For $r\geq 1$, the $r$-independence complex of a graph $G$, denoted Ind$_r(G)$, is a simplicial complex whose faces are subsets $A \subseteq V(G)$ such that each component of the induced subgraph $G[A]$ has at most $r$ vertices. In this article, we establish a relation between the distance $r$-domination number of $G$ and (homological) connectivity of Ind$_r(G)$. We also prove that Ind$_r(G)$, for a chordal graph $G$, is either contractible or homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres. Given a wedge of spheres, we also provide a construction of a chordal graph whose $r$-independence complex has the homotopy type of the given wedge.
After $2$-crossing-critical graphs were characterized in 2016, their most general subfamily, large $3$-connected $2$-crossing-critical graphs, has attracted separate attention. This paper presents sharp upper and lower bounds for their domination and independence number.
We propose new bounds on the domination number and on the independence number of a graph and show that our bounds compare favorably to recent ones. Our bounds are obtained by using the Bhatia-Davis inequality linking the variance, the expected value, the minimum, and the maximum of a random variable with bounded distribution.
An edge dominating set $F$ of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is an \textit{edge cut dominating set} if the subgraph $\langle V,G-F \rangle$ is disconnected. The \textit{edge cut domination number} $γ_{ct}(G)$ of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of an edge cut dominating set of $G.$ In this paper we study the edge cut domination number and investigate its relationships with other parameters of graphs. We also introduce the properties edge cut irredundance and edge cut independence.
We use two cofibre sequences to identify some combinatorial situations when the independence complex of a graph splits into a wedge sum of smaller independence complexes. Our main application is to give a recursive relation for the homotopy types of the independence complexes of powers of cycles, which answers an open question of D. Kozlov.
Let G be a graph. The independence-domination number is the maximum over all independent sets I in G of the minimal number of vertices needed to dominate I. In this paper we investigate the computational complexity of independence domination for graphs in several graph classes related to cographs. We present an exact exponential algorithm. We also present a PTAS for planar graphs.
For a sequence $d$ of non-negative integers, let ${\cal F}(d)$ be the set of all forests whose degree sequence is $d$. We present closed formulas for $γ_{\max}^{\cal F}(d)=\max\{ γ(F):F\in {\cal F}(d)\}$ and $α_{\min}^{\cal F}(d)=\min\{ α(F):F\in {\cal F}(d)\}$ where $γ(F)$ and $α(F)$ are the domination number and the independence number of a forest $F$, respectively.
We determine the homotopy types of the independence complexes of the $(n \times 6)$-square grid graphs. In fact, we show that these complexes are homotopy equivalent to wedges of spheres.
We prove that the independence complexes of some grids have exponential Betti numbers. This corresponds to the number of ground states in the hard-core model in statistical physics with fermions in the vertices of the grid.
We show that if a graph $G$ involves a certain square grid graph as a full subgraph, then a certain operation on it yields a simplicial suspension of the independence complex of $G$. This generalizes a result of Csorba. As a corollary, we determine the simple homotopy types of the independence complexes of some grid graphs.
We show that the independence complexes of generalised Mycielskian of complete graphs are homotopy equivalent to a wedge sum of spheres, and determine the number of copies and the dimensions of these spheres. We also prove that the independence complexes of categorical product of complete graphs are wedge sum of circles, upto homotopy. Further, we show that if we perturb a graph $G$ in a certain way, then the independence complex of this new graph is homotopy equivalent to the suspension of the independence complex of $G$.
We introduce the notion of \textit{star cluster} of a simplex in a simplicial complex. This concept provides a general tool to study the topology of independence complexes of graphs. We use star clusters to answer a question arisen from works of Engström and Jonsson on the homotopy type of independence complexes of triangle-free graphs and to investigate a large number of examples which appear in the literature. We present an alternative way to study the chromatic number of a graph from a homotopical point of view and obtain new results regarding the connectivity of independence complexes.
In this article, we introduce the notion of a wedge of graphs and provide detailed computations for the independence complex of a wedge of path and cycle graphs. In particular, we show that these complexes are either contractible or wedges of spheres.
