Unimodality of independence polynomials of the incidence product of graphs

Given two graphs $G$ and $H$, assume that $V\left(G\right)=\{v_1,v_2,\dots ,v_n\}$ and $U$ is a subset of $V\left(H\right)$. We introduce a new graph operation called the incidence product, denoted by $G\odot H^U$, as follows: insert a new vertex into each edge of $G$, then join with edges those pairs of new vertices on adjacent edges of $G$. Finally, for every vertex $v_i\in V\left(G\right)$, replace it by a copy of the graph $H$ and join every new vertex being adjacent to $v_i$ to every vertex of $U$. It generalizes the line graph operation. We prove that the independence polynomial

$I\left(G\odot H^U;x\right)=I^n(H;x)M\left(G;\frac{x{I}^2(H?U;x)}{I^2(H;x)}\right),$

where $M(G;x)$ is its matching polynomial. Based on this formula, we show that the incidence product of some graphs preserves symmetry, unimodality, reality of zeros of independence polynomials. As applications, we obtain some graphs so-formed having symmetric and unimodal independence polynomials. In particular, the graph $Q\left(G\right)$ introduced by Cvetkovi?, Doob and Sachs has a symmetric and unimodal independence polynomial.     

Total domination in inflated graphs

The inflation $G_I$ of a graph $G$ is obtained from $G$ by replacing every vertex $x$ of degree $d\left(x\right)$ by a clique $X=K_{d\left(x\right)}$ and each edge $xy$ by an edge between two vertices of the corresponding cliques $X$ and $Y$ of $G_I$ in such a way that the edges of $G_I$ which come from the edges of $G$ form a matching of $G_I$. A set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G$ is a total dominating set, abbreviated TDS, of $G$ if every vertex of $G$ is adjacent to a vertex in $S$. The minimum cardinality of a TDS of $G$ is the total domination number ${\gamma }_t\left(G\right)$ of $G$. In this paper, we investigate total domination in inflated graphs. We provide an upper bound on the total domination number of an inflated graph in terms of its order and matching number. We show that if $G$ is a connected graph of order $n\ge 2$, then ${\gamma }_t\left(G_I\right)\ge 2n/3$, and we characterize the graphs achieving equality in this bound. Further, if we restrict the minimum degree of $G$ to be at least $2$, then we show that ${\gamma }_t\left(G_I\right)\ge n$, with equality if and only if $G$ has a perfect matching. If we increase the minimum degree requirement of $G$ to be at least $3$, then we show ${\gamma }_t\left(G_I\right)\ge n$, with equality if and only if every minimum TDS of $G_I$ is a perfect total dominating set of $G_I$, where a perfect total dominating set is a TDS with the property that every vertex is adjacent to precisely one vertex of the set.     

On trees with real-rooted independence polynomial

The independence polynomial of a graph $G$ is

$I(G,x)=\sum _{k\ge 0}{i}_k\left(G\right)x^k,$

where $i_k\left(G\right)$ denotes the number of independent sets of $G$ of size $k$ (note that $i_0\left(G\right)=1$). In this paper we show a new method to prove real-rootedness of the independence polynomials of certain families of trees.In particular we will give a new proof of the real-rootedness of the independence polynomials of centipedes (Zhu’s theorem), caterpillars (Wang and Zhu’s theorem), and we will prove a conjecture of Galvin and Hilyard about the real-rootedness of the independence polynomial of the so-called Fibonacci trees.     

On k-domination and j-independence in graphs

Let $G$ be a graph and let $k$ and $j$ be positive integers. A subset $D$ of the vertex set of $G$ is a $k$-dominating set if every vertex not in $D$ has at least $k$ neighbors in $D$. The $k$-domination number ${\gamma }_k\left(G\right)$ is the cardinality of a smallest $k$-dominating set of $G$. A subset $I?V\left(G\right)$ is a $j$-independent set of $G$ if every vertex in $I$ has at most $j?1$ neighbors in $I$. The $j$-independence number ${\alpha }_j\left(G\right)$ is the cardinality of a largest $j$-independent set of $G$. In this work, we study the interaction between ${\gamma }_k\left(G\right)$ and ${\alpha }_j\left(G\right)$ in a graph $G$. Hereby, we generalize some known inequalities concerning these parameters and put into relation different known and new bounds on $k$-domination and $j$-independence. Finally, we will discuss several consequences that follow from the given relations, while always highlighting the symmetry that exists between these two graph invariants.     

Combinatorial and probabilistic formulae for divided symmetrization

Divided symmetrization of a function $f(x_1,\dots ,x_n)$ is symmetrization of the ratio

$D{S}_G\left(f\right)=\frac{f(x_1,\dots ,x_n)}{\prod (x_i?x_j)},$

where the product is taken over the set of edges of some graph $G$. We concentrate on the case when $G$ is a tree and $f$ is a polynomial of degree $n?1$, in this case $D{S}_G\left(f\right)$ is a constant function. We give a combinatorial interpretation of the divided symmetrization of monomials for general trees and probabilistic game interpretation for a tree which is a path. In particular, this implies a result by Postnikov originally proved by computing volumes of special polytopes, and suggests its generalization.     

