Seymour's distance two conjecture states that in any digraph there exists a vertex (a "Seymour vertex") that has at least as many neighbors at distance two as it does at distance one. We explore the validity of probabilistic statements along lines suggested by Seymour's conjecture, proving that almost surely there are a "large" number of Seymour vertices in random tournaments and "even more" in general random digraphs.
Seymour's Second Neighborhood Conjecture asserts that every digraph (without digons) has a vertex whose first out-neighborhood is at most as large as its second out-neighborhood. We prove its weighted version for tournaments missing a generalized star. As a consequence the weighted version holds for tournaments missing a sun, star, or a complete graph.
This paper gives an approximate result related to Seymour's Second Neighborhood conjecture, that is, for any $m$-free digraph $G$, there exists a vertex $v\in V(G)$ and a real number $λ_m$ such that $d^{++}(v)\geq λ_m d^+(v)$, and $λ_m \rightarrow 1$ while $m \rightarrow +\infty$. This result generalizes and improves some known results in a sense.
For a simple digraph $G$ without directed triangles or digons, let $β(G)$ be the size of the smallest subset $X \subseteq E(G)$ such that $G\setminus X$ has no directed cycles, and let $γ(G)$ be the number of unordered pairs of nonadjacent vertices in $G$. In 2008, Chudnovsky, Seymour, and Sullivan showed that $β(G) \le γ(G)$, and conjectured that $β(G) \le γ(G)/2$. Recently, Dunkum, Hamburger, and Pór proved that $β(G) \le 0.88 γ(G)$. In this note, we prove that $β(G) \le 0.8616 γ(G)$.
We prove the existence of a function $h(k)$ such that every simple digraph with minimum outdegree greater than $h(k)$ contains an immersion of the transitive tournament on $k$ vertices. This solves a conjecture of Devos, McDonald, Mohar and Scheide.
Continuing the program begun in the first paper of this series, we present a pair of non-reconstructable tournament on $p$ vertices for each $p=2^n \ge 4$.
Solving the kernel perfect problem by (simple) forbidden subdigraphs for digraphs in some families of generalized tournaments and generalized bipartite tournaments
A $\overrightarrow{P_{3}}$-decomposition of a directed graph $D$ is a partition of the arcs of $D$ into directed paths of length $2$. In this paper, we give a characterization for a tournament and a bipartite digraph admitting a $\overrightarrow{P_{3}}$-decomposition. This solves a problem posed by Diwan ($\overrightarrow{P_{3}}$-decomposition of directed graphs, Discrete Appl. Math., http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2016.01.039.).
In this note we propose a generalisation of Seymour's Second Neighbourhood Conjecture to two directed graphs on a vertex set. We prove that this generalisation holds in the case of tournaments, and we show that a natural strengthening of this conjecture does not hold.
