On some subclasses of well-covered graphs

A set of points in a graph is independent if no two points in the set are adjacent. A graph is well covered if every maximal independent set is a maximum independent set or, equivalently, if every independent set is contained in a maximum independent set. The well-covered graphs are classified by the W_n property: For a positive integer n, a graph G belongs to class W_n if ≥ n and any n disjoint independent sets are contained in n disjoint maximum independent sets. Constructions are presented that show how to build infinite families of W_n graphs containing arbitrarily large independent sets. A characterization of W_n graphs in terms of well-covered subgraphs is given, as well as bounds for the size of a maximum independent set and the minimum and maximum degrees of points in W_n graphs.     

The elliptic matrix completion problem

Completions of partial elliptic matrices are studied. Given an undirected graph G, it is shown that every partial elliptic matrix with graph G can be completed to an elliptic matrix if and only if the maximal cliques of G are pairwise disjoint. Further, given a partial elliptic matrix A with undirected graph G, it is proved that if G is chordal and each specified principal submatrix defined by a pair of intersecting maximal cliques is nonsingular, then A can be completed to an elliptic matrix. Conversely, if G is nonchordal or if the regularity condition is relaxed, it is shown that there exist partial elliptic matrices which are not completable to an elliptic matrix. In the process we obtain several results concerning chordal graphs that may be of independent interest.     

Minimax theorems for infinite graphs with the ends as ideal points

For a set of pairwise disjoint sets of ends of an infinite graph, we define the concepts of -paths and of -separators, and we determine the maximum number of pairwise disjoint -path.     

On cliques in graphs

A clique is a maximal complete subgraph of a graph. The maximum number of cliques possible in a graph withn nodes is determined. Also, bounds are obtained for the number of different sizes of cliques possible in such a graph.     

Total matchings and total coverings of graphs

In graph theory, the related problems of deciding when a set of vertices or a set of edges constitutes a maximum matching or a minimum covering have been extensively studied. In this paper we generalize these ideas by defining total matchings and total coverings, and show that these sets, whose elements in general consist of both vertices and edges, provide a way to unify these concepts. Parameters denoting the maximum and the minimum cardinality of these sets are introduced and upper and lower bounds depending only on the order of the graph are obtained for the number of elements in arbitrary total matchings and total coverings. Precise values of all the parameters are found for several general classes of graphs, and these are used to establish the sharpness of most of the bounds. In addition, variations of some well known equalities due to Gallai relating covering and matching numbers are obtained.     

On cliques in graphs

A clique is a maximal complete subgraph of a graph. Moon and Moser obtained bounds for the maximum possible number of cliques of different sizes in a graph ofn vertices. These bounds are improved in this note.     

Counting the number of independent sets in chordal graphs

We study some counting and enumeration problems for chordal graphs, especially concerning independent sets. We first provide the following efficient algorithms for a chordal graph: (1) a linear-time algorithm for counting the number of independent sets; (2) a linear-time algorithm for counting the number of maximum independent sets; (3) a polynomial-time algorithm for counting the number of independent sets of a fixed size. With similar ideas, we show that enumeration (namely, listing) of the independent sets, the maximum independent sets, and the independent sets of a fixed size in a chordal graph can be done in constant time per output. On the other hand, we prove that the following problems for a chordal graph are #P-complete: (1) counting the number of maximal independent sets; (2) counting the number of minimum maximal independent sets. With similar ideas, we also show that finding a minimum weighted maximal independent set in a chordal graph is NP-hard, and even hard to approximate.     

Disjoint independent dominating sets in graphs

A set X of vertices of G is an independent dominating set if no two vertices of X are adjacent and each vertex not in X is adjacent to at least one vertex in X. Independent dominating sets of G are cliques of the complement $\text{G}$ of G and conversely.This work is concerned with the existence of disjoint independent dominating sets in a graph G. A new parameter, the maximum number of disjoint independent dominating sets in G, is studied and the class of graphs whose vertex sets partition into independent dominating sets is investigated.     

Spinorial Formulations of Graph Problems

Beginning with an arbitrary finite graph, various spinor spaces are constructed within Clifford algebras of appropriate dimension. Properties of spinors within these spaces then reveal information about the structure of the graph. Spinor polynomials are introduced and the notions of degrees of polynomials and Fock subspace dimensions are tied together with matchings, cliques, independent sets, and cycle covers of arbitrary finite graphs. In particular, matchings, independent sets, cliques, cycle covers, and cycles of arbitrary length are all enumerated by dimensions of spinor subspaces, while sizes of maximal cliques and independent sets are revealed by degrees of spinor polynomials. The spinor adjacency operator is introduced and used to enumerate cycles of arbitrary length and to compute graph circumference and girth.     

Maximal chains and cutsets of an ordered set: A menger type approach

We prove the following results which are related to Menger's theorem for (infinite) ordered sets. (i) If the space of maximal chains of an ordered set is compact, then the maximum number of pairwise disjoint maximal chains is finite and is equal to the minimum size of a cutset, (i.e. a set which meets all maximal chains). (ii) If the maximal chains pairwise intersect, then the intersection of finitely many is never empty. One corollary of (ii) is that, if the maximal chains pairwise intersect and if one of the maximal chains is complete, then there is an element common to all maximal chains.     

Clique partitions of distance multigraphs

We consider the minimum number of cliques needed to partition the edge set of D(G), the distance multigraph of a simple graph G. Equivalently, we seek to minimize the number of elements needed to label the vertices of a simple graph G by sets so that the distance between two vertices equals the cardinality of the intersection of their labels. We use a fractional analogue of this parameter to find lower bounds for the distance multigraphs of various classes of graphs. Some of the bounds are shown to be exact.     

