On the arithmetic product of combinatorial species

We introduce two new binary operations on combinatorial species; the arithmetic product and the modified arithmetic product. The arithmetic product gives combinatorial meaning to the product of Dirichlet series and to the Lambert series in the context of species. It allows us to introduce the notion of multiplicative species, a lifting to the combinatorial level of the classical notion of multiplicative arithmetic function. Interesting combinatorial constructions are introduced; cloned assemblies of structures, hyper-cloned trees, enriched rectangles, etc. Recent research of Cameron, Gewurz and Merola, about the product action in the context of oligomorphic groups, motivated the introduction of the modified arithmetic product. By using the modified arithmetic product we obtain new enumerative results. We also generalize and simplify some results of Canfield, and Pittel, related to the enumerations of tuples of partitions with the restrictions met.     

On the asymmetric representatives formulation for the vertex coloring problem

We consider the vertex coloring problem, which can be stated as the problem of minimizing the number of labels that can be assigned to the vertices of a graph G such that each vertex receives at least one label and the endpoints of every edge are assigned different labels. In this work, the 0-1 integer programming formulation based on representative vertices is revisited to remove symmetry. The previous polyhedral study related to the original formulation is adapted and generalized. New versions of facets derived from substructures of G are presented, including cliques, odd holes and anti-holes and wheels. In addition, a new class of facets is derived from independent sets of G. Finally, a comparison with the independent sets formulation is provided.     

An improved ant colony optimisation heuristic for graph colouring

The focus of this paper is an ant colony optimisation heuristic for the graph colouring problem. We start by showing how a series of improvements enhance the performance of an existing ant colony approach to the problem and then go on to demonstrate that a further strengthening of the construction phase, combined with a tabu search improvement phase, raise the performance to the point where it is able to compete with some of the best-known approaches on a series of benchmark problems.     

Balanced decomposition of a vertex-colored graph

A balanced vertex-coloring of a graph G is a function c from V(G) to {−1,0,1} such that ∑{c(v):v∈V(G)}=0. A subset U of V(G) is called a balanced set if U induces a connected subgraph and ∑{c(v):v∈U}=0. A decomposition V(G)=V₁∪?∪V_r is called a balanced decomposition if V_i is a balanced set for 1≤i≤r.In this paper, the balanced decomposition number f(G) of G is introduced; f(G) is the smallest integer s such that for any balanced vertex-coloring c of G, there exists a balanced decomposition V(G)=V₁∪?∪V_r with |V_i|≤s for 1≤i≤r. Balanced decomposition numbers of some basic families of graphs such as complete graphs, trees, complete bipartite graphs, cycles, 2-connected graphs are studied.     

On the multiplicities of eigenvalues of a Hermitian matrix whose graph is a tree

A different approach is given to recent results due mainly to R. C. Johnson and A. Leal Duarte on the multiplicities of eigenvalues of a Hermitian matrix whose graph is a tree. The techniques developed are based on some results of matching polynomials and used a work by O. L. Heilmann and E. H. Lieb on an apparently unrelated topic.      

Solving some NP-complete problems using split decomposition

We show how to use the split decomposition to solve some NP-hard optimization problems on graphs. We give algorithms for clique problem and domination-type problems. Our main result is an algorithm to compute a coloration of a graph using its split decomposition. Finally we show that the clique-width of a graph is bounded if and only if the clique-width of each representative graph in its split decomposition is bounded.     

Strategies of loop recombination in ciliates

The concept of breakpoint graph, known from the theory of sorting by reversal, has been successfully applied in the theory of gene assembly in ciliates. We further investigate its usage for gene assembly, and show that the graph allows for an efficient characterization of the possible orders of loop recombination operations (one of the three types of molecular operations that accomplish gene assembly) for a given gene during gene assembly. The characterization is based on spanning trees within a graph built upon the connected components in the breakpoint graph. We work in the abstract and more general setting of so-called legal strings.