997     

Large P4-free graphs with bounded degree

Let ex * (D; H) denote the maximum number of edges in a connected graph with maximum degree D and no induced subgraph isomorphic to H. We prove that this is finite only when H is a disjoint union of paths,m in which case we provide crude upper and lower bounds. When H is the four-vertex path P₄, we prove that the complete bipartite graph K_D,D is the unique extremal graph. Furthermore, if G is a connected P₄-free graph with maximum degree D and clique number ω, then G has at most D² ? D(ω ? 2)/2 edges. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Left and right convergence of graphs with bounded degree

The theory of convergent graph sequences has been worked out in two extreme cases, dense graphs and bounded degree graphs. One can define convergence in terms of counting homomorphisms from fixed graphs into members of the sequence (left‐convergence), or counting homomorphisms into fixed graphs (right‐convergence). Under appropriate conditions, these two ways of defining convergence was proved to be equivalent in the dense case by Borgs, Chayes, Lovász, Sós and Vesztergombi. In this paper a similar equivalence is established in the bounded degree case, if the set of graphs in the definition of right‐convergence is appropriately restricted. In terms of statistical physics, the implication that left convergence implies right convergence means that for a left‐convergent sequence, partition functions of a large class of statistical physics models converge. The proof relies on techniques from statistical physics, like cluster expansion and Dobrushin Uniqueness. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. 2012     

Multicuts in unweighted graphs and digraphs with bounded degree and bounded tree-width

The Multicut problem can be defined as: given a graph G and a collection of pairs of distinct vertices {s_i,t_i} of G, find a minimum set of edges of G whose removal disconnects each s_i from the corresponding t_i. Multicut is known to be NP-hard and Max SNP-hard even when the input graph is restricted to being a tree. The main result of the paper is a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for Multicut in unweighted graphs with bounded degree and bounded tree-width. That is, for any ε>0, we present a polynomial-time (1+ε)-approximation algorithm. In the particular case when the input is a bounded-degree tree, we have a linear-time implementation of the algorithm. We also provide some hardness results: we prove that Multicut is still NP-hard for binary trees and that it is Max SNP-hard if we drop any of the three conditions (unweighted, bounded-degree, bounded tree-width). Finally we show that some of these results extend to the vertex version of Multicut and to a directed version of Multicut.     

Parameter testing in bounded degree graphs of subexponential growth

Parameter testing algorithms are using constant number of queries to estimate the value of a certain parameter of a very large finite graph. It is well‐known that graph parameters such as the independence ratio or the edit‐distance from 3‐colorability are not testable in bounded degree graphs. We prove, however, that these and several other interesting graph parameters are testable in bounded degree graphs of subexponential growth. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2010     

Acyclic improper colourings of graphs with bounded maximum degree

For graphs of bounded maximum degree, we consider acyclic t-improper colourings, that is, colourings in which each bipartite subgraph consisting of the edges between two colour classes is acyclic, and each colour class induces a graph with maximum degree at most t.We consider the supremum, over all graphs of maximum degree at most d, of the acyclic t-improper chromatic number and provide t-improper analogues of results by Alon, McDiarmid and Reed [N. Alon, C.J.H. McDiarmid, B. Reed, Acyclic coloring of graphs, Random Structures Algorithms 2 (3) (1991) 277-288] and Fertin, Raspaud and Reed [G. Fertin, A. Raspaud, B. Reed, Star coloring of graphs, J. Graph Theory 47 (3) (2004) 163-182].     

Generalized degree conditions for graphs with bounded independence number

We consider a generalized degree condition based on the cardinality of the neighborhood union of arbitrary sets of r vertices. We show that a Dirac-type bound on this degree in conjunction with a bound on the independence number of a graph is sufficient to imply certain hamiltonian properties in graphs. For K_1,m-free grphs we obtain generalizations of known results. In particular we show: Theorem. Let r ≥ 1 and m ≥ 3 be integers. Then for each nonnegative function f(r, m) there exists a constant C = C(r, m, f(r, m)) such that if G is a graph of order n (n ≥ r, n > m) with δ_r(G) ≥ (n/3) + C and β (G) ≥ f(r, m), then (a) G is traceable if δ(G) ≥ r and G is connected; (b) G is hamiltonian if δ(G) ≥ r + 1 and G is 2-connected; (c) G is hamiltonian-connected if δ(G) ≥ r + 2 and G is 3-connected. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Helly EPT graphs on bounded degree trees: Characterization and recognition

The edge-intersection graph of a family of paths on a host tree is called an $EPT$ graph. When the tree has maximum degree $h$, we say that the graph is $[h,2,2]$. If, in addition, the family of paths satisfies the Helly property, then the graph is Helly $[h,2,2]$. In this paper, we present a family of $EPT$ graphs called gates which are forbidden induced subgraphs for $[h,2,2]$ graphs. Using these we characterize by forbidden induced subgraphs the Helly $[h,2,2]$ graphs. As a byproduct we prove that in getting a Helly $EPT$-representation, it is not necessary to increase the maximum degree of the host tree. In addition, we give an efficient algorithm to recognize Helly $[h,2,2]$ graphs based on their decomposition by maximal clique separators.