Bounds on the clique-transversal number of regular graphs

A clique-transversal set D of a graph G is a set of vertices of G such that D meets all cliques of G.The clique-transversal number,denoted Tc(G),is the minimum cardinality of a clique- transversal set in G.In this paper we present the bounds on the clique-transversal number for regular graphs and characterize the extremal graphs achieving the lower bound.Also,we give the sharp bounds on the clique-transversal number for claw-free cubic graphs and we characterize the extremal graphs achieving the lower bound.     

Partial characterizations of clique-perfect graphs I: Subclasses of claw-free graphs

A clique-transversal of a graph G is a subset of vertices that meets all the cliques of G. A clique-independent set is a collection of pairwise vertex-disjoint cliques. The clique-transversal number and clique-independence number of G are the sizes of a minimum clique-transversal and a maximum clique-independent set of G, respectively. A graph G is clique-perfect if these two numbers are equal for every induced subgraph of G. The list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for the class of clique-perfect graphs is not known. In this paper, we present a partial result in this direction; that is, we characterize clique-perfect graphs by a restricted list of forbidden induced subgraphs when the graph belongs to two different subclasses of claw-free graphs.     

Geometric Graphs with Few Disjoint Edges

A geometric graph is a graph drawn in the plane so that the vertices are represented by points in general position, the edges are represented by straight line segments connecting the corresponding points. Improving a result of Pach and T?rőcsik, we show that a geometric graph on n vertices with no k+1 pairwise disjoint edges has at most k ³ (n+1) edges. On the other hand, we construct geometric graphs with n vertices and approximately (3/2)(k-1)n edges, containing no k+1 pairwise disjoint edges. We also improve both the lower and upper bounds of Goddard, Katchalski, and Kleitman on the maximum number of edges in a geometric graph with no four pairwise disjoint edges. Received May 7, 1998, and in revised form March 24, 1999.     

Edge domatic numbers of complete n- partite graphs

An edge dominating set of a graph is a set of edgesD such that every edge not inD is adjacent to an edge inD. An edge domatic partition of a graph G =(V, E) is a collection of pairwise disjoint edge dominating sets of G whose union isE. The maximum size of an edge domatic partition of G is called the edge domatic number of G. In this paper we study the edge domatic numbers of completen-partite graphs. In particular, we give exact values for the edge domatic numbers of complete 3-partite graphs and balanced complete n-partite graphs with oddn.     

Counting Maximal Antichains and Independent Sets

Answering several questions of Duffus, Frankl and Rödl, we give asymptotics for the logarithms of (i) the number of maximal antichains in the n-dimensional Boolean algebra and (ii) the numbers of maximal independent sets in the covering graph of the n-dimensional hypercube and certain natural subgraphs thereof. The results in (ii) are implied by more general upper bounds on the numbers of maximal independent sets in regular and biregular graphs. We also mention some stronger possibilities involving actual rather than logarithmic asymptotics.     

Algorithmic aspects of clique-transversal and clique-independent sets

A minimum clique-transversal set MCT(G) of a graph G=(V,E) is a set SV of minimum cardinality that meets all maximal cliques in G. A maximum clique-independent set MCI(G) of G is a set of maximum number of pairwise vertex-disjoint maximal cliques. We prove that the problem of finding an MCT(G) and an MCI(G) is NP-hard for cocomparability, planar, line and total graphs. As an interesting corollary we obtain that the problem of finding a minimum number of elements of a poset to meet all maximal antichains of the poset remains NP-hard even if the poset has height two, thereby generalizing a result of Duffas et al. (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 58 (1991) 158–164). We present a polynomial algorithm for the above problems on Helly circular-arc graphs which is the first such algorithm for a class of graphs that is not clique-perfect. We also present polynomial algorithms for the weighted version of the clique-transversal problem on strongly chordal graphs, chordal graphs of bounded clique size, and cographs. The algorithms presented run in linear time for strongly chordal graphs and cographs. These mark the first attempts at the weighted version of the problem.     

Upper bounds for independent domination in regular graphs

Let G be a regular graph of order n and degree δ. The independent domination numberi(G) is defined to be the minimum cardinality among all maximal independent sets of vertices of G. We establish upper bounds, as functions of n and δ, for the sum and product of the independent domination numbers of a regular graph and its complement.     

Solving the Maximum Clique Problem with Symmetric Rank-One Non-negative Matrix Approximation

Finding complete subgraphs in a graph, that is, cliques, is a key problem and has many real-world applications, e.g., finding communities in social networks, clustering gene expression data, modeling ecological niches in food webs, and describing chemicals in a substance. The problem of finding the largest clique in a graph is a well-known difficult combinatorial optimization problem and is called the maximum clique problem. In this paper, we formulate a very convenient continuous characterization of the maximum clique problem based on the symmetric rank-one non-negative approximation of a given matrix and build a one-to-one correspondence between stationary points of our formulation and cliques of a given graph. In particular, we show that the local (resp. global) minima of the continuous problem corresponds to the maximal (resp. maximum) cliques of the given graph. We also propose a new and efficient clique finding algorithm based on our continuous formulation and test it on the DIMACS data sets to show that the new algorithm outperforms other existing algorithms based on the Motzkin–Straus formulation and can compete with a sophisticated combinatorial heuristic.     

Bounds on Special Subsets in Graphs, Eigenvalues and Association Schemes

We give a bound on the sizes of two sets of vertices at a given minimum distance in a graph in terms of polynomials and the Laplace spectrum of the graph. We obtain explicit bounds on the number of vertices at maximal distance and distance two from a given vertex, and on the size of two equally large sets at maximal distance. For graphs with four eigenvalues we find bounds on the number of vertices that are not adjacent to a given vertex and that have µ common neighbours with that vertex. Furthermore we find that the regular graphs for which the bounds are tight come from association schemes.