The positive zero forcing number of a graph is a graph parameter that arises from a non-traditional type of graph colouring, and is related to a more conventional version of zero forcing. We establish a relation between the zero forcing and the fast-mixed searching, which implies some NP-completeness results for the zero forcing problem. For chordal graphs much is understood regarding the relationships between positive zero forcing and clique coverings. Building upon constructions associated with optimal tree covers and forest covers, we present a linear time algorithm for computing the positive zero forcing number of chordal graphs. We also prove that it is NP-complete to determine if a graph has a positive zero forcing set with an additional property.
Zero forcing is a process on a graph that colors vertices blue by starting with some of the vertices blue and applying a color change rule. Throttling minimizes the sum of the size of the initial blue vertex set and the number of the time steps needed to color the graph. We study throttling for positive semidefinite zero forcing. We establish a tight lower bound on the positive semidefinite throttling number as a function of the order, maximum degree, and positive semidefinite zero forcing number of the graph, and determine the positive semidefinite throttling numbers of paths, cycles, and ful…
An $r$-fold analogue of the positive semidefinite zero forcing process that is carried out on the $r$-blowup of a graph is introduced and used to define the fractional positive semidefinite forcing number. Properties of the graph blowup when colored with a fractional positive semidefinite forcing set are examined and used to define a three-color forcing game that directly computes the fractional positive semidefinite forcing number of a graph. We develop a fractional parameter based on the standard zero forcing process and it is shown that this parameter is exactly the skew zero forcing number…
The zero forcing number Z(G), which is the minimum number of vertices in a zero forcing set of a graph G, is used to study the maximum nullity / minimum rank of the family of symmetric matrices described by G. It is shown that for a connected graph of order at least two, no vertex is in every zero forcing set. The positive semidefinite zero forcing number Z_+(G) is introduced, and shown to be equal to |G|-OS(G), where OS(G) is the recently defined ordered set number that is a lower bound for minimum positive semidefinite rank. The positive semidefinite zero forcing number is applied to the com…
The tight upper bound $\operatorname{pt}_+(G) \leq \left\lceil \frac{\left\vert \operatorname{V}(G) \right\vert - \operatorname{Z}_+(G)}{2} \right\rceil$ is established for the positive semidefinite propagation time of a graph in terms of its positive semidefinite zero forcing number. To prove this bound, two methods of transforming one positive semidefinite zero forcing set into another and algorithms implementing these methods are presented. Consequences of the bound, including a tight Nordhaus-Gaddum sum upper bound on positive semidefinite propagation time, are established.
Product throttling answers the question of minimizing the product of the resources needed to accomplish a task, and the time in which it takes to accomplish the task. In product throttling for positive semidefinite zero forcing, task that we wish to accomplish is positive semidefinite zero forcing. Positive semidefinite zero forcing is a game played on a graph $G$ that starts with a coloring of the vertices as white and blue. At each step any vertex colored blue with a unique white neighbor in a component of the graph formed by deleting the blue vertices from $G$ forces the color of the white …
Several researchers have recently explored various graph parameters that can or cannot be characterized by the spectrum of a matrix associated with a graph. In this paper we show that several NP-hard zero forcing numbers are not characterized by the spectra of several types of associated matrices with a graph. In particular, we consider standard zero forcing, positive semidefinite zero forcing, and skew zero forcing, and provide constructions of infinite families of pairs of cospectral graphs which have different values for these numbers. We explore several methods for obtaining these cospectr…
Let $G$ be a simple, finite, and undirected graph with vertices each given an initial coloring of either blue or white. Zero forcing on graph $G$ is an iterative process of forcing its white vertices to become blue after a finite application of a specified color-change rule. We say that an initial set $S$ of blue vertices of $G$ is a zero forcing set for $G$ under the specified color-change rule if a finite number of iterations of zero forcing results to an updated coloring where all vertices of $G$ are blue. Otherwise, we say that $S$ is a failed zero forcing set for $G$ under the specified c…
Let $G$ be a simple graph whose vertices are partitioned into two subsets, called filled vertices and empty vertices. A vertex $v$ is said to be forced by a filled vertex $u$ if $v$ is a unique empty neighbor of $u$. If we can fill all the vertices of $G$ by repeatedly filling the forced ones, then we call an initial set of filled vertices a forcing set. We discuss the so-called failed forcing number of a graph, which is the largest cardinality of a set which is not forcing. Answering the recent question of Ansill, Jacob, Penzellna, Saavedra, we prove that this quantity is NP-hard to compute. …