Motivated by his work on the classification of countable homogeneous oriented graphs, Cherlin asked about the typical structure of oriented graphs (i) without a transitive triangle, or (ii) without an oriented triangle. We give an answer to these questions (which is not quite the predicted one). Our approach is based on the recent `hypergraph containers' method, developed independently by Saxton and Thomason as well as by Balogh, Morris and Samotij. Moreover, our results generalise to forbidden transitive tournaments and forbidden oriented cycles of any order, and also apply to digraphs. Along…
We show that for every positive integer $k$, any tournament with minimum out-degree at least $(2+o(1))k^2$ contains a subdivision of the complete directed graph on $k$ vertices, which is best possible up to a factor of $8$. This may be viewed as a directed analogue of a theorem proved by Bollobás and Thomason, and independently by Komlós and Szemerédi, concerning subdivisions of cliques in graphs with sufficiently high average degree. We also consider the following problem: given $k$, what is the smallest positive integer $f(k)$ such that any $f(k)$-vertex tournament contains a $1$-subdivision…
The Rényi $α$-entropy $H_α$ of complete antisymmetric directed graphs (i.e., tournaments) is explored. We optimize $H_α$ when $α= 2$ and $3$, and find that as $α$ increases $H_α$'s sensitivity to what we refer to as `regularity' increases as well. A regular tournament on $n$ vertices is one with each vertex having out-degree $\frac{n-1}{2}$, but there is a lot of diversity in terms of structure among the regular tournaments; for example, a regular tournament may be such that each vertex's out-set induces a regular tournament (a doubly-regular tournament) or a transitive tournament (a rotationa…
In an earlier paper the first two authors have shown that self-complementary graphs can always be oriented in such a way that the union of the oriented version and its isomorphically oriented complement gives a transitive tournament. We investigate the possibilities of generalizing this theorem to decompositions of the complete graph into three or more isomorphic graphs. We find that a complete characterization of when an orientation with similar properties is possible seems elusive. Nevertheless, we give sufficient conditions that generalize the earlier theorem and also imply that decompositi…
Given $k$ pairs of vertices $(s_i,t_i)\;(1\le i\le k)$ of a digraph $G$, how can we test whether there exist vertex-disjoint directed paths from $s_i$ to $t_i$ for $1\le i\le k$? This is NP-complete in general digraphs, even for $k = 2$, but in an earlier paper we proved that for all fixed $k$, there is a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem if $G$ is a tournament (or more generally, a semicomplete digraph). Here we prove that for all fixed $k$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem when $V(G)$ is partitioned into a bounded number of sets each inducing a semicomple…
A descent of a labeled digraph is a directed edge (s, t) with s > t. We count strong tournaments, strong digraphs, and acyclic digraphs by descents and edges. To count strong tournaments we use Eulerian generating functions and to count strong and acyclic digraphs we use a new type of generating function that we call a graphic Eulerian generating function.
We prove Seymour's Second Neighborhood Conjecture when the missing graph is disjoint stars under some conditions. Weaker conditions are required when n=2 or 3. In some cases, we exhibit two vertices with the desired property.
Given $k$ pairs of vertices $(s_i,t_i)$, $1\le i\le k$, of a digraph $G$, how can we test whether there exist $k$ vertex-disjoint directed paths from $s_i$ to $t_i$ for $1\le i\le k$? This is NP-complete in general digraphs, even for $k = 2$, but for $k=2$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm when $G$ is a tournament (or more generally, a semicomplete digraph), due to Bang-Jensen and Thomassen. Here we prove that for all fixed $k$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem when $G$ is semicomplete.
