Two Fraïssé-style theorems for homomorphism–homogeneous relational structures

In this paper, we state and prove two Fraïssé-style results that cover existence and uniqueness properties for twelve of the eighteen different notions of homomorphism–homogeneity as introduced by Lockett and Truss, and provide forward directions and implications for the remaining six cases. Following these results, we completely determine the extent to which the countable homogeneous undirected graphs (as classified by Lachlan and Woodrow) are homomorphism–homogeneous; we also provide some insight into the directed graph case.     

Towards a Ryll‐Nardzewski‐type theorem for weakly oligomorphic structures

A structure is called weakly oligomorphic if its endomorphism monoid has only finitely many invariant relations of every arity. The goal of this paper is to show that the notions of homomorphism‐homogeneity, and weak oligomorphy are not only completely analogous to the classical notions of homogeneity and oligomorphy, but are actually closely related. We first prove a Fraïssé‐type theorem for homomorphism‐homogeneous relational structures. We then show that the countable models of the theories of countable weakly oligomorphic structures are mutually homomorphism‐equivalent (we call first order theories with this property weakly ω‐categorical). Furthermore we show that every weakly oligomorphic homomorphism‐homogeneous structure contains (up to isomorphism) a unique homogeneous, homomorphism‐homogeneous core, to which it is homomorphism‐equivalent. As a consequence we obtain that every countable weakly oligomorphic structure is homomorphism‐equivalent to a finite or ω‐categorical structure. As a corollary we obtain a characterization of positive existential theories of weakly oligomorphic structures as the positive existential parts of ω‐categorical theories.     

Solving Partition Problems with Colour-Bipartitions

Polar, monopolar, and unipolar graphs are defined in terms of the existence of certain vertex partitions. Although it is polynomial to determine whether a graph is unipolar and to find whenever possible a unipolar partition, the problems of recognizing polar and monopolar graphs are both NP-complete in general. These problems have recently been studied for chordal, claw-free, and permutation graphs. Polynomial time algorithms have been found for solving the problems for these classes of graphs, with one exception: polarity recognition remains NP-complete in claw-free graphs. In this paper, we connect these problems to edge-coloured homomorphism problems. We show that finding unipolar partitions in general and finding monopolar partitions for certain classes of graphs can be efficiently reduced to a polynomial-time solvable 2-edge-coloured homomorphism problem, which we call the colour-bipartition problem. This approach unifies the currently known results on monopolarity and extends them to new classes of graphs.     

On well quasi-order of graph classes under homomorphic image orderings

In this paper we consider the question of well quasi-order for classes defined by a single obstruction within the classes of all graphs, digraphs and tournaments, under the homomorphic image ordering (in both its standard and strong forms). The homomorphic image ordering was introduced by the authors in a previous paper and corresponds to the existence of a surjective homomorphism between two structures. We obtain complete characterisations in all cases except for graphs under the strong ordering, where some open questions remain.     

List Homomorphisms and Circular Arc Graphs

G , H, and lists , a list homomorphism of G to H with respect to the lists L is a mapping , such that for all , and for all . The list homomorphism problem for a fixed graph H asks whether or not an input graph G together with lists , , admits a list homomorphism with respect to L. We have introduced the list homomorphism problem in an earlier paper, and proved there that for reflexive graphs H (that is, for graphs H in which every vertex has a loop), the problem is polynomial time solvable if H is an interval graph, and is NP-complete otherwise. Here we consider graphs H without loops, and find that the problem is closely related to circular arc graphs. We show that the list homomorphism problem is polynomial time solvable if the complement of H is a circular arc graph of clique covering number two, and is NP-complete otherwise. For the purposes of the proof we give a new characterization of circular arc graphs of clique covering number two, by the absence of a structure analogous to Gallai's asteroids. Both results point to a surprising similarity between interval graphs and the complements of circular arc graphs of clique covering number two. Received: July 22, 1996/Revised: Revised June 10, 1998     

Homomorphisms of 2‐Edge‐Colored Triangle‐Free Planar Graphs

In this article, we introduce and study the properties of some target graphs for 2‐edge‐colored homomorphism. Using these properties, we obtain in particular that the 2‐edge‐colored chromatic number of the class of triangle‐free planar graphs is at most 50. We also show that it is at least 12.     

