An asymptotic solution to the cycle decomposition problem for complete graphs

Let m₁,m₂,…,mt be a list of integers. It is shown that there exists an integer N such that for all n?N, the complete graph of order n can be decomposed into edge-disjoint cycles of lengths m₁,m₂,…,mt if and only if n is odd, 3?mi?n for i=1,2,…,t, and . In 1981, Alspach conjectured that this result holds for all n, and that a corresponding result also holds for decompositions of complete graphs of even order into cycles and a perfect matching.     

Integral complete multipartite graphs

A graph is called integral if all eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix are integers. In this paper, we investigate integral complete r-partite graphs K_p1,p2,…,pr=K_{a1·p1,a2·p2,…,as·ps} with s=3,4. We can construct infinite many new classes of such integral graphs by solving some certain Diophantine equations. These results are different from those in the existing literature. For s=4, we give a positive answer to a question of Wang et al. [Integral complete r-partite graphs, Discrete Math. 283 (2004) 231-241]. The problem of the existence of integral complete multipartite graphs K_{a1·p1,a2·p2,…,as·ps} with arbitrarily large number s remains open.     

A generalization of interval edge-colorings of graphs

An edge-coloring of a graph G with colors 1,2,…,t is called an interval (t,1)-coloring if at least one edge of G is colored by i, i=1,2,…,t, and the colors of edges incident to each vertex of G are distinct and form an interval of integers with no more than one gap. In this paper we investigate some properties of interval (t,1)-colorings. We also determine exact values of the least and the greatest possible number of colors in such colorings for some families of graphs.     

Asymptotic enumeration of dense 0-1 matrices with specified line sums

Let s=(s₁,s₂,…,sm) and t=(t₁,t₂,…,tn) be vectors of non-negative integers with . Let B(s,t) be the number of m×n matrices over {0,1} with jth row sum equal to sj for 1?j?m and kth column sum equal to tk for 1?k?n. Equivalently, B(s,t) is the number of bipartite graphs with m vertices in one part with degrees given by s, and n vertices in the other part with degrees given by t. Most research on the asymptotics of B(s,t) has focused on the sparse case, where the best result is that of Greenhill, McKay and Wang (2006). In the case of dense matrices, the only precise result is for the case of equal row sums and equal column sums (Canfield and McKay, 2005). This paper extends the analytic methods used by the latter paper to the case where the row and column sums can vary within certain limits. Interestingly, the result can be expressed by the same formula which holds in the sparse case.     

An infinite family of tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs

A graph is half-arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on vertices and edges, but not on arcs. In this paper, a new infinite family of tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs with girth 4 is constructed, each of which has order 16m such that m>1 is a divisor of 2t²+2t+1 for a positive integer t and is tightly attached with attachment number 4m. The smallest graph in the family has order 80.     

Maximum vertex and face degree of oblique graphs

Let G=(V,E,F) be a 3-connected simple graph imbedded into a surface S with vertex set V, edge set E and face set F. A face α is an 〈a₁,a₂,…,a_k〉-face if α is a k-gon and the degrees of the vertices incident with α in the cyclic order are a₁,a₂,…,a_k. The lexicographic minimum 〈b₁,b₂,…,b_k〉 such that α is a 〈b₁,b₂,…,b_k〉-face is called the type of α.Let z be an integer. We consider z-oblique graphs, i.e. such graphs that the number of faces of each type is at most z. We show an upper bound for the maximum vertex degree of any z-oblique graph imbedded into a given surface. Moreover, an upper bound for the maximum face degree is presented. We also show that there are only finitely many oblique graphs imbedded into non-orientable surfaces.     

Some results in square-free and strong square-free edge-colorings of graphs

The set of problems we consider here are generalizations of square-free sequences [A. Thue, Über unendliche Zeichenreichen, Norske Vid Selsk. Skr. I. Mat. Nat. Kl. Christiana 7 (1906) 1-22]. A finite sequence a₁a₂…a_n of symbols from a set S is called square-free if it does not contain a sequence of the form ww=x₁x₂…x_mx₁x₂…x_m,x_i∈S, as a subsequence of consecutive terms. Extending the above concept to graphs, a coloring of the edge set E in a graph G(V,E) is called square-free if the sequence of colors on any path in G is square-free. This was introduced by Alon et al. [N. Alon, J. Grytczuk, M. Ha?uszczak, O. Riordan, Nonrepetitive colorings of graphs, Random Struct. Algor. 21 (2002) 336-346] who proved bounds on the minimum number of colors needed for a square-free edge-coloring of G on the class of graphs with bounded maximum degree and trees. We discuss several variations of this problem and give a few new bounds.     