We study relations between diameter $D(G)$, domination number $γ(G)$, independence number $α(G)$ and cop number $c(G)$ of a connected graph $G$, showing (i.) $c(G) \leq α(G)-\lfloor \frac{D(G)-3}{2} \rfloor$, and (ii.) $c(G) \leq γ(G) - \frac{D(G)}{3} + O (\sqrt{D(G)})$.
TxGraffiti is an automated conjecturing program that produces graph theoretic conjectures in the form of conjectured inequalities. This program written and maintained by the second author since 2017 was inspired by the successes of previous automated conjecturing programs including Fajtlowicz's GRAFFITI and DeLaViña's GRAFFITI.pc. In this paper we prove and generalize several conjectures generated by TxGraffiti when it was prompted to conjecture on the \emph{independence number}, the \emph{domination number}, and the \emph{matching number} (and generalizations of each of these graph invariants…
The topology of the matching complex for the $2\times n$ grid graph is mysterious. We describe a discrete Morse matching for a family of independence complexes $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$ that include these matching complexes. Using this matching, we determine the dimensions of the chain spaces for the resulting Morse complexes and derive bounds on the location of non-trivial homology groups for certain $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$. Further, we determine the Euler characteristic of $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$ and prove that several homology groups of $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$ are non-zero.
The independence complex of a graph G is a simplicial complex whose simplices are the independent sets in G. In the last couple of decades, the independence complexes of square grids (with various boundary conditions) have gained much attention because of their connections with the hard square model from statistical physics. In this article, we prove that if G is an $m\times n$ grid with open or cylindrical boundary condition then its independence complex is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres. A part of this result settles a conjecture of Iriye.
For $r\geq 1$, the $r$-independence complex of a graph $G$ is a simplicial complex whose faces are subset $I \subseteq V(G)$ such that each component of the induced subgraph $G[I]$ has at most $r$ vertices. In this article, we determine the homotopy type of $r$-independence complexes of certain families of graphs including complete $s$-partite graphs, fully whiskered graphs, cycle graphs and perfect $m$-ary trees. In each case, these complexes are either homotopic to a wedge of equi-dimensional spheres or are contractible. We also give a closed form formula for their homotopy types.
We identify the mean growth of the independence number of random binary search trees and random recursive trees and show normal fluctuations around their means. Similarly we also show normal limit laws for the domination number and variations of it for these two cases of random tree models. Our results are an application of a recent general theorem of Holmgren and Janson on fringe trees in these two random tree models.
We construct several pairwise-incomparable bounds on the projective dimensions of edge ideals. Our bounds use combinatorial properties of the associated graphs; in particular we draw heavily from the topic of dominating sets. Through Hochster's Formula, these bounds recover and strengthen existing results on the homological connectivity of graph independence complexes.
The theory of complexes of directed trees was initiated by Kozlov to answer a question by Stanley, and later on, results from the theory were used by Babson and Kozlov in their proof of the Lovasz conjecture. We develop the theory and prove that complexes on directed acyclic graphs are shellable. A related concept is that of independence complexes: construct a simplicial complex on the vertex set of a graph, by including each independent set of vertices as a simplex. Two theorems used for breaking and gluing such complexes are proved and applied to generalize results by Kozlov. A fruitful rest…
