Cut vertices are often used as a measure of nodes' importance within a network. They are those nodes whose failure disconnects a graph. Let N(G) be the number of connected induced subgraphs of a graph $G$. In this work, we investigate the maximum of N(G) where $G$ is a unicyclic graph with $n$ nodes of which $c$ are cut vertices. For all valid $n,c$, we give a full description of those maximal (that maximise N(.)) unicyclic graphs. It is found that there are generally two maximal unicyclic graphs. For infinitely many values of $n,c$, however, there is a unique maximal unicyclic graph with $n$ nodes and $c$ cut vertices. In particular, the well-known negative correlation between the number of connected induced subgraphs of trees and the Wiener index (sum of distances) fails for unicyclic graphs with $n$ nodes and $c$ cut vertices: for instance, the maximal unicyclic graph with $n=3,4\mod 5$ nodes and $c=n-5>3$ cut vertices is different from the unique graph that was shown by Tan et al.~[{\em The Wiener index of unicyclic graphs given number of pendant vertices or cut vertices}. J. Appl. Math. Comput., 55:1--24, 2017] to minimise the Wiener index. Our main characterisation of maximal unicyclic graphs with respect to the number of connected induced subgraphs also applies to unicyclic graphs with $n$ nodes, $c$ cut vertices and girth at most $g>3$, since it is shown that the girth of every maximal graph with $n$ nodes and $c$ cut vertices cannot exceed $4$.
Over all graphs (or unicyclic graphs) of a given order, we characterise those graphs that minimise or maximise the number of connected induced subgraphs. For each of these classes, we find that the graphs that minimise the number of connected induced subgraphs coincide with those that are known to maximise the Wiener index (the sum of the distances between all unordered pairs of vertices), and vice versa. For every $k$, we also determine the connected graphs that are extremal with respect to the number of $k$-vertex connected induced subgraphs. We show that, in contrast to the minimum which is…
The metric (resp. edge metric) dimension of a simple connected graph $G$, denoted by dim$(G)$ (resp. edim$(G)$), is the cardinality of a smallest vertex subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ for which every two distinct vertices (resp. edges) in $G$ have distinct distances to a vertex of $S$. It is an interesting topic to discuss the relation between dim$(G)$ and edim$(G)$ for some class of graphs $G$. In this paper, we settle two open problems on this topic for a widely studied class of graphs, called unicyclic graphs. Specifically, we introduce four classes of subgraphs to characterize the structure of a…
The generalized Ramsey number $R(H, K)$ is the smallest positive integer $n$ such that for any graph $G$ with $n$ vertices either $G$ contains $H$ as a subgraph or its complement $\overline{G}$ contains $K$ as a subgraph. Let $T_n$ be a tree with $n$ vertices and $F_m$ be a fan with $2m + 1$ vertices consisting of $m$ triangles sharing a common vertex. We prove a conjecture of Zhang, Broersma and Chen for $m \ge 9$ that $R(T_n, F_m) = 2n - 1$ for all $n \ge m^2 - m + 1$. Zhang, Broersma and Chen showed that $R(S_n, F_m) \ge 2n$ for $n \le m^2 -m$ where $S_n$ is a star on $n$ vertices, implying…
Motivated in part by an observation that the zero forcing number for the complement of a tree on $n$ vertices is either $n-3$ or $n-1$ in one exceptional case, we consider the zero forcing number for the complement of more general graphs under some conditions, particularly those that do not contain complete bipartite subgraphs. We also move well beyond trees and completely study all of the possible zero forcing numbers for the complements of unicyclic graphs and cactus graphs.
For a graph $G,$ we denote the number of connected subgraphs of $G$ by $F(G)$. For a tree $T$, $F(T)$ has been studied extensively and it has been observed that $F(T)$ has a reverse correlation with Wiener index of $T$. Based on that, we call $F(G),$ the core index of $G$. In this paper, we characterize the graphs which extremize the core index among all graphs on $n$ vertices with $k\geq 0$ connected components. We extend our study of core index to unicyclic graphs and connected graphs with fixed number of pendant vertices. We obtained the unicyclic graphs which extremize the core index over …
Let $Γ=(K_{n},H^-)$ be a signed complete graph whose negative edges induce a subgraph $H$. The index of $Γ$ is the largest eigenvalue of its adjacency matrix. In this paper we study the index of $Γ$ when $H$ is a unicyclic graph. We show that among all signed complete graphs of order $n>5$ whose negative edges induce a unicyclic graph of order $k$ and maximizes the index, the negative edges induce a triangle with all remaining vertices being pendant at the same vertex of the triangle.
