Nonsymmetric party problems

The classical Ramsey problem is considered for antisymmetric digraphs and for tournaments. Three small Ramsey-type numbers are determined with some remarks concerning the general case. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 28: 43–47, 1998     

One-diregular subgraphs in semicomplete multipartite digraphs

The problem of finding necessary and sufficient conditions for a semicomplete multipartite digraph (SMD) to be Hamiltonian, seems to be both very interesting and difficult. Bang-Jensen, Gutin and Huang ( Discrete Math to appear) proved a sufficient condition for a SMD to be Hamiltonian. A strengthening of this condition, shown in this paper, allows us to prove the following three results. We prove that every k-strong SMD with at most k-vertices in each color class is Hamiltonian and every k-strong SMD has a cycle through any set of k vertices. These two statements were stated as conjectures by Volkmann (L. Volkmann, a talk at the second Krakw Conference of Graph Theory (1994)) and Bang-Jensen, Gutin, and Yeo (J. Bang-Jensen, G. Gutin, and A. Yeo, On k-strong and k-cyclic digraphs, submitted), respectively. We also prove that every diregular SMD is Hamiltonian, which was conjectured in a weaker form by Zhang (C.-Q. Zhang, Hamilton paths in multipartite oriented graphs, Ann Discrete Math. 41 (1989), 499–581). © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A note on mixed graphs and directed splitting off

We give counterexamples to two conjectures of Bill Jackson in Some remarks on arc-connectivity, vertex splitting, and orientation in graphs and digraphs (Journal of Graph Theory 12 (3):429–436, 1988) concerning orientations of mixed graphs and splitting off in digraphs, and prove the first conjecture in the (di-) Eulerian case(s). Beside that we solve a degree constrained non-uniform directed augmentation problem for di-Eulerian mixed graphs. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 27: 213–221, 1998     

Generalizations of tournaments: A survey

We survey results concerning various generalizations of tournaments. The reader will see that tournaments are by no means the only class of directed graphs with a very rich structure. We describe, among numerous other topics mostly related to paths and cycles, results on hamiltonian paths and cycles. The reader will see that although these problems are polynomially solvable for all of the classes described, they can be highly nontrivial, even for these “tournament-like” digraphs. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Graph Theory 28: 171–202, 1998     

Kings in semicomplete multipartite digraphs

A digraph obtained by replacing each edge of a complete p‐partite graph by an arc or a pair of mutually opposite arcs with the same end vertices is called a semicomplete p‐partite digraph, or just a semicomplete multipartite digraph. A semicomplete multipartite digraph with no cycle of length two is a multipartite tournament. In a digraph D, an r‐king is a vertex q such that every vertex in D can be reached from q by a path of length at most r. Strengthening a theorem by K. M. Koh and B. P. Tan (Discr Math 147 (1995), 171–183) on the number of 4‐kings in multipartite tournaments, we characterize semicomplete multipartite digraphs, which have exactly k 4‐kings for every k = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 33: 177‐183, 2000     

Disjoint quasi‐kernels in digraphs

A quasi‐kernel in a digraph is an independent set of vertices such that any vertex in the digraph can reach some vertex in the set via a directed path of length at most two. Chvátal and Lovász proved that every digraph has a quasi‐kernel. Recently, Gutin et al. raised the question of which digraphs have a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. Clearly, a digraph has a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels cannot contain sinks, that is, vertices of outdegree zero, as each such vertex is necessarily included in a quasi‐kernel. However, there exist digraphs which contain neither sinks nor a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. Thus, containing no sinks is not sufficient in general for a digraph to have a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. In contrast, we prove that, for several classes of digraphs, the condition of containing no sinks guarantees the existence of a pair of disjoint quasi‐kernels. The classes contain semicomplete multipartite, quasi‐transitive, and locally semicomplete digraphs. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 58:251‐260, 2008     