Asymptotic enumeration of sparse 0-1 matrices with irregular row and column sums

Let s=(s₁,…,s_m) and t=(t₁,…,t_n) be vectors of non-negative integer-valued functions with equal sum . Let N(s,t) be the number of m×n matrices with entries from {0,1} such that the ith row has row sum s_i and the jth column has column sum t_j. Equivalently, N(s,t) is the number of labelled bipartite graphs with degrees of the vertices in one side of the bipartition given by s and the degrees of the vertices in the other side given by t. We give an asymptotic formula for N(s,t) which holds when S→∞ with 1?st=o(S^2/3), where and . This extends a result of McKay and Wang [Linear Algebra Appl. 373 (2003) 273-288] for the semiregular case (when s_i=s for 1?i?m and t_j=t for 1?j?n). The previously strongest result for the non-semiregular case required 1?max{s,t}=o(S^1/4), due to McKay [Enumeration and Design, Academic Press, Canada, 1984, pp. 225-238].     

Uniformly optimal graphs in some classes of graphs with node failures

The uniformly optimal graph problem with node failures consists of finding the most reliable graph in the class Ω(n,m) of all graphs with n nodes and m edges in which nodes fail independently and edges never fail. The graph G is called uniformly optimal in Ω(n,m) if, for all node-failure probabilities q∈(0,1), the graph G is the most reliable graph in the class of graphs Ω(n,m). This paper proves that the multipartite graphs K(b,b+1,…,b+1,b+2) are uniformly optimal in their classes Ω((k+2)(b+1),(k²+3k+2)(b+1)²/2−1), where k is the number of partite sets of size (b+1), while for i>2, the multipartite graphs K(b,b+1,…,b+1,b+i) are not uniformly optimal in their classes Ω((k+2)b+k+i,(k+2)(k+1)b²/2+(k+1)(k+i)b+k(k+2i−1)/2).     

Non-cover generalized Mycielski, Kneser, and Schrijver graphs

A graph is said to be a cover graph if it is the underlying graph of the Hasse diagram of a finite partially ordered set. We prove that the generalized Mycielski graphs M_m(C_2t+1) of an odd cycle, Kneser graphs KG(n,k), and Schrijver graphs SG(n,k) are not cover graphs when m?0,t?1, k?1, and n?2k+2. These results have consequences in circular chromatic number.     

Classification of reflexible regular embeddings and self-Petrie dual regular embeddings of complete bipartite graphs

In this paper, we classify the reflexible regular orientable embeddings and the self-Petrie dual regular orientable embeddings of complete bipartite graphs. The classification shows that for any natural number n, say (p₁,p₂,…,p_k are distinct odd primes and a_i>0 for each i?1), there are t distinct reflexible regular embeddings of the complete bipartite graph K_n,n up to isomorphism, where t=1 if a=0, t=2^k if a=1, t=2^k+1 if a=2, and t=3·2^k+1 if a?3. And, there are s distinct self-Petrie dual regular embeddings of K_n,n up to isomorphism, where s=1 if a=0, s=2^k if a=1, s=2^k+1 if a=2, and s=2^k+2 if a?3.     

Critically indecomposable graphs

An undirected graph G=(V,E) with a specific subset X⊂V is called X-critical if G and G(X), induced subgraph on X, are indecomposable but G(V−{w}) is decomposable for every w∈V−X. This is a generalization of critically indecomposable graphs studied by Schmerl and Trotter [J.H. Schmerl, W.T. Trotter, Critically indecomposable partially ordered sets, graphs, tournaments and other binary relational structures, Discrete Mathematics 113 (1993) 191-205] and Bonizzoni [P. Bonizzoni, Primitive 2-structures with the (n−2)-property, Theoretical Computer Science 132 (1994) 151-178], who deal with the case where X is empty.We present several structural results for this class of graphs and show that in every X-critical graph the vertices of V−X can be partitioned into pairs (a₁,b₁),(a₂,b₂),…,(a_m,b_m) such that G(V−{a_j1,b_j1,…,a_jk,b_jk}) is also an X-critical graph for arbitrary set of indices {j₁,…,j_k}. These vertex pairs are called commutative elimination sequence. If G is an arbitrary indecomposable graph with an indecomposable induced subgraph G(X), then the above result establishes the existence of an indecomposability preserving sequence of vertex pairs (x₁,y₁),…,(x_t,y_t) such that x_i,y_i∈V−X. As an application of the commutative elimination sequence of an X-critical graph we present algorithms to extend a 3-coloring (similarly, 1-factor) of G(X) to entire G.     

Line-graphs of cubic graphs are normal

A graph is called normal if its vertex set can be covered by cliques Q₁,Q₂,…,Q_k and also by stable sets S₁,S₂,…,S_l, such that S_i∩Q_j≠∅ for every i,j. This notion is due to Körner, who introduced the class of normal graphs as an extension of the class of perfect graphs. Normality has also relevance in information theory. Here we prove, that the line graphs of cubic graphs are normal.     

Some families of integral graphs

A graph is called integral if all its eigenvalues (of the adjacency matrix) are integers. In this paper, the graphs K_1,r•K_n, r∗K_n, K_1,r•K_m,n, r∗K_m,n and the tree K_1,s•T(q,r,m,t) are defined. We determine the characteristic polynomials of these graphs and also obtain sufficient and necessary conditions for these graphs to be integral. Some sufficient conditions are found by using the number theory and computer search. All these classes are infinite. Some new results which treat interrelations between integral trees of various diameters are also found. The discovery of these integral graphs is a new contribution to the search of such graphs.     