In Rothvoß it was shown that there exists a 0/1 polytope (a polytope whose vertices are in \{0,1\}^{n}) such that any higher-dimensional polytope projecting to it must have 2^{Ω(n)} facets, i.e., its linear extension complexity is exponential. The question whether there exists a 0/1 polytope with high PSD extension complexity was left open. We answer this question in the affirmative by showing that there is a 0/1 polytope such that any spectrahedron projecting to it must be the intersection of a semidefinite cone of dimension~2^{Ω(n)} and an affine space. Our proof relies on a new technique to…
An $X$-TAR (token addition/removal) reconfiguration graph has as its vertices sets that satisfy some property $X$, with an edge between two sets if one is obtained from the other by adding or removing one element. This paper considers the $X$-TAR graph for $X-$ sets of vertices of a base graph $G$ where the $X$-sets of $G$ must satisfy certain conditions. Dominating sets, power dominating sets, zero forcing sets, and positive semidefinite zero forcing sets are all examples of $X$-sets. For graphs $G$ and $G'$ with no isolated vertices, it is shown that $G$ and $G'$ have isomorphic $X$-TAR reco…
Zero forcing can be described as a combinatorial game on a graph that uses a color change rule in which vertices change white vertices to blue. The throttling number of a graph minimizes the sum of the number of vertices initially colored blue and the number of time steps required to color the entire graph. Positive semidefinite (PSD) zero forcing is a commonly studied variant of standard zero forcing that alters the color change rule. This paper introduces a method for extending a graph using a PSD zero forcing process. Using this extension method, graphs with PSD throttling number at most $t…
Let $A$ be a matrix with nonnegative real entries. The PSD rank of $A$ is the smallest integer $k$ for which there exist $k\times k$ real PSD matrices $B_1,\ldots,B_m$, $C_1,\ldots,C_n$ satisfying $A(i|j)=\operatorname{tr}(B_iC_j)$ for all $i,j$. This paper determines the computational complexity status of the PSD rank. Namely, we show that the problem of computing this function is polynomial-time equivalent to the existential theory of the reals.
We relate the maximum semidefinite and linear extension complexity of a family of polytopes to the cardinality of this family and the minimum pairwise Hausdorff distance of its members. This result directly implies a known lower bound on the maximum semidefinite extension complexity of 0/1-polytopes. We further show how our result can be used to improve on the corresponding bounds known for polygons with integer vertices. Our geometric proof builds upon nothing else than a simple well-known property of maximum volume inscribed ellipsoids of convex bodies. In particular, it does not rely on fac…
Zero forcing is an iterative graph coloring process whereby a colored vertex with a single uncolored neighbor forces that neighbor to be colored. It is NP-hard to find a minimum zero forcing set - a smallest set of initially colored vertices which forces the entire graph to be colored. We show that the problem remains NP-hard when the initially colored set induces a connected subgraph. We also give structural results about the connected zero forcing sets of a graph related to the graph's density, separating sets, and certain induced subgraphs, and we characterize the cardinality of the minimum…
There has been a lot of interest recently in proving lower bounds on the size of linear programs needed to represent a given polytope P. In a breakthrough paper Fiorini et al. [Proceedings of 44th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing 2012, pages 95-106] showed that any linear programming formulation of maximum-cut must have exponential size. A natural question to ask is whether one can prove such strong lower bounds for semidefinite programming formulations. In this paper we take a step towards this goal and we prove strong lower bounds for a certain class of SDP formulations, namely SDPs over…
Consider a discrete-time process on a graph $G$ where a set $B$ of initial vertices are chosen to be colored blue (the remainder being white) and then a time step consists of every currently blue vertex forcing all of its neighbors to become blue; this process stops when every vertex of the graph is blue, and the process is called full forcing. The full throttling number of $G$ is then defined to be the minimum sum of the cardinality of $B$ and the number of time steps needed to complete the forcing process. On trees, the full throttling number is equivalent to the throttling numbers of severa…
California State University Long Beach（加州州立大学长滩分校）；California State University, San Bernardino（加州州立大学圣贝纳迪诺分校）；Fort Lewis College（福特路易斯学院）；American Institute of Mathematics（美国数学研究所）；Iowa State University（爱荷华州立大学）；Purdue University（普渡大学）；Kutztown University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚库兹敦大学）
Semidefinite programming can be considered over any real closed field, including fields of Puiseux series equipped with their nonarchimedean valuation. Nonarchimedean semidefinite programs encode parametric families of classical semidefinite programs, for sufficiently large values of the parameter. Recently, a correspondence has been established between nonarchimedean semidefinite programs and stochastic mean payoff games with perfect information. This correspondence relies on tropical geometry. It allows one to solve generic nonarchimedean semidefinite feasibility problems, of large scale, by…
The minimum rank problem for a (simple) graph $G$ is to determine the smallest possible rank over all real symmetric matrices whose $ij$th entry (for $i\neq j$) is nonzero whenever $\{i,j\}$ is an edge in $G$ and is zero otherwise. This paper surveys the many developments on the (standard) minimum rank problem and its variants since the survey paper \cite{FH}. In particular, positive semidefinite minimum rank, zero forcing parameters, and minimum rank problems for patterns are discussed.