Complete characterization of almost Moore digraphs of degree three

It is well known that Moore digraphs do not exist except for trivial cases (degree 1 or diameter 1), but there are digraphs of diameter two and arbitrary degree which miss the Moore bound by one. No examples of such digraphs of diameter at least three are known, although several necessary conditions for their existence have been obtained. In this paper, we prove that digraphs of degree three and diameter k ≥ 3 which miss the Moore bound by one do not exist. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 48: 112–126, 2005     

Isomorphic Cayley graphs on nonisomorphic groups

The issue of when two Cayley digraphs on different abelian groups of prime power order can be isomorphic is examined. This had previously been determined by Anne Joseph for squares of primes; her results are extended. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 3: 345–362, 1999     

Kings in locally semicomplete digraphs

A k‐king in a digraph D is a vertex which can reach every other vertex by a directed path of length at most k. We consider k‐kings in locally semicomplete digraphs and mainly prove that all strong locally semicomplete digraphs which are not round decomposable contain a 2‐king. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 63: 279–287, 2010     

Maximal sets of hamilton cycles in complete multipartite graphs

A set S of edge‐disjoint hamilton cycles in a graph G is said to be maximal if the edges in the hamilton cycles in S induce a subgraph H of G such that G ? E(H) contains no hamilton cycles. In this context, the spectrum S(G) of a graph G is the set of integers m such that G contains a maximal set of m edge‐disjoint hamilton cycles. This spectrum has previously been determined for all complete graphs and for all complete bipartite graphs. In this paper, we extend these results to the complete multipartite graphs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 49–66, 2003     

Short proofs of classical theorems

We give proofs of Ore's theorem on Hamilton circuits, Brooks' theorem on vertex coloring, and Vizing's theorem on edge coloring, as well as the Chvátal-Lovász theorem on semi-kernels, a theorem of Lu on spanning arborescences of tournaments, and a theorem of Gutin on diameters of orientations of graphs. These proofs, while not radically different from existing ones, are perhaps simpler and more natural. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 44: 159–165, 2003     

Even dicycles

We answer a question of Thomassen by proving that there is a unique strongly 2‐connected digraph with no even dicycle. We show the significance of this digraph to the structure of strongly connected digraphs with no even dicycles. We also prove a conjecture of Lundy. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 35: 46–68, 2000     

Maximum Directed Cuts in Graphs with Degree Constraints

The Max Cut problem is an NP-hard problem and has been studied extensively. Alon et?al. (J Graph Theory 55:1–13, 2007) studied a directed version of the Max Cut problem and observed its connection to the Hall ratio of graphs. They proved, among others, that if an acyclic digraph has m edges and each vertex has indegree or outdegree at most 1, then it has a directed cut of size at least 2m/5. Lehel et?al. (J Graph Theory 61:140–156, 2009) extended this result by replacing the “acyclic digraphs” with the “digraphs containing no directed triangles”. In this paper, we characterize the acyclic digraphs with m edges whose maximum dicuts have exactly 2m/5 edges, and our approach gives an alternative proof of the result of Lehel et?al. We also show that there are infinitely many positive rational numbers β < 2/5 for which there exist digraphs D (with directed triangles) such that each vertex of D has indegree or outdegree at most 1, and any maximum directed cut in D has size precisely β|E(D)|.     

On complexity of Minimum Leaf Out-Branching problem

Given a digraph D, the Minimum Leaf Out-Branching problem (MinLOB) is the problem of finding in D an out-branching with the minimum possible number of leaves, i.e., vertices of out-degree zero. Gutin, Razgon and Kim [G. Gutin, I. Razgon, E.J. Kim, Minimum leaf out-branching problems, in: Proc. 4th International Conference on Algorithmic Aspects in Information and Management, AAIM’08, in: Lect. Notes Comput. Sci., vol. 5034 2008, pp. 235-246] proved that MinLOB is polynomial time solvable for acyclic digraphs which are exactly the digraphs of directed path-width (DAG-width, directed tree-width, respectively) 0. We investigate how much one can extend this polynomiality result. We prove that already for digraphs of directed path-width (directed tree-width, DAG-width, respectively) 1, MinLOB is NP-hard. On the other hand, we show that for digraphs of restricted directed tree-width (directed path-width, DAG-width, respectively) and a fixed integer k, the problem of checking whether there is an out-branching with at most k leaves is polynomial time solvable.     