Level of repair analysis and minimum cost homomorphisms of graphs

Level of repair analysis (LORA) is a prescribed procedure for defense logistics support planning. For a complex engineering system containing perhaps thousands of assemblies, sub-assemblies, components, etc. organized into several levels of indenture and with a number of possible repair decisions, LORA seeks to determine an optimal provision of repair and maintenance facilities to minimize overall life-cycle costs. For a LORA problem with two levels of indenture with three possible repair decisions, which is of interest in UK and US military and which we call LORA-BR, Barros [The optimisation of repair decisions using life-cycle cost parameters. IMA J. Management Math. 9 (1998) 403-413] and Barros and Riley [A combinatorial approach to level of repair analysis, European J. Oper. Res. 129 (2001) 242-251] developed certain branch-and-bound heuristics. The surprising result of this paper is that LORA-BR is, in fact, polynomial-time solvable. To obtain this result, we formulate the general LORA problem as an optimization homomorphism problem on bipartite graphs, and reduce a generalization of LORA-BR, LORA-M, to the maximum weight independent set problem on a bipartite graph. We prove that the general LORA problem is NP-hard by using an important result on list homomorphisms of graphs. We introduce the minimum cost graph homomorphism problem, provide partial results and pose an open problem. Finally, we show that our result for LORA-BR can be applied to prove that an extension of the maximum weight independent set problem on bipartite graphs is polynomial time solvable.     

Finite Paths are Universal

We prove that any countable (finite or infinite) partially ordered set may be represented by finite oriented paths ordered by the existence of homomorphism between them. This (what we believe a surprising result) solves several open problems. Such path-representations were previously known only for finite and infinite partial orders of dimension 2. Path-representation implies the universality of other classes of graphs (such as connected cubic planar graphs). It also implies that finite partially ordered sets are on-line representable by paths and their homomorphisms. This leads to a new on-line dimensions. *Supported by Grants LN00A56 and 1M0021620808 of the Czech Ministry of Education. The first author was partially supported by EU network COMBSTRU at UPC Barcelona.     

The chromatic number of oriented graphs

We introduce in this paper the notion of the chromatic number of an oriented graph G (that is of an antisymmetric directed graph) defined as the minimum order of an oriented graph H such that G admits a homomorphism to H. We study the chromatic number of oriented k-trees and of oriented graphs with bounded degree. We show that there exist oriented k-trees with chromatic number at least 2^k+1 - 1 and that every oriented k-tree has chromatic number at most (k + 1) × 2^k. For 2-trees and 3-trees we decrease these upper bounds respectively to 7 and 16 and show that these new bounds are tight. As a particular case, we obtain that oriented outerplanar graphs have chromatic number at most 7 and that this bound is tight too. We then show that every oriented graph with maximum degree k has chromatic number at most (2k - 1) × 2^2k-2. For oriented graphs with maximum degree 2 we decrease this bound to 5 and show that this new bound is tight. For oriented graphs with maximum degree 3 we decrease this bound to 16 and conjecture that there exists no such connected graph with chromatic number greater than 7. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 25: 191–205, 1997     

Connected‐Homomorphism‐Homogeneous Graphs

A relational structure is (connected‐) homogeneous if every isomorphism between finite (connected) substructures extends to an automorphism of the structure. We investigate notions that generalise (connected‐) homogeneity, where ‘isomorphism’ may be replaced by ‘homomorphism’ or ‘monomorphism’ in the definition. In particular, we study the classes of finite connected‐homomorphism‐homogeneous graphs, with the aim of producing classifications. The main result is a classification of the finite graphs, where a graph G is if every homomorphism from a finite connected induced subgraph of G into G extends to an endomorphism of G. The finite (connected‐homogeneous) graphs were classified by Gardiner in 1976, and from this we obtain classifications of the finite and finite graphs. Although not all the classes of finite connected‐homomorphism‐homogeneous graphs are completely characterised, we may still obtain the final hierarchy picture for these classes.     

Extension problems with degree bounds

We have proved in an earlier paper that the complexity of the list homomorphism problem, to a fixed graph H, does not change when the input graphs are restricted to have bounded degrees (except in the trivial case when the bound is two). By way of contrast, we show in this paper that the extension problem, again to a fixed graph H, can, in some cases, become easier for graphs with bounded degrees.     

Isometric embeddings into Heisenberg groups

We study isometric embeddings of a Euclidean space or a Heisenberg group into a higher dimensional Heisenberg group, where both the source and target space are equipped with an arbitrary left-invariant homogeneous distance that is not necessarily sub-Riemannian. We show that if all infinite geodesics in the target are straight lines, then such an embedding must be a homogeneous homomorphism. We discuss a necessary and certain sufficient conditions for the target space to have this ‘geodesic linearity property’, and we provide various examples.     