Decomposing a digraph into subdigraphs with a fixed structure or property is a classical problem in graph theory and a useful tool in a number of applications of networks and communication. A digraph is strongly connected if it contains a directed path from each vertex to all others. In this paper we consider multipartite tournaments, and we study the existence of a partition of a multipartite tournament with $c$ partite sets into strongly connected $c$-tournaments. This is a continuation of the study started in 1999 by Volkmann of the existence of strongly connected subtournaments in multipar…
A $k$-majority digraph is a directed graph created by combining $k$ individual rankings on the same ground set to form a consensus where edges point in the direction indicated by a strict majority of the rankings. The $k$-majority digraph is used to model voting scenarios, where the vertices correspond to options ranked by $k$ voters. When $k$ is odd, the resulting digraph is always a tournament, called $k$-majority tournament. Let $f_k(n)$ be the minimum, over all $k$-majority tournaments with $n$ vertices, of the maximum order of an induced transitive sub-tournament. Recently, Milans, Schrei…
Let $G$ be a graph of order $n$. It is well-known that $α(G)\geq \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{1}{1+d_i}$, where $α(G)$ is the independence number of $G$ and $d_1,\ldots,d_n$ is the degree sequence of $G$. We extend this result to digraphs by showing that if $D$ is a digraph with $n$ vertices, then $ α(D)\geq \sum_{i=1}^n \left( \frac{1}{1+d_i^+} + \frac{1}{1+d_i^-} - \frac{1}{1+d_i}\right)$, where $α(D)$ is the maximum size of an acyclic vertex set of $D$. Golowich proved that for any digraph $D$, $χ(D)\leq \lceil \frac{4k}{5} \rceil+2$, where $k=max(Δ^+(D),Δ^-(D))$. We give a short and simple proof for…
Let $H$ be a digraph possibly with loops, $D$ a digraph without loops, and $ρ: A(D) \rightarrow V(H)$ a coloring of $A(D)$ ($D$ is said to be an $H$-colored digraph). If $W=(x_{0}, \ldots , x_{n})$ is a walk in $D$, and $i \in \{ 0, \ldots , n-1 \}$, we say that there is an obstruction on $x_{i}$ whenever $(ρ(x_{i-1}, x_{i}), ρ(x_{i}, x_{i+1})) \notin A(H)$ (when $x_{0} = x_{n}$ the indices are taken modulo $n$). We denote by $O_{H}(W)$ the set $\{ i \in \{0, \ldots , n-1 \} :$ there is an obstruction on $x_{i} \}$. The $H$-length of $W$, denoted by $l_{H}(W)$, is defined by $|O_{H}(W)|+1$ whe…
In 1995, Stiebitz asked the following question: For any positive integers $s,t$, is there a finite integer $f(s,t)$ such that every digraph $D$ with minimum out-degree at least $f(s,t)$ admits a bipartition $(A, B)$ such that $A$ induces a subdigraph with minimum out-degree at least $s$ and $B$ induces a subdigraph with minimum out-degree at least $t$? We give an affirmative answer for tournaments, multipartite tournaments, and digraphs with bounded maximum in-degrees. In particular, we show that for every $ε$ with $0<ε<1/2$, there exists an integer $δ_0$ such that every tournament with minimu…
A digraph is {\bf eulerian} if it is connected and every vertex has its in-degree equal to its out-degree. Having a spanning eulerian subdigraph is thus a weakening of having a hamiltonian cycle. A digraph is {\bf semicomplete} if it has no pair of non-adjacent vertices. A {\bf tournament} is a semicomplete digraph without directed cycles of length 2. Fraise and Thomassen \cite{fraisseGC3} proved that every $(k+1)$-strong tournament has a hamiltonian cycle which avoids any prescribed set of $k$ arcs. In \cite{bangsupereuler} the authors demonstrated that a number of results concerning vertex-c…
Seymour's second neighbourhood conjecture asserts that every oriented graph has a vertex whose second out-neighbourhood is at least as large as its out-neighbourhood. In this paper, we prove that the conjecture holds for quasi-transitive oriented graphs, which is a superclass of tournaments and transitive acyclic digraphs. A digraph $D$ is called quasi-transitive is for every pair $xy,yz$ of arcs between distinct vertices $x,y,z$, $xz$ or $zx$ ("or" is inclusive here) is in $D$.
The oriented Ramsey number $\vec{r}(H)$ for an acyclic digraph $H$ is the minimum integer $n$ such that any $n$-vertex tournament contains a copy of $H$ as a subgraph. We prove that the $1$-subdivision of the $k$-vertex transitive tournament $H_k$ satisfies $\vec{r}(H_k)= O(k^2\log\log k)$. This is tight up to multiplicative $\log\log k$-term. We also show that if $T$ is an $n$-vertex tournament with $Δ^+(T)-δ^+(T)= O(n/k) - k^2$, then $T$ contains a $1$-subdivision of $\vec{K}_k$, a complete $k$-vertex digraph with all possible $k(k-1)$ arcs. This is also tight up to multiplicative constant.