Given a partition ${\mathcal V}=(V_1, \ldots,V_m)$ of the vertex set of a graph $G$, an {\em independent transversal} (IT) is an independent set in $G$ that contains one vertex from each $V_i$. A {\em fractional IT} is a non-negative real valued function on $V(G)$ that represents each part with total weight at least $1$, and belongs as a vector to the convex hull of the incidence vectors of independent sets in the graph. It is known that if the domination number of the graph induced on the union of every $k$ parts $V_i$ is at least $k$, then there is a fractional IT. We prove a weighted versio…
Let $\mathcal{H}$ be a hypergraph on a finite set $V$. A {\em cover} of $\mathcal{H}$ is a set of vertices that meets all edges of $\mathcal{H}$. If $W$ is not a cover of $\mathcal{H}$, then $W$ is said to be a {\em noncover} of $\mathcal{H}$. The {\em noncover complex} of $\mathcal{H}$ is the abstract simplicial complex whose faces are the noncovers of $\mathcal{H}$. In this paper, we study homological properties of noncover complexes of hypergraphs. In particular, we obtain an upper bound on their Leray numbers. The bound is in terms of hypergraph domination numbers. Also, our proof idea is …
A graph $G$ is said to be $k$-$γ_{c}$-critical if the connected domination number $γ_{c}(G) = k$ and $γ_{c}(G + uv) < k$ for every $uv \in E(\overline{G})$. Let $δ, κ$ and $α$ be respectively the minimum degree, the connectivity and the independence number. In this paper, we show that a $3$-$γ_{c}$-critical graph $G$ satisfies $α\leq κ+ 2$. Moreover, if $κ\geq 3$, then $α= κ+ p$ if and only if $α= δ+ p$ for all $p \in \{1, 2\}$. We show that the condition $κ+ 1 \leq α\leq κ+ 2$ is best possible to prove that $κ= δ$. By these result, we conclude our paper with an open problem on Hamiltonian con…
The independence complex $\mathrm{Ind}(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the simplicial complex formed by its independent sets. This article introduces a deformation of the simplicial boundary map of $\mathrm{Ind}(G)$ that gives rise to a double complex with trivial homology. Filtering this double complex in the right direction induces a spectral sequence that converges to zero and contains on its first page the homology of the independence complexes of $G$ and various subgraphs of $G$, obtained by removing independent sets and their neighborhoods from $G$. It is shown that this spectral sequence may be u…
For integers n\geq 1, k\geq 0, the stable Kneser graph SG_{n,k} (also called the Schrijver graph) has as vertex set the stable n-subsets of [2n+k] and as edges disjoint pairs of n-subsets, where a stable n-subset is one that does not contain any 2-subset of the form {i,i+1} or {1,2n+k}. The stable Kneser graphs have been an interesting object of study since the late 1970's when A. Schrijver determined that they are a vertex critical class of graphs with chromatic number k+2. This article contains a study of the independence complexes of SG_{n,k} for small values of n and k. Our contributions a…
The Grundy domination number, ${γ_{\rm gr}}(G)$, of a graph $G$ is the maximum length of a sequence $(v_1,v_2,\ldots, v_k)$ of vertices in $G$ such that for every $i\in \{2,\ldots, k\}$, the closed neighborhood $N[v_i]$ contains a vertex that does not belong to any closed neighborhood $N[v_j]$, where $j<i$. It is well known that the Grundy domination number of any graph $G$ is greater than or equal to the upper domination number $Γ(G)$, which is in turn greater than or equal to the independence number $α(G)$. In this paper, we initiate the study of the class of graphs $G$ with $Γ(G)={γ_{\rm gr…
A set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G = (V, E)$ is called {\em cycle independent} if the induced subgraph $\langle S\rangle$ is acyclic, and called {\em odd-cycle indepdendet} if $\langle S\rangle$ is bipartite. A set $S$ is {\em cycle dominating} (resp. {\em odd-cycle dominating}) if for every vertex $u \in V \setminus S$ there exists a vertex $v \in S$ such that $u$ and $v$ are contained in a (resp. odd cycle) cycle in $\langle S \setminus \{u\}\rangle$. A set $S$ is {\em cycle irredundant} (resp. odd-cycle irredundant) if for every vertex $v \in S$ there exists a vertex $u \in V \setminus S$ …