Various models to quantify the reliability of a network have been studied where certain components of the graph may fail at random and the probability that the remaining graph is connected is the proxy for reliability. In this work we introduce a strengthening of one of these models by considering the probability that the remaining graph is not just connected but also cop-win. A graph is cop-win if one cop can guarantee capture of a fleeing robber in the well-studied pursuit-evasion game of Cops and Robber. More precisely, for a graph $G$ with nodes that are operational independently with prob…
In a graph G; a vertex (resp. an edge) metric generator is a set of vertices S such that any pair of vertices (resp. edges) from G is distinguished by at least one vertex from S: The cardinality of a smallest vertex (resp. edge) metric generator is the vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension of G: In [19] we determined the vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension of unicyclic graphs and that it takes its value from two consecutive integers. Therein, several cycle configurations were introduced and the vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension takes the greater of the two consecutive values only if any of …
A vertex whose removal in a graph $G$ increases the number of components of $G$ is called a cut vertex. For all $n,c$, we determine the maximum number of connected induced subgraphs in a connected graph with order $n$ and $c$ cut vertices, and also characterise those graphs attaining the bound. Moreover, we show that the cycle has the smallest number of connected induced subgraphs among all cut vertex-free connected graphs. The general case $c>0$ remains an open task. We also characterise the extremal graph structures given both order and number of pendant vertices, and establish the correspon…
Let $η(G)$ be the number of connected induced subgraphs in a graph $G$, and $\overline{G}$ the complement of $G$. We prove that $η(G)+η(\overline{G})$ is minimum, among all $n$-vertex graphs, if and only if $G$ has no induced path on four vertices. Since the $n$-vertex star $S_n$ with maximum degree $n-1$ is the unique tree of diameter $2$, $η(S_n)+η(\overline{S_n})$ is minimum among all $n$-vertex trees, while the maximum is shown to be achieved only by the tree whose degree sequence is $(\lceil n/2\rceil,\lfloor n/2\rfloor,1,\dots,1)$. Furthermore, we prove that every graph $G$ of order $n\g…
A spanning tree of a graph is a connected subgraph on all vertices with the minimum number of edges. The number of spanning trees in a graph $G$ is given by Matrix Tree Theorem in terms of principal minors of Laplacian matrix of $G$. We show a similar combinatorial interpretation for principal minors of signless Laplacian $Q$. We also prove that the number of odd cycles in $G$ is less than or equal to $\frac{\det(Q)}{4}$, where the equality holds if and only if $G$ is a bipartite graph or an odd-unicyclic graph.