The chromatic number of a digraph $D$ is the minimum number of acyclic subgraphs covering the vertex set of $D$. A tournament $H$ is a hero if every $H$-free tournament $T$ has chromatic number bounded by a function of $H$. Inspired by the celebrated Erdős--Hajnal conjecture, Berger et al. fully characterized the class of heroes in 2013. We extend this framework to dense digraphs: A digraph $H$ is a superhero if every $H$-free digraph $D$ has chromatic number bounded by a function of $H$ and $α(D)$, the independence number of the underlying graph of $D$. We prove here that a digraph is a super…
For two integers $n\geq 3$ and $2\leq p\leq n$, we denote $D(n,p)$ the digraph obtained from a directed $n$-cycle by changing the orientations of $p-1$ consecutive arcs. In this paper, we show that a family of $k$-regular $(k\geq 3)$ bipartite tournament $BT_{4k}$ contains $D(4k,p)$ for all $2\leq p\leq 4k$ unless $BT_{4k}$ is isomorphic to a digraph $D$ such that $(1,2,3,...,4k,1)$ is a Hamilton cycle and $(4m+i-1,i)\in A(D)$ and $(i,4m+i+1)\in A(D)$, where $1\leq m\leq k-1$.
Seymour conjectured that every oriented simple graph contains a vertex whose second neighborhood is at least as large as its first. Seymour's conjecture has been verified in several special cases, most notably for tournaments by Fisher. One extension of the conjecture that has been used by several researchers is to consider vertex-weighted digraphs. In this paper we introduce a version of the conjecture for arc-weighted digraphs. We prove the conjecture in the special case of arc-weighted tournaments, strengthening Fisher's theorem. Our proof does not rely on Fisher's result, and thus can be s…
Forward Arc Maximization for Hamilton Oriented Cycles and Paths in Generalizations of Tournaments
Center for Combinatorics and LPMC, Nankai University（南开大学组合数学中心与LPMC）；School of Mathematical Sciences and LPMC, Nankai University（南开大学数学科学学院与LPMC）；School of Science, Hebei University of Technology（河北工业大学理学院）；Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学数学与计算机系）；Department of Mathematics, University of Johannesburg（约翰内斯堡大学数学系）；Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology（深圳先进技术研究院）
In this paper, we compute competition indices and periods of multipartite tournaments. We first show that the competition period of an acyclic digraph $D$ is one and $ζ(D) +1$ is a sharp upper bound of the competition index of $D$ where $ζ(D)$ is the sink elimination index of $D$. Then we prove that, especially, for an acyclic $k$-partite tournament $D$, the competition index of $D$ is $ζ(D)$ or $ζ(D) +1$ for an integer $k \ge 3$. By developing useful tools to create infinitely many directed walks in a certain regular pattern from given directed walks, we show that the competition period of a …
An arc-coloured digraph $D$ is said to be \emph{rainbow connected} if for every two vertices $u$ and $v$ there is an $uv$-path all whose arcs have different colours. The minimun number of colours required to make the digraph rainbow connected is called the \emph{rainbow connection number} of $D$, denoted $\stackrel{\rightarrow}{rc}(D)$. In \cite{Dorbec} it was showed that if $T$ is a strong tournament with $n\geq 5$ vertices, then $2\leq \stackrel{\rightarrow}{rc}(T)\leq n-1$; and that for every $n$ and $k$ such that $3\leq k\leq n-1$, there exists a tournament $T$ on $n$ vertices such that $\…
We say a digraph $G$ is a {\em minor} of a digraph $H$ if $G$ can be obtained from a subdigraph of $H$ by repeatedly contracting a strongly-connected subdigraph to a vertex. Here, we show the class of all tournaments is a well-quasi-order under minor containment.
We prove a conjecture of Fox, Huang, and Lee that characterizes directed graphs that have constant density in all tournaments: they are disjoint unions of trees that are each constructed in a certain recursive way.