Steiner tree packing number and tree connectivity

Let $S$ be a set of at least two vertices in a graph $G$. A subtree $T$ of $G$ is a $S$-Steiner tree if $S?V\left(T\right)$. Two $S$-Steiner trees $T_1$ and $T_2$ are edge-disjoint (resp. internally vertex-disjoint) if $E\left(T_1\right)\cap E\left(T_2\right)=?$ (resp. $E\left(T_1\right)\cap E\left(T_2\right)=?$ and $V\left(T_1\right)\cap V\left(T_2\right)=S$). Let ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_G\left(S\right)$) be the maximum number of edge-disjoint (resp. internally vertex-disjoint) $S$-Steiner trees in $G$, and let ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_k\left(G\right)$) be the minimum ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_G\left(S\right)$) for $S$ ranges over all $k$-subset of $V\left(G\right)$. Kriesell conjectured that if ${\lambda }_G\left(\{x,y\}\right)\ge 2k$ for any $x,y\in S$, then ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)\ge k$. He proved that the conjecture holds for $\left|S\right|=3,4$. In this paper, we give a short proof of Kriesell’s Conjecture for $\left|S\right|=3,4$, and also show that ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)\ge ?\frac{1}{k?1}?\frac{k?}{2}??$ (resp. ${\kappa }_k\left(G\right)\ge ?\frac{1}{k?1}?\frac{k?}{2}??$ ) if $\lambda \left(G\right)\ge ?$ (resp. $\kappa \left(G\right)\ge ?$) in $G$, where $k=3,4$. Moreover, we also study the relation between ${\kappa }_k\left(L\left(G\right)\right)$ and ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)$, where $L\left(G\right)$ is the line graph of $G$.     

List colouring of graphs and generalized Dyck paths

The Catalan numbers occur in various counting problems in combinatorics. This paper reveals a connection between the Catalan numbers and list colouring of graphs. Assume $G$ is a graph and $f:V\left(G\right)\to N$ is a mapping. For a nonnegative integer $m$, let $f^{\left(m\right)}$ be the extension of $f$ to the graph $G$

 $\overline{K_m}$ for which $f^{\left(m\right)}\left(v\right)=\left|V\left(G\right)\right|$ for each vertex $v$ of $\overline{K_m}$. Let $m_c(G,f)$ be the minimum $m$ such that $G$

 $\overline{K_m}$ is not $f^{\left(m\right)}$-choosable and $m_p(G,f)$ be the minimum $m$ such that $G$

 $\overline{K_m}$ is not $f^{\left(m\right)}$-paintable. We study the parameter $m_c(K_n,f)$ and $m_p(K_n,f)$ for arbitrary mappings $f$. For $\overrightarrow{x}=(x_1,x_2,\dots ,x_n)$, an $\overrightarrow{x}$-dominated path ending at $(a,b)$ is a monotonic path $P$ of the $a\times b$ grid from $(0,0)$ to $(a,b)$ such that each vertex $(i,j)$ on $P$ satisfies $i\le x_{j+1}$. Let $\psi \left(\overrightarrow{x}\right)$ be the number of $\overrightarrow{x}$-dominated paths ending at $(x_n,n)$. By this definition, the Catalan number $C_n$ equals $\psi \left((0,1,\dots ,n?1)\right)$. This paper proves that if $G=K_n$ has vertices $v_1,v_2,\dots ,v_n$ and $f\left(v_1\right)\le f\left(v_2\right)\le \dots \le f\left(v_n\right)$, then $m_c(G,f)=m_p(G,f)=\psi \left(\overrightarrow{x}\left(f\right)\right)$, where $\overrightarrow{x}\left(f\right)=(x_1,x_2,\dots ,x_n)$ and $x_i=f\left(v_i\right)?i$ for $i=1,2,\dots ,n$. Therefore, if $f\left(v_i\right)=n$, then $m_c(K_n,f)=m_p(K_n,f)$ equals the Catalan number $C_n$. We also show that if $G=G_1\cup G_2\cup ?\cup G_p$ is the disjoint union of graphs $G_1,G_2,\dots ,G_p$ and $f=f_1\cup f_2\cup ?\cup f_p$, then $m_c(G,f)={\prod }_{i=1}^p{m}_c(G_i,f_i)$ and $m_p(G,f)={\prod }_{i=1}^p{m}_p(G_i,f_i)$. This generalizes a result in Carraher et al. (2014), where the case each $G_i$ is a copy of $K_1$ is considered.     

A remark on the orbit structure of the complexification of a semisimple symmetric space

We consider the action of a real semisimple Lie group G on the complexification $G_{\mathbf{C}}/H_{\mathbf{C}}$ of a semisimple symmetric space $G/H$ and we present a refinement of Matsuki?s results (Matsuki, 1997 [1]) in this case. We exhibit a finite set of points in $G_{\mathbf{C}}/H_{\mathbf{C}}$, sitting on closed G-orbits of locally minimal dimension, whose slice representation determines the G-orbit structure of $G_{\mathbf{C}}/H_{\mathbf{C}}$. Every such point $\overline{p}$ lies on a compact torus and occurs at specific values of the restricted roots of the symmetric pair $(\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{h})$. The slice representation at $\overline{p}$ is equivalent to the isotropy representation of a real reductive symmetric space, namely $Z_G(p^4)/G_{\overline{p}}$. In principle, this gives the possibility to explicitly parametrize all G-orbits in $G_{\mathbf{C}}/H_{\mathbf{C}}$.     

A note on the list vertex arboricity of toroidal graphs

The vertex arboricity $a\left(G\right)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of colors required to color the vertices of $G$ such that no cycle is monochromatic. The list vertex arboricity $a_l\left(G\right)$ is the list-coloring version of this concept. In this note, we prove that if $G$ is a toroidal graph, then $a_l\left(G\right)\le 4$; and $a_l\left(G\right)=4$ if and only if $G$ contains $K_7$ as an induced subgraph.