A graph is $1$-planar if it has a drawing in the plane such that each edge is crossed at most once by another edge. Moreover, if this drawing has the additional property that for each crossing of two edges the end vertices of these edges induce a complete subgraph, then the graph is locally maximal $1$-planar. For a $3$-connected locally maximal $1$-planar graph $G$, we show the existence of a spanning $3$-connected planar subgraph and prove that $G$ is hamiltonian if $G$ has at most three $3$-vertex-cuts, and that $G$ is traceable if $G$ has at most four $3$-vertex-cuts. Moreover, infinitely …
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…
Instituto de Matemática Aplicada San Luis, Universidad Nacional de San Luis and CONICET（圣路易斯应用数学研究所，圣路易斯国立大学及阿根廷国家科学研究委员会）；Departamento de Matemática, Universidad Nacional de San Luis（数学系，圣路易斯国立大学）
A vertex set $D$ of a graph $G$ is said to be a dominating set if every vertex of $V(G)\setminus D$ is adjacent to at least a vertex in $D$, and the domination number $γ(G)$ ($γ$, for short) is the minimum cardinality of all dominating sets of $G$. For a graph, the least $Q$-eigenvalue is the least eigenvalue of its signless Laplacian matrix. In this paper, for a nonbipartite graph with both order $n$ and domination number $γ$, we show that $n\geq 3γ-1$, and show that it contains a unicyclic spanning subgraph with the same domination number $γ$. By investigating the relation between the domina…
In Partition Into Complementary Subgraphs (Comp-Sub) we are given a graph $G=(V,E)$, and an edge set property $Π$, and asked whether $G$ can be decomposed into two graphs, $H$ and its complement $\overline{H}$, for some graph $H$, in such a way that the edge cut $[V(H),V(\overline{H})]$ satisfies the property $Π$. Motivated by previous work, we consider Comp-Sub($Π$) when the property $Π=\mathcal{PM}$ specifies that the edge cut of the decomposition is a perfect matching. We prove that Comp-Sub($\mathcal{PM}$) is GI-hard when the graph $G$ is $\{C_{k\geq 7}, \overline{C}_{k\geq 7} \}$-free. On…
For a graph $G$, let $f_2(G)$ denote the largest number of vertices in a $2$-regular subgraph of $G$. We determine the minimum of $f_2(G)$ over $3$-regular $n$-vertex simple graphs $G$. To do this, we prove that every $3$-regular multigraph with exactly $c$ cut-edges has a $2$-regular subgraph that omits at most $\max\{0,\lfloor (c-1)/2\rfloor\}$ vertices. More generally, every $n$-vertex multigraph with maximum degree $3$ and $m$ edges has a $2$-regular subgraph that omits at most $\max\{0,\lfloor (3n-2m+c-1)/2\rfloor\}$ vertices. These bounds are sharp; we describe the extremal multigraphs.
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.
For a graph $G$, the tree graph ${\cal T}_{G,t}$ has all tree subgraphs of $G$ with $t$ vertices as vertex set and two tree subgraphs are neighbors if they are edge-disjoint. Also, the $r^{th}$ cut number of $G$ is the minimum number of edges between parts of a partition of vertex set of $G$ into two parts such that each part has size at least $r$. We show that if $t=(1-o(1))n$ and $n$ is large enough, then for any dense graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, the chromatic number of the tree graph ${\cal T}_{G,t}$ is equal to the $(n-t+1)^{th}$ cut number of $G$. In particular, as a consequence, we prov…
A graph {\it has cutwidth at most 2} if one can number its vertices by $1,\ldots n$ so that for every $i=1,\ldots,n-1$ there are at most 2 edges $(u,v)$ such that $u\le i<v$. A characterization of graphs having cutwidth at most 2 in terms of prohibited subgraphs was obtained by Y. Lin, A. Yang. We present an alternative characterization of such graphs in terms of universal graph.
We prove that there is a constant $c >0$, such that whenever $p \ge n^{-c}$, with probability tending to 1 when $n$ goes to infinity, every maximum triangle-free subgraph of the random graph $G_{n,p}$ is bipartite. This answers a question of Babai, Simonovits and Spencer (Journal of Graph Theory, 1990). The proof is based on a tool of independent interest: we show, for instance, that the maximum cut of almost all graphs with $M$ edges, where $M >> n$, is ``nearly unique''. More precisely, given a maximum cut $C$ of $G_{n,M}$, we can obtain all maximum cuts by moving at most $O(\sqrt{n^3/M})$ v…
Treewidth is a parameter that emerged from the study of minor closed classes of graphs (i.e. classes closed under vertex and edge deletion, and edge contraction). It in some sense describes the global structure of a graph. Roughly, a graph has treewidth $k$ if it can be decomposed by a sequence of noncrossing cutsets of size at most $k$ into pieces of size at most $k+1$. The study of hereditary graph classes (i.e. those closed under vertex deletion only) reveals a different picture, where cutsets that are not necessarily bounded in size (such as star cutsets, 2-joins and their generalization) …