A construction of Gray codes inducing complete graphs

A binary Gray code G(n) of length n, is a list of all 2ⁿn-bit codewords such that successive codewords differ in only one bit position. The sequence of bit positions where the single change occurs when going to the next codeword in G(n), denoted by S(n)?s₁,s₂,…,s_2ⁿ-1, is called the transition sequence of the Gray code G(n). The graph G_G(n) induced by a Gray code G(n) has vertex set {1,2,…,n} and edge set {{s_i,s_i+1}:1?i?2ⁿ-2}. If the first and the last codeword differ only in position s_2ⁿ, the code is cyclic and we extend the graph by two more edges {s_2ⁿ-1,s_2ⁿ} and {s_2ⁿ,s₁}. We solve a problem of Wilmer and Ernst [Graphs induced by Gray codes, Discrete Math. 257 (2002) 585-598] about a construction of an n-bit Gray code inducing the complete graph K_n. The technique used to solve this problem is based on a Gray code construction due to Bakos [A. Ádám, Truth Functions and the Problem of their Realization by Two-Terminal Graphs, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1968], and which is presented in D.E. Knuth [The Art of Computer Programming, vol. 4, Addison-Wesley as part of “fascicle” 2, USA, 2005].     

A contribution to the Zarankiewicz problem

Given positive integers let z(m,n,s,t) be the maximum number of ones in a (0,1) matrix of size m×n that does not contain an all ones submatrix of size s×t. We show that if s?2 and t?2, then for every k=0,…,s-2,

z(m,n,s,t)?(s-k-1)^1/tnm^1-1/t+kn+(t-1)m^1+k/t.     

Thue type problems for graphs, points, and numbers

A sequence S=s₁s₂…s_n is said to be nonrepetitive if no two adjacent blocks of S are the same. A celebrated 1906 theorem of Thue asserts that there are arbitrarily long nonrepetitive sequences over the set {0,1,2}. This result is the starting point of Combinatorics on Words—a wide area with many deep results, sophisticated methods, important applications and intriguing open problems.The main purpose of this survey is to present a range of new directions relating Thue sequences more closely to Graph Theory, Combinatorial Geometry, and Number Theory. For instance, one may consider graph colorings avoiding repetitions on paths, or colorings of points in the plane avoiding repetitions on straight lines. Besides presenting a variety of new challenges we also recall some older problems of this area.     

Color-bounded hypergraphs, II: Interval hypergraphs and hypertrees

A color-bounded hypergraph is a hypergraph (set system) with vertex set X and edge set E={E₁,…,E_m}, together with integers s_i and t_i (1≤s_i≤t_i≤|E_i|) for i=1,…,m. A vertex coloring φ is feasible if the number of colors occurring in edge E_i satisfies s_i≤|φ(E_i)|≤t_i, for every i≤m.In this paper we point out that hypertrees-hypergraphs admitting a representation over a (graph) tree where each hyperedge E_i induces a subtree of the underlying tree-play a central role concerning the set of possible numbers of colors that can occur in feasible colorings. We also consider interval hypergraphs and circular hypergraphs, where the underlying graph is a path or a cycle, respectively. Sufficient conditions are given for a ‘gap-free’ chromatic spectrum; i.e., when each number of colors is feasible between minimum and maximum. The algorithmic complexity of colorability is studied, too.Compared with the ‘mixed hypergraphs’-where ‘D-edge’ means (s_i,t_i)=(2,|E_i|), while ‘C-edge’ assumes (s_i,t_i)=(1,|E_i|−1)-the differences are rather significant.     

Bounds on some van der Waerden numbers

For positive integers s and k₁,k₂,…,ks, the van der Waerden number w(k₁,k₂,…,ks;s) is the minimum integer n such that for every s-coloring of set {1,2,…,n}, with colors 1,2,…,s, there is a ki-term arithmetic progression of color i for some i. We give an asymptotic lower bound for w(k,m;2) for fixed m. We include a table of values of w(k,3;2) that are very close to this lower bound for m=3. We also give a lower bound for w(k,k,…,k;s) that slightly improves previously-known bounds. Upper bounds for w(k,4;2) and w(4,4,…,4;s) are also provided.     

On total domination vertex critical graphs of high connectivity

A graph is called γ-critical if the removal of any vertex from the graph decreases the domination number, while a graph with no isolated vertex is γ_t-critical if the removal of any vertex that is not adjacent to a vertex of degree 1 decreases the total domination number. A γ_t-critical graph that has total domination number k, is called k-γ_t-critical. In this paper, we introduce a class of k-γ_t-critical graphs of high connectivity for each integer k≥3. In particular, we provide a partial answer to the question “Which graphs are γ-critical and γ_t-critical or one but not the other?” posed in a recent work [W. Goddard, T.W. Haynes, M.A. Henning, L.C. van der Merwe, The diameter of total domination vertex critical graphs, Discrete Math. 286 (2004) 255-261].