Minimal colorings for properly colored subgraphs

We give conditions on the minimum numberk of colors, sufficient for the existence of given types of properly edge-colored subgraphs in ak-edge-colored complete graph. The types of subgraphs we study include families of internally pairwise vertex-disjoint paths with common endpoints, hamiltonian paths and hamiltonian cycles, cycles with a given lower bound of their length, spanning trees, stars, and cliques. Throughout the paper, related conjectures are proposed.Research supported by a European Union PECO grant under identification number CIPA3510PL929589, while on leave at University Paris-XI     

Circular colorings of edge‐weighted graphs

The notion of (circular) colorings of edge‐weighted graphs is introduced. This notion generalizes the notion of (circular) colorings of graphs, the channel assignment problem, and several other optimization problems. For instance, its restriction to colorings of weighted complete graphs corresponds to the traveling salesman problem (metric case). It also gives rise to a new definition of the chromatic number of directed graphs. Several basic results about the circular chromatic number of edge‐weighted graphs are derived. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 107–116, 2003     

Equitable edge‐colorings of simple graphs

An edge‐coloring of a graph G is equitable if, for each v∈V(G), the number of edges colored with any one color incident with v differs from the number of edges colored with any other color incident with v by at most one. A new sufficient condition for equitable edge‐colorings of simple graphs is obtained. This result covers the previous results, which are due to Hilton and de Werra, verifies a conjecture made by Hilton recently, and substantially extends it to a more general class of graphs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 66:175‐197, 2011     

Cycles and paths in edge‐colored graphs with given degrees

Sufficient degree conditions for the existence of properly edge‐colored cycles and paths in edge‐colored graphs, multigraphs and random graphs are investigated. In particular, we prove that an edge‐colored multigraph of order n on at least three colors and with minimum colored degree greater than or equal to ?(n+1)/2? has properly edge‐colored cycles of all possible lengths, including hamiltonian cycles. Longest properly edge‐colored paths and hamiltonian paths between given vertices are considered as well. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 64: 63–86, 2010     

Characterization of edge‐colored complete graphs with properly colored Hamilton paths

An edge‐colored graph H is properly colored if no two adjacent edges of H have the same color. In 1997, J. Bang‐Jensen and G. Gutin conjectured that an edge‐colored complete graph G has a properly colored Hamilton path if and only if G has a spanning subgraph consisting of a properly colored path C₀ and a (possibly empty) collection of properly colored cycles C₁,C₂,…, C_d such that provided . We prove this conjecture. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 53: 333–346, 2006     

Rainbow faces in edge‐colored plane graphs

A face of an edge‐colored plane graph is called rainbow if the number of colors used on its edges is equal to its size. The maximum number of colors used in an edge coloring of a connected plane graph Gwith no rainbow face is called the edge‐rainbowness of G. In this paper we prove that the edge‐rainbowness of Gequals the maximum number of edges of a connected bridge face factor H of G, where a bridge face factor H of a plane graph Gis a spanning subgraph H of Gin which every face is incident with a bridge and the interior of any one face f∈F(G) is a subset of the interior of some face f′∈F(H). We also show upper and lower bounds on the edge‐rainbowness of graphs based on edge connectivity, girth of the dual graphs, and other basic graph invariants. Moreover, we present infinite classes of graphs where these equalities are attained. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62: 84–99, 2009     

Edge‐colorings avoiding rainbow stars

We consider an extremal problem motivated by a article of Balogh [J. Balogh, A remark on the number of edge colorings of graphs, European Journal of Combinatorics 27, 2006, 565–573], who considered edge‐colorings of graphs avoiding fixed subgraphs with a prescribed coloring. More precisely, given , we look for n‐vertex graphs that admit the maximum number of r‐edge‐colorings such that at most colors appear in edges incident with each vertex, that is, r‐edge‐colorings avoiding rainbow‐colored stars with t edges. For large n, we show that, with the exception of the case , the complete graph is always the unique extremal graph. We also consider generalizations of this problem.     

Spanning even subgraphs of 3‐edge‐connected graphs

By Petersen's theorem, a bridgeless cubic graph has a 2‐factor. H. Fleischner extended this result to bridgeless graphs of minimum degree at least three by showing that every such graph has a spanning even subgraph. Our main result is that, under the stronger hypothesis of 3‐edge‐connectivity, we can find a spanning even subgraph in which every component has at least five vertices. We show that this is in some sense best possible by constructing an infinite family of 3‐edge‐connected graphs in which every spanning even subgraph has a 5‐cycle as a component. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62: 37–47, 2009     

Designs with mutually orthogonal resolutions and decompositions of edge‐colored graphs

Two resolutions R and R^′ of a combinatorial design are called orthogonal if |R_i∩R|≤1 for all R_i∈R and R∈R^′. A set Q={R¹, R², …, R^d} of d resolutions of a combinatorial design is called a set of mutually orthogonal resolutions (MORs) if the resolutions of Q are pairwise orthogonal. In this paper, we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic existence of a (v, k, 1)‐BIBD with d mutually orthogonal resolutions for d≥2 and k≥3 and necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic existence of a (v, k, k?1)‐BIBD with d mutually orthogonal near resolutions for d≥2 and k≥3. We use complementary designs and the most general form of an asymptotic existence theorem for decompositions of edge‐colored complete digraphs into prespecified edge‐colored subgraphs. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 425–447, 2009     

Eulerian subgraphs in 3‐edge‐connected graphs and Hamiltonian line graphs

In this paper, we show that if G is a 3‐edge‐connected graph with and , then either G has an Eulerian subgraph H such that , or G can be contracted to the Petersen graph in such a way that the preimage of each vertex of the Petersen graph contains at least one vertex in S. If G is a 3‐edge‐connected planar graph, then for any , G has an Eulerian subgraph H such that . As an application, we obtain a new result on Hamiltonian line graphs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 42: 308–319, 2003     

Maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraphs of class II graphs

A graph G is class II, if its chromatic index is at least Δ + 1. Let H be a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph of G. The paper proves best possible lower bounds for |E(H)|/|E(G)|, and structural properties of maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraphs. It is shown that every set of vertex‐disjoint cycles of a class II graph with Δ≥3 can be extended to a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph. Simple graphs have a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph such that the complement is a matching. Furthermore, a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph of a simple graph is always class I. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Color degree and monochromatic degree conditions for short properly colored cycles in edge‐colored graphs

For an edge‐colored graph, its minimum color degree is defined as the minimum number of colors appearing on the edges incident to a vertex and its maximum monochromatic degree is defined as the maximum number of edges incident to a vertex with a same color. A cycle is called properly colored if every two of its adjacent edges have distinct colors. In this article, we first give a minimum color degree condition for the existence of properly colored cycles, then obtain the minimum color degree condition for an edge‐colored complete graph to contain properly colored triangles. Afterwards, we characterize the structure of an edge‐colored complete bipartite graph without containing properly colored cycles of length 4 and give the minimum color degree and maximum monochromatic degree conditions for an edge‐colored complete bipartite graph to contain properly colored cycles of length 4, and those passing through a given vertex or edge, respectively.     

Large monochromatic components in 3‐edge‐colored Steiner triple systems

It is known that in any r‐coloring of the edges of a complete r‐uniform hypergraph, there exists a spanning monochromatic component. Given a Steiner triple system on n vertices, what is the largest monochromatic component one can guarantee in an arbitrary 3‐coloring of the edges? Gyárfás proved that $\left(2n+3\right)/3$ is an absolute lower bound and that this lower bound is best possible for infinitely many $n$. On the other hand, we prove that for almost all Steiner triple systems the lower bound is actually $\left(1?o\left(1\right)\right)n$. We obtain this result as a consequence of a more general theorem which shows that the lower bound depends on the size of a largest 3‐partite hole (ie, disjoint sets $X_1,X_2,X_3$ with $|X_1|=|X_2|=|X_3|$ such that no edge intersects all of $X_1,X_2,X_3$) in the Steiner triple system (Gyárfás previously observed that the upper bound depends on this parameter). Furthermore, we show that this lower bound is tight unless the structure of the Steiner triple system and the coloring of its edges are restricted in a certain way. We also suggest a variety of other Ramsey problems in the setting of Steiner triple systems.     

Light subgraphs in planar graphs of minimum degree 4 and edge‐degree 9

A graph H is light in a given class of graphs if there is a constant w such that every graph of the class which has a subgraph isomorphic to H also has a subgraph isomorphic to H whose sum of degrees in G is ≤ w. Let be the class of simple planar graphs of minimum degree ≥ 4 in which no two vertices of degree 4 are adjacent. We denote the minimum such w by w(H). It is proved that the cycle C_s is light if and only if 3 ≤ s ≤ 6, where w(C₃) = 21 and w(C₄) ≤ 35. The 4‐cycle with one diagonal is not light in , but it is light in the subclass consisting of all triangulations. The star K_1,s is light if and only if s ≤ 4. In particular, w(K_1,3) = 23. The paths P_s are light for 1 ≤ s ≤ 6, and heavy for s ≥ 8. Moreover, w(P₃) = 17 and w(P₄) = 23. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 44: 261–295, 2003     

Large components in r‐edge‐colorings of Kn have diameter at most five

Reflecting on problems posed by Gyárfás [Ramsey Theory Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Birkhäuser, Basel, 2010, pp. 77–96] and Mubayi [Electron J Combin 9 (2002), #R42], we show in this note that every r‐edge‐coloring of K_n contains a monochromatic component of diameter at most five on at least n/(r?1) vertices. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 69: 337–340, 2012     

Complexity of networks II: The set complexity of edge‐colored graphs

We previously introduced the concept of “set‐complexity,” based on a context‐dependent measure of information, and used this concept to describe the complexity of gene interaction networks. In a previous paper of this series we analyzed the set‐complexity of binary graphs. Here, we extend this analysis to graphs with multicolored edges that more closely match biological structures like the gene interaction networks. All highly complex graphs by this measure exhibit a modular structure. A principal result of this work is that for the most complex graphs of a given size the number of edge colors is equal to the number of “modules” of the graph. Complete multipartite graphs (CMGs) are defined and analyzed. The relation between complexity and structure of these graphs is examined in detail. We establish that the mutual information between any two nodes in a CMG can be fully expressed in terms of entropy, and present an explicit expression for the set complexity of CMGs (Theorem 3). An algorithm for generating highly complex graphs from CMGs is described. We establish several theorems relating these concepts and connecting complex graphs with a variety of practical network properties. In exploring the relation between symmetry and complexity we use the idea of a similarity matrix and its spectrum for highly complex graphs. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2012     

Edge-colored complete graphs with precisely colored subgraphs

Letf(s, t; k) be the largest value ofm such that it is possible tok-color the edges of the complete graphK _m so that everyK _s ⊆K _m has exactlyt colors occuring on its edges. The main object of this paper is to describe the behavior of the functionf(s,t;k), usually thinking ofs andt fixed, and lettingk become large. Dedicated to Paul Erdős on his seventieth birthday     

Properly colored paths and cycles

In an edge-colored graph, let d^c(v) be the number of colors on the edges incident to v and let δ^c(G) be the minimum d^c(v) over all vertices v∈G. In this work, we consider sharp conditions on δ^c(G) which imply the existence of properly edge-colored paths and cycles, meaning no two consecutive edges have the same color.