Small odd cycles in 4‐chromatic graphs*

It is shown that every 4‐chromatic graph on n vertices contains an odd cycle of length less than . This improves the previous bound given by Nilli [J Graph Theory 3 ( 3 ), 145–147]. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 37: 115–117, 2001     

A multipartite Ramsey number for odd cycles

In this article we study multipartite Ramsey numbers for odd cycles. Our main result is the proof that a conjecture of Gyárfás et al. (J Graph Theory 61 (2009), 12–21), holds for graphs with a large enough number of vertices. Precisely, there exists n₀ such that if n?n₀ is a positive odd integer then any two‐coloring of the edges of the complete five‐partite graph K_{(n ? 1)/2, (n ? 1)/2, (n ? 1)/2, (n ? 1)/2, 1} contains a monochromatic cycle of length n. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

On non‐Hamiltonian circulant digraphs of outdegree three

We construct infinitely many connected, circulant digraphs of outdegree three that have no Hamiltonian circuit. All of our examples have an even number of vertices, and our examples are of two types: either every vertex in the digraph is adjacent to two diametrically opposite vertices, or every vertex is adjacent to the vertex diametrically opposite to itself. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 30: 319–331, 1999     

The circular chromatic numbers of planar digraphs

The circular chromatic number is a refinement of the chromatic number of a graph. It has been established in [3,6,7] that there exists planar graphs with circular chromatic number r if and only if r is a rational in the set {1} ∪ [2,4]. Recently, Mohar, in [1,2] has extended the concept of the circular chromatic number to digraphs and it is interesting to ask what the corresponding result is for digraphs. In this article, we shall prove the new result that there exist planar digraphs with circular chromatic number r if and only if r is a rational in the interval [1,4]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55: 14–26, 2007     

A note on vertex pancyclic oriented graphs

Let D be an oriented graph of order n ≥ 9, minimum degree at least n − 2, such that, for the choice of distinct vertices x and y, either xy ∈ E(D) or d⁺(x) + d⁻(y) ≥ n − 3. Song (J. Graph Theory 18 (1994), 461–468) proved that D is pancyclic. In this note, we give a short proof, based on Song's result, that D is, in fact, vertex pancyclic. This also generalizes a result of Jackson (J. Graph Theory 5 (1981), 147–157) for the existence of a hamiltonian cycle in oriented graphs. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 31: 313–318, 1999     

Acyclic 4‐Choosability of Planar Graphs with No 4‐ and 5‐Cycles

Every planar graph is known to be acyclically 7‐choosable and is conjectured to be acyclically 5‐choosable (O. V. Borodin, D. G. Fon‐Der‐Flaass, A. V. Kostochka, E. Sopena, J Graph Theory 40 (2002), 83–90). This conjecture if proved would imply both Borodin's (Discrete Math 25 (1979), 211–236) acyclic 5‐color theorem and Thomassen's (J Combin Theory Ser B 62 (1994), 180–181) 5‐choosability theorem. However, as yet it has been verified only for several restricted classes of graphs. Some sufficient conditions are also obtained for a planar graph to be acyclically 4‐ and 3‐choosable. In particular, the acyclic 4‐choosability was proved for the following planar graphs: without 3‐, 4‐, and 5‐cycles (M. Montassier, P. Ochem, and A. Raspaud, J Graph Theory 51 (2006), 281–300), without 4‐, 5‐, and 6‐cycles, or without 4‐, 5‐, and 7‐cycles, or without 4‐, 5‐, and intersecting 3‐cycles (M. Montassier, A. Raspaud, W. Wang, Topics Discrete Math (2006), 473–491), and neither 4‐ and 5‐cycles nor 8‐cycles having a triangular chord (M. Chen and A. Raspaud, Discrete Math. 310(15–16) (2010), 2113–2118). The purpose of this paper is to strengthen these results by proving that each planar graph without 4‐ and 5‐cycles is acyclically 4‐choosable.