On colorings of graph powers

In this paper, some results concerning the colorings of graph powers are presented. The notion of helical graphs is introduced. We show that such graphs are hom-universal with respect to high odd-girth graphs whose (2t+1)th power is bounded by a Kneser graph according to the homomorphism order. Also, we consider the problem of existence of homomorphism to odd cycles. We prove that such homomorphism to a (2k+1)-cycle exists if and only if the chromatic number of the (2k+1)th power of is less than or equal to 3, where is the 3-subdivision of G. We also consider Nešet?il’s Pentagon problem. This problem is about the existence of high girth cubic graphs which are not homomorphic to the cycle of size five. Several problems which are closely related to Nešet?il’s problem are introduced and their relations are presented.     

Finite Paths are Universal

We prove that any countable (finite or infinite) partially ordered set may be represented by finite oriented paths ordered by the existence of homomorphism between them. This (what we believe a surprising result) solves several open problems. Such path-representations were previously known only for finite and infinite partial orders of dimension 2. Path-representation implies the universality of other classes of graphs (such as connected cubic planar graphs). It also implies that finite partially ordered sets are on-line representable by paths and their homomorphisms. This leads to new on-line dimensions. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000) 06A06, 06A07, 05E99, 05C99.J. Nešetřil: Supported by a Grant LN00A56 of the Czech Ministry of Education. The first author was partially supported by EU network COMBSTRU at UPC Barcelona.     

Colored graphs without colorful cycles

A colored graph is a complete graph in which a color has been assigned to each edge, and a colorful cycle is a cycle in which each edge has a different color. We first show that a colored graph lacks colorful cycles iff it is Gallai, i.e., lacks colorful triangles. We then show that, under the operation mon ≡ m + n − 2, the omitted lengths of colorful cycles in a colored graph form a monoid isomorphic to a submonoid of the natural numbers which contains all integers past some point. We prove that several but not all such monoids are realized. We then characterize exact Gallai graphs, i.e., graphs in which every triangle has edges of exactly two colors. We show that these are precisely the graphs which can be iteratively built up from three simple colored graphs, having 2, 4, and 5 vertices, respectively. We then characterize in two different ways the monochromes, i.e., the connected components of maximal monochromatic subgraphs, of exact Gallai graphs. The first characterization is in terms of their reduced form, a notion which hinges on the important idea of a full homomorphism. The second characterization is by means of a homomorphism duality. The first author would like to express his thanks for support by project LN 00A056 of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic. The second author would like to express his thanks for support by project LN 00A056 of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic, by the NSERC of Canada and by the Gudder Trust of the University of Denver.     

Contractors and connectors of graph algebras

We study generalizations of the “contraction‐deletion” relation of the Tutte polynomial, and other similar simple operations, to other graph parameters. The question can be set in the framework of graph algebras introduced by Freedman at al [Reflection positivity, rank connectivity, and homomorphisms of graphs, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 20 (2007), 37–51.] Graph algebras are defined by a graph parameter, and they were introduced in order to study and characterize homomorphism functions. We prove that for homomorphism functions, these graph algebras have special elements called “contractors” and “connectors”. This gives a new characterization of homomorphism functions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 60: 11–30, 2009     

The classification of homomorphism homogeneous tournaments

The notion of homomorphism homogeneity was introduced by Cameron and Nešetřil as a natural generalization of the classical model-theoretic notion of homogeneity. A relational structure is called homomorphism homogeneous (HH) if every homomorphism between finite substructures extends to an endomorphism. It is called polymorphism homogeneous (PH) if every finite power of the structure is homomorphism homogeneous. Despite the similarity of the definitions, the HH and PH structures lead a life quite separate from the homogeneous structures. While the classification theory of homogeneous structure is dominated by Fraïssé-theory, other methods are needed for classifying HH and PH structures. In this paper we give a complete classification of HH countable tournaments (with loops allowed). We use this result in order to derive a classification of countable PH tournaments. The method of classification is designed to be useful also for other classes of relational structures. Our results extend previous research on the classification of finite HH and PH tournaments by Ilić, Mašulović, Nenadov, and the first author.     

Regular path decompositions of odd regular graphs

Kotzig asked in 1979 what are necessary and sufficient conditions for a d‐regular simple graph to admit a decomposition into paths of length d for odd d>3. For cubic graphs, the existence of a 1‐factor is both necessary and sufficient. Even more, each 1‐factor is extendable to a decomposition of the graph into paths of length 3 where the middle edges of the paths coincide with the 1‐factor. We conjecture that existence of a 1‐factor is indeed a sufficient condition for Kotzig's problem. For general odd regular graphs, most 1‐factors appear to be extendable and we show that for the family of simple 5‐regular graphs with no cycles of length 4, all 1‐factors are extendable. However, for d>3 we found infinite families of d‐regular simple graphs with non‐extendable 1‐factors. Few authors have studied the decompositions of general regular graphs. We present examples and open problems; in particular, we conjecture that in planar 5‐regular graphs all 1‐factors are extendable. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 63: 114–128, 2010