In a graph $G$ a sequence $v_1,v_2,\dots,v_m$ of vertices is Grundy dominating if for all $2\le i \le m$ we have $N[v_i]\not\subseteq \cup_{j=1}^{i-1}N[v_j]$ and is Grundy total dominating if for all $2\le i \le m$ we have $N(v_i)\not\subseteq \cup_{j=1}^{i-1}N(v_j)$. The length of the longest Grundy (total) dominating sequence has been studied by several authors. In this paper we introduce two similar concepts when the requirement on the neighborhoods is changed to $N(v_i)\not\subseteq \cup_{j=1}^{i-1}N[v_j]$ or $N[v_i]\not\subseteq \cup_{j=1}^{i-1}N(v_j)$. In the former case we establish a s…
The nonnegative and positive semidefinite (PSD-) ranks are closely connected to the nonnegative and positive semidefinite extension complexities of a polytope, which are the minimal dimensions of linear and SDP programs which represent this polytope. Though some exponential lower bounds on the nonnegative and PSD- ranks has recently been proved for the slack matrices of some particular polytopes, there are still no tight bounds for these quantities. We explore some existing bounds on the PSD-rank and prove that they cannot give exponential lower bounds on the extension complexity. Our approach…
We show that the mixed discriminant of $n$ positive semidefinite $n \times n$ real symmetric matrices can be approximated within a relative error $ε>0$ in quasi-polynomial $n^{O(\ln n -\ln ε)}$ time, provided the distance of each matrix to the identity matrix in the operator norm does not exceed some absolute constant $γ_0 >0$. We deduce a similar result for the mixed discriminant of doubly stochastic $n$-tuples of matrices from the Marcus - Spielman - Srivastava bound on the roots of the mixed characteristic polynomial. Finally, we construct a quasi-polynomial algorithm for approximating the …
In this work we study the uncountable Borel chromatic numbers, defined by Geschke (2011) as cardinal characteristics of the continuum, of low complexity graphs. We show that a strong form of locally countable graphs with compact totally disconnected set of vertices have Borel chromatic number bounded by the continuum of the ground model in the model obtained by adding $\aleph_2$ Laver reals. From this, we answer a question from Geschke and the second author (2022), and another question from Fisher, Friedman and Khomskii (2014) concerning regularity properties of subsets of the real line.
Positive semidefinite rank (PSD-rank) is a relatively new quantity with applications to combinatorial optimization and communication complexity. We first study several basic properties of PSD-rank, and then develop new techniques for showing lower bounds on the PSD-rank. All of these bounds are based on viewing a positive semidefinite factorization of a matrix $M$ as a quantum communication protocol. These lower bounds depend on the entries of the matrix and not only on its support (the zero/nonzero pattern), overcoming a limitation of some previous techniques. We compare these new lower bound…
We generalise some well-known graph parameters to operator systems by considering their underlying quantum channels. In particular, we introduce the quantum complexity as the dimension of the smallest co-domain Hilbert space a quantum channel requires to realise a given operator system as its non-commutative confusability graph. We describe quantum complexity as a generalised minimum semidefinite rank and, in the case of a graph operator system, as a quantum intersection number. The quantum complexity and a closely related quantum version of orthogonal rank turn out to be upper bounds for the …