The Hosoya polynomial of a graph encompasses many of its metric properties, for instance the Wiener index (alias average distance) and the hyper-Wiener index. An expression is obtained that reduces the computation of the Hosoya polynomials of a graph with cut vertices to the Hosoya polynomial of the so-called primary subgraphs. The main theorem is applied to specific constructions including bouquets of graphs, circuits of graphs and link of graphs. This is in turn applied to obtain the Hosoya polynomial of several chemically relevant families of graphs. In this way numerous known results are g…
We consider sufficient conditions for the existence of $k$-th powers of Hamiltonian cycles in $n$-vertex graphs $G$ with minimum degree $μn$ for arbitrarily small $μ>0$. About 20 years ago Komlós, Sarközy, and Szemerédi resolved the conjectures of Pósa and Seymour and obtained optimal minimum degree conditions for this problem by showing that $μ=\frac{k}{k+1}$ suffices for large $n$. For smaller values of $μ$ the given graph $G$ must satisfy additional assumptions. We show that inducing subgraphs of density $d>0$ on linear subsets of vertices and being inseparable, in the sense that every cut …
A set $X$ of vertices of a graph $G$ is called a {\em clique cut} of $G$ if the subgraph of $G$ induced by $X$ is a complete graph and the number of connected components of $G-X$ is greater than that of $G$. A clique cut $X$ of $G$ is called a {\em chordal cut} of $G$ if there exists a union $U$ of connected components of $G-X$ such that $G[U \cup X]$ is a chordal graph. In this paper, we consider the following problem: Given a graph $G$, does the graph have a chordal cut? We show that $K_{2,2,2}$-free hole-edge-disjoint graphs have chordal cuts if they satisfy a certain condition.
Extremal problems concerning the number of independent sets or complete subgraphs in a graph have been well studied in recent years. Cutler and Radcliffe proved that among graphs with $n$ vertices and maximum degree at most $r$, where $n = a(r+1)+b$ and $0 \le b \le r$, $aK_{r+1}\cup K_b$ has the maximum number of complete subgraphs, answering a question of Galvin. Gan, Loh, and Sudakov conjectured that $aK_{r+1}\cup K_b$ also maximizes the number of complete subgraphs $K_t$ for each fixed size $t \ge 3$, and proved this for $a = 1$. Cutler and Radcliffe proved this conjecture for $r \le 6$. W…
We discuss the recently introduced concept of k-in-out graphs, and provide a construction for k-in-out graphs for any positive integer k. We derive a lower bound for the number of vertices of a k-in-out graph for any positive integer k, and demonstrate that our construction meets this bound in all cases. For even k, we also prove our construction is optimal with respect to the number of edges, and results in a planar graph. Among the possible uses of in-out graphs, they can convert the generalized traveling salesman problem to the asymmetric traveling salesman problem, avoiding the "big M" iss…
Combinatorial explanation of the weighted Kirchhoff index of graphs
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Gansu Center for Applied Mathematics, Lanzhou University（兰州大学数学与统计学院、甘肃省应用数学中心）；Department of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences)（齐鲁工业大学（山东省科学院）数学与人工智能学院）
Given a set $ξ=\{H_1,H_2,...\}$ of connected non acyclic graphs, a $ξ$-free graph is one which does not contain any member of $% ξ$ as copy. Define the excess of a graph as the difference between its number of edges and its number of vertices. Let ${\gr{W}}_{k,ξ}$ be theexponential generating function (EGF for brief) of connected $ξ$-free graphs of excess equal to $k$ ($k \geq 1$). For each fixed $ξ$, a fundamental differential recurrence satisfied by the EGFs ${\gr{W}}_{k,ξ}$ is derived. We give methods on how to solve this nonlinear recurrence for the first few values of $k$ by means of grap…
Truemper configurations (thetas, pyramids, prisms, and wheels) have played an important role in the study of complex hereditary graph classes (e.g. the class of perfect graphs and the class of even-hole-free graphs), appearing both as excluded configurations, and as configurations around which graphs can be decomposed. In this paper, we study the structure of graphs that contain (as induced subgraphs) no Truemper configurations other than (possibly) universal wheels and twin wheels. We also study several subclasses of this class. We use our structural results to analyze the complexity of the r…