A dominating set in a graph $G$ is a set $S$ of vertices such that every vertex that does not belong to $S$ is adjacent to a vertex in $S$. The domination number $γ(G)$ of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a dominating set of $G$. The common independence number $α_c(G)$ of $G$ is the greatest integer $r$ such that every vertex of $G$ belongs to some independent set of cardinality at least~$r$. The common independence number is squeezed between the independent domination number $i(G)$ and the independence number $α(G)$ of $G$, that is, $γ(G) \le i(G) \le α_c(G) \le α(G)$. A graph $G$ is dominat…
In 1978, Kulli and Janakiram \citep{KulliJanakiramSplit} defined the split dominating set: a dominating set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G = (V, E)$ is called {\em split dominating} if the induced subgraph $\langle V \setminus S\rangle$ is either disconnected or a $K_1$. In this paper we introduce the properties split independence and split irredundance. A set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G =(V,E)$ is called a {\em split independent set} if $S$ is independent and the induced subgraph $\langle V \setminus S \rangle$ is either disconnected or a $K_1$. A set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G = (V,E)$ i…
We show that there are polynomial-time algorithms to compute maximum independent sets in the categorical products of two cographs and two splitgraphs. The ultimate categorical independence ratio of a graph G is defined as lim_{k --> infty} α(G^k)/n^k. The ultimate categorical independence ratio is polynomial for cographs, permutation graphs, interval graphs, graphs of bounded treewidth and splitgraphs. When G is a planar graph of maximal degree three then alpha(G \times K_4) is NP-complete. We present a PTAS for the ultimate categorical independence ratio of planar graphs. We present an O^*(n^…
A $k$-$γ_{c}$-edge critical graph is a graph $G$ with the connected domination number $γ_{c}(G) = k$ and $γ_{c}(G + uv) < k$ for every $uv \in E(\overline{G})$. Further, a $2$-connected graph $G$ is said to be $k$-$γ_{c}$-vertex critical if $γ_{c}(G) = k$ and $γ_{c}(G - v) < k$ for all $v \in V(G)$. A maximal $k$-$γ_{c}$-vertex critical graph is a graph which are both $k$-$γ_{c}$-edge critical and $k$-$γ_{c}$-vertex critical. Let $κ, δ, ω$ and $α$ be respectively connectivity minimum degree, clique number and independence number. In this paper, we prove that every maximal $3$-$γ_{c}$-vertex cr…
An independent dominating set of the simple graph $G=(V,E)$ is a vertex subset that is both dominating and independent in $G$. The independent domination polynomial of a graph $G$ is the polynomial $D_i(G,x)=\sum_{A} x^{|A|}$, summed over all independent dominating subsets $A\subseteq V$. A root of $D_i(G,x)$ is called an independence domination root. We investigate the independent domination polynomials of some generalized compound graphs. As consequences, we construct graphs whose independence domination roots are real. Also, we consider some certain graphs and study the number of their inde…
In this article, we define a family of regular bipartite graphs and show that the homotopy type of the independence complexes of this family is the wedge sum of spheres of certain dimensions.
We consider a certain class of simplicial complexes which includes the independence complexes of forests. We show that if a simplicial complex $K$ belongs to this class, then the polyhedral join $\mathcal{Z}^*_{K}(\underline{X}, \emptyset)$ is homotopy equivalent to a wedge sum of CW complexes of the form $Σ^r X_{i_1} * X_{i_2} * \cdots * X_{i_k}$, where $\underline{X}$ is a family $\{X_i\}_{i \in V(K)}$ of CW complexes and $Σ$ denotes the unreduced suspension. This result is applied to study the homotopy type of the independence complex of the lexicographic product $G[H]$ of a graph $H$ over …
For each finite simple graph $G$, Aharoni, Berger and Ziv consider a recursively defined number $ψ(G) \in \mathbb{Z}\cup \{+ \infty \}$ which gives a lower bound for the topological connectivity of the independence complex $I_G$. They conjecture that this bound is optimal for every graph. We use a result of recursion theory to give a short disproof of this claim.
We present a number of lower bounds for the h-vectors of k-CM, broken circuit and independence complexes. These lead to bounds on the coefficients of the characteristic and reliability polynomials of matroids. The main techniques are the use of series and parallel constructions on matroids and the short simplicial h-vector for pure complexes.