In 2018, Bai, Fujita and Zhang (\emph{Discrete Math.} 2018, 341(6): 1523-1533) introduced the concept of a kernel by rainbow paths (for short, RP-kernel) of an arc-coloured digraph $D$, which is a subset $S$ of vertices of $D$ such that ($a$) there exists no rainbow path for any pair of distinct vertices of $S$, and ($b$) every vertex outside $S$ can reach $S$ by a rainbow path in $D$. They showed that it is NP-hard to recognize wether an arc-coloured digraph has a RP-kernel and it is NP-complete to decided wether an arc-coloured tournament has a RP-kernel. In this paper, we give the sufficien…
Seymour's Second Neighborhood Conjecture asserts that every digraph (without digons) has a vertex whose first out-neighborhood is at most as large as its second out-neighborhood. It is proved for tournaments, tournaments missing a matching and tournaments missing a generalized star. We prove this conjecture for classes of digraphs whose missing graph is a comb, a complete graph minus 2 independent edges, or a complete graph minus the edges of a cycle of length 5.
We study $k$-colored kernels in $m$-colored digraphs. An $m$-colored digraph $D$ has $k$-colored kernel if there exists a subset $K$ of its vertices such that (i) from every vertex $v\notin K$ there exists an at most $k$-colored directed path from $v$ to a vertex of $K$ and (ii) for every $u,v\in K$ there does not exist an at most $k$-colored directed path between them. In this paper, we prove that for every integer $k\geq 2$ there exists a $% (k+1)$-colored digraph $D$ without $k$-colored kernel and if every directed cycle of an $m$-colored digraph is monochromatic, then it has a $k$-colored …
Let $D$ be a digraph. A $k$-container of $D$ between $u$ and $v$, $C(u,v)$, is a set of $k$ internally disjoint paths between $u$ and $v$. A $k$-container $C(u,v)$ of $D$ is a strong (resp. weak) $k^{*}$-container if there is a set of $k$ internally disjoint paths with the same direction (resp. with different directions allowed) between $u$ and $v$ and it contains all vertices of $D$. A digraph $D$ is $k^{*}$-strongly (resp. $k^{*}$-weakly) connected if there exists a strong (resp. weak) $k^{*}$-container between any two distinct vertices. We define the strong (resp. weak) spanning connectivit…
A regular bipartite tournament is an orientation of a complete balanced bipartite graph $K_{2n,2n}$ where every vertex has its in- and outdegree both equal to $n$. In 1981, Jackson conjectured that any regular bipartite tournament can be decomposed into Hamilton cycles. We prove this conjecture for all sufficiently large bipartite tournaments. Along the way, we also prove several further results, including a conjecture of Liebenau and Pehova on Hamilton decompositions of dense bipartite digraphs.
Suppose one needs to change the direction of at least $εn^2$ edges of an $n$-vertex tournament $T$, in order to make it $H$-free. A standard application of the regularity method shows that in this case $T$ contains at least $f^*_H(ε)n^h$ copies of $H$, where $f^*_H$ is some tower-type function. It has long been observed that many graph/digraph problems become easier when assuming that the host graph is a tournament. It is thus natural to ask if the removal lemma becomes easier if we assume that the digraph $G$ is a tournament. Our main result here is a precise characterization of the tournamen…
Let S_m denote the m-vertex simple digraph formed by m-1 edges with a common tail. Let f(m) denote the minimum n such that every n-vertex tournament has a spanning subgraph consisting of n/m disjoint copies of S_m. We prove that m lg m - m lg lg m <= f(m) <= 4m^2 - 6m for sufficiently large m.
The \textit{acyclic disconnection} $\overrightarrow{ω}(D)$ (resp. the \textit{directed triangle free disconnection } $\overrightarrow{ω}_{3}(D)$) of a digraph $D$ is defined as the maximum possible number of connected components of the underlying graph of $D\setminus A(D^{\ast })$ where $D^{\ast }$ is an acyclic (resp. a directed triangle free) subdigraph of $D$. In this paper, we generalize some previous results and solve some problems posed by V. Neumann-Lara (The acyclic disconnection of a digraph, Discrete Math. 197/198 (1999), 617-632). Let $\overrightarrow{C}_{2n+1}(J)$ be a circulant to…