For an ordered subset $W = \{w_1, w_2,\dots w_k\}$ of vertices and a vertex $u$ in a connected graph $G$, the representation of $u$ with respect to $W$ is the ordered $k$-tuple $ r(u|W)=(d(v,w_1), d(v,w_2),\dots,$ $d(v,w_k))$, where $d(x,y)$ represents the distance between the vertices $x$ and $y$. The set $W$ is a local metric generator for $G$ if every two adjacent vertices of $G$ have distinct representations. A minimum local metric generator is called a \emph{local metric basis} for $G$ and its cardinality the \emph{local metric dimension} of G. We show that the computation of the local me…
Given a set $\Sg$ of bipartitions of some finite set $X$ of cardinality at least 2, one can associate to $\Sg$ a canonical $X$-labeled graph $\B(\Sg)$, called the Buneman graph. This graph has several interesting mathematical properties - for example, it is a median network and therefore an isometric subgraph of a hypercube. It is commonly used as a tool in studies of DNA sequences gathered from populations. In this paper, we present some results concerning the {\em cut vertices} of $\B(\Sg)$, i.e., vertices whose removal disconnect the graph, as well as its {\em blocks} or 2-{\em connected co…
We consider sequences of graphs and define various notions of convergence related to these sequences: ``left convergence'' defined in terms of the densities of homomorphisms from small graphs into the graphs of the sequence, and ``right convergence'' defined in terms of the densities of homomorphisms from the graphs of the sequence into small graphs; and convergence in a suitably defined metric. In Part I of this series, we show that left convergence is equivalent to convergence in metric, both for simple graphs, and for graphs with nodeweights and edgeweights. One of the main steps here is th…
Let $G$ be a connected graph. Given an ordered set $W = \{w_1, w_2,\dots w_k\}\subseteq V(G)$ and a vertex $u\in V(G)$, the representation of $u$ with respect to $W$ is the ordered $k$-tuple $(d(u,w_1), d(u,w_2),\dots,$ $d(u,w_k))$, where $d(u,w_i)$ denotes the distance between $u$ and $w_i$. The set $W$ is a metric generator for $G$ if every two different vertices of $G$ have distinct representations. A minimum cardinality metric generator is called a \emph{metric basis} of $G$ and its cardinality is called the \emph{metric dimension} of G. It is well known that the problem of finding the met…
One of the main questions that arise when studying random and quasi-random structures is which properties P are such that any object that satisfies P "behaves" like a truly random one. In the context of graphs, Chung, Graham, and Wilson call a graph p-quasi-random} if it satisfies a long list of the properties that hold in G(n,p) with high probability, like edge distribution, spectral gap, cut size, and more. Our main result here is that the following holds for any fixed graph H: if the distribution of induced copies of H in a graph G is close (in a well defined way) to the distribution we wou…
The cut-rank of a set $X$ of vertices in a graph $G$ is defined as the rank of the $ X \times (V(G)\setminus X)$ matrix over the binary field whose $(i,j)$-entry is $1$ if the vertex $i$ in $X$ is adjacent to the vertex $j$ in $V(G)\setminus X$ and $0$ otherwise. We introduce the graph parameter called the average cut-rank of a graph, defined as the expected value of the cut-rank of a random set of vertices. We show that this parameter does not increase when taking vertex-minors of graphs and a class of graphs has bounded average cut-rank if and only if it has bounded neighborhood diversity. T…
Cut ideals, introduced by Sturmfels and Sullivant, are used in phylogenetics and algebraic statistics. We study the minimal free resolutions of cut ideals of tree graphs. By employing basic methods from topological combinatorics, we obtain upper bounds for the Betti numbers of this type of ideals. These take the form of simple formulas on the number of vertices, which arise from the enumeration of induced subgraphs of certain incomparability graphs associated to the edge sets of trees.
The \emph{graph grabbing game} is a two-player game on a weighted connected graph in which two players, Alice and Bob, alternatively remove non-cut vertices one by one to gain the weights on them. Alice wins the game if she gains at least half of the total weights. In this paper, we show that on every connected even graph which does contain a fully spiked cycle as an induced subgraph, Alice always has a winning strategy with an arbitrary weight function whose codomain is $\{0,1\}$. In addition, we give a list of forbidden subgraph for the family of graphs on which Alice has a winning strategy …