The bounded degree complex $BD(G,λ)$ is a generalization of the matching complexes of a graph. In this paper, we show that the bounded degree complex of a forest is shellable, by using independence complexes of hypergraphs. We obtain a wedge decomposition result of bounded degree complexes when a graph $G$ has a leaf
For a sequence $d$ of non-negative integers, let ${\cal G}(d)$ and ${\cal F}(d)$ be the sets of all graphs and forests with degree sequence $d$, respectively. Let $γ_{\min}(d)=\min\{ γ(G):G\in {\cal G}(d)\}$, $α_{\max}(d)=\max\{ α(G):G\in {\cal G}(d)\}$, $γ_{\min}^{\cal F}(d)=\min\{ γ(F):F\in {\cal F}(d)\}$, and $α_{\max}^{\cal F}(d)=\max\{ α(F):F\in {\cal F}(d)\}$ where $γ(G)$ is the domination number and $α(G)$ is the independence number of a graph $G$. Adapting results of Havel and Hakimi, Rao showed in 1979 that $α_{\max}(d)$ can be determined in polynomial time. We establish the existence…
We study the class of independence complexes of claw-free graphs. The main theorem give good bounds on the connectivity of these complexes, given bounds for a few subcomplexes of the same class. Two applications are presented. Firstly, we show that the independence complex of a claw-free graph with n vertices and maximal degree d is (cn/d+epsilon)-connected, where c=2/3. This can be compared with the result of Szabo and Tardos that c=1/2 is optimal with no restrictions on the graphs. Secondly, we calculate the connectivity of a family of complexes used in Babson and Kozlov's proof of Lovasz co…
We show that the independence complex of a chordal graph is contractible if and only if this complex is dismantlable (strong collapsible) and it is homotopy equivalent to a sphere if and only if its core is a cross-polytopal sphere. The proof uses the properties of tree models of chordal graphs.
In this paper, we investigate the relation between the (fractional) domination number of a digraph $G$ and the independence number of its underlying graph, denoted by $α(G)$. More precisely, we prove that every digraph $G$ has fractional domination number at most $2α(G)$, and every directed triangle-free digraph $G$ has domination number at most $α(G)\cdot α(G)!$. The first bound is sharp.
If $A$ is an independent set of a graph $G$ such that the vertices in $A$ have different degrees, then we call $A$ an irregular independent set of $G$. If $D$ is a dominating set of $G$ such that the vertices that are not in $D$ have different numbers of neighbours in $D$, then we call $D$ an irregular dominating set of $G$. The size of a largest irregular independent set of $G$ and the size of a smallest irregular dominating set of $G$ are denoted by $α_{ir}(G)$ and $γ_{ir}(G)$, respectively. We initiate the investigation of these two graph parameters. For each of them, we obtain sharp bounds…
Shelling orders are a ubiquitous tool used to understand invariants of cell complexes. Significant effort has been made to develop techniques to decide when a given complex is shellable. However, empirical evidence shows that some shelling orders are better than others. In this article, we explore this phenomenon in the case of matroid independence complexes. Based on a new relation between shellability of dual matroid polytopes and independence complexes, we outline a systematic way to investigate and compare different shellings orders. We explain how our new tools recast and deepen various c…
We study the independence complexes of families of well-covered circulant graphs discovered by Boros-Gurvich-Milanič, Brown-Hoshino, and Moussi. Because these graphs are well-covered, their independence complexes are pure simplicial complexes. We determine when these pure complexes have extra combinatorial (e.g. vertex decomposable, shellable) or topological (e.g. Cohen-Macaulay, Buchsbaum) structure. We also provide a table of all well-covered circulant graphs on 16 or less vertices, and for each such graph, determine if it is vertex decomposable, shellable, Cohen-Macaulay, and/or Buchsbaum. …
We study the behaviour of clique complexes of graphs under the operation of taking graph powers. As an example we compute the clique complexes of powers of cycles, or, in other words, the independence complexes of circular complete graphs.
Let $G$ be the circulant graph $C_n(S)$ with $S\subseteq\{ 1,\ldots,\left \lfloor\frac{n}{2}\right \rfloor\}$. We study the reduced Euler characteristic $\tildeχ$ of the independence complex $Δ(G)$ for $n=p^k$ with $p$ prime and for $n=2p^k$ with $p$ odd prime, proving that in both cases $\tildeχ$ does not vanish. We also give an example of circulant graph whose independence complex has $\tildeχ$ equals to $0$, giving a negative answer to R. Hoshino.
Eternal and m-eternal domination are concerned with using mobile guards to protect a graph against infinite sequences of attacks at vertices. Eternal domination allows one guard to move per attack, whereas more than one guard may move per attack in the m-eternal domination model. Inequality chains consisting of the domination, eternal domination, m-eternal domination, independence, and clique covering numbers of graph are explored in this paper. Among other results, we characterize bipartite and triangle-free graphs with domination and eternal domination numbers equal to two, trees with equal …
