Clique immersions in graphs of independence number two with certain forbidden subgraphs
Daniel A. Quiroz
备注：
14 pages, 3 figures. The statements of lemmas 3.1, 4.1, and 4.2 are slightly changed from the previous version in order to fix some minor errors in the proofs of theorems 3.2 and 4.3. Shorter proof of Proposition 5.2 given
The Lescure-Meyniel conjecture is the analogue of Hadwiger's conjecture for the immersion order. It states that every graph $G$ contains the complete graph $K_{χ(G)}$ as an immersion, and like its minor-order counterpart it is open even for graphs with independence number 2. We show that every graph $G$ with independence number $α(G)\ge 2$ and no hole of length between $4$ and $2α(G)$ satisfies this conjecture. In particular, every $C_4$-free graph $G$ with $α(G)= 2$ satisfies the Lescure-Meyniel conjecture. We give another generalisation of this corollary, as follows. Let $G$ and $H$ be graphs with independence number at most 2, such that $|V(H)|\le 4$. If $G$ is $H$-free, then $G$ satisfies the Lescure-Meyniel conjecture.
Building on recent work of Dvořák and Yepremyan, we show that every simple graph of minimum degree $7t+7$ contains $K_t$ as an immersion and that every graph with chromatic number at least $3.54t + 4$ contains $K_t$ as an immersion. We also show that every graph on $n$ vertices with no stable set of size three contains $K_{2\lfloor n/5 \rfloor}$ as an immersion.
Robertson and Seymour proved that the relation of graph immersion is well-quasi-ordered for finite graphs. Their proof uses the results of graph minors theory. Surprisingly, there is a very short proof of the corresponding rough structure theorem for graphs without $K_t$-immersions; it is based on the Gomory-Hu theorem. The same proof also works to establish a rough structure theorem for Eulerian digraphs without $\vec{K}_t$-immersions, where $\vec{K}_t$ denotes the bidirected complete digraph of order $t$.
How many cliques can a graph on $n$ vertices have with a forbidden substructure? Extremal problems of this sort have been studied for a long time. This paper studies the maximum possible number of cliques in a graph on $n$ vertices with a forbidden clique subdivision or immersion. We prove for $t$ sufficiently large that every graph on $n \geq t$ vertices with no $K_t$-immersion has at most $2^{t+\log^2 t}n$ cliques, which is sharp apart from the $2^{O(\log^2 t)}$ factor. We also prove that the maximum number of cliques in an $n$-vertex graph with no $K_t$-subdivision is at most $2^{1.817t}n$.…
A graph $G$ contains $H$ as an \emph{immersion} if there is an injective mapping $ϕ: V(H)\rightarrow V(G)$ such that for each edge $uv\in E(H)$, there is a path $P_{uv}$ in $G$ joining vertices $ϕ(u)$ and $ϕ(v)$, and all the paths $P_{uv}$, $uv\in E(H)$, are pairwise edge-disjoint. An analogue of Hadwiger's conjecture for the clique immersions by Lescure and Meyniel, and independently by Abu-Khzam and Langston, states that every graph $G$ contains $K_{χ(G)}$ as an immersion. We prove that for any constant $\varepsilon>0$ and integers $s,t\ge2$, there exists $d_0=d_0(\varepsilon,s,t)$ such that…
Let $G,H$ be graphs and $G*H$ represent a particular graph product of $G$ and $H$. We define $im(G)$ to be the largest $t$ such that $G$ has a $K_t$-immersion and ask: given $im(G)=t$ and $im(H)=r$, how large is $im(G*H)$? Best possible lower bounds are provided when $*$ is the Cartesian or lexicographic product, and a conjecture is offered for each of the direct and strong products, along with some partial results.
We prove that if $L(G)$ immerses $K_t$ then $L(mG)$ immerses $K_{mt}$, where $mG$ is the graph obtained from $G$ by replacing each edge in $G$ with a parallel edge of multiplicity $m$. This implies that when $G$ is a simple graph, $L(mG)$ satisfies a conjecture of Abu-Khzam and Langston. We also show that when $G$ is a line graph, $G$ has a $K_t$-immersion iff $G$ has a $K_t$-minor whenever $t\leq 4$, but this equivalence fails in both directions when $t \geq 5$.
We prove that for all positive integers $t$, every $n$-vertex graph with no $K_t$-subdivision has at most $2^{50t}n$ cliques. We also prove that asymptotically, such graphs contain at most $2^{(5+o(1))t}n$ cliques, where $o(1)$ tends to zero as $t$ tends to infinity. This strongly answers a question of D. Wood asking if the number of cliques in $n$-vertex graphs with no $K_t$-minor is at most $2^{ct}n$ for some constant $c$.
In the study of full bubble model graphs of bounded clique-width and bounded linear clique-width, we determined complete sets of forbidden induced subgraphs, that are minimal in the class of full bubble model graphs. In this note, we show that (almost all of) these graphs are minimal in the class of all graphs. As a corollary, we can give sets of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for graphs of bounded clique-width and for graphs of bounded linear clique-width for arbitrary bounds.
Given a graph $G$, the strong clique number $ω_2'(G)$ of $G$ is the cardinality of a largest collection of edges every pair of which are incident or connected by an edge in $G$. We study the strong clique number of graphs missing some set of cycle lengths. For a graph $G$ of large enough maximum degree $Δ$, we show among other results the following: $ω_2'(G)\le5Δ^2/4$ if $G$ is triangle-free; $ω_2'(G)\le3(Δ-1)$ if $G$ is $C_4$-free; $ω_2'(G)\leΔ^2$ if $G$ is $C_{2k+1}$-free for some $k\ge 2$. These bounds are attained by natural extremal examples. Our work extends and improves upon previous wo…
A result due to Gyárfás, Hubenko, and Solymosi (answering a question of Erdös) states that if a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices does not contain $K_{2,2}$ as an induced subgraph yet has at least $c\binom{n}{2}$ edges, then $G$ has a complete subgraph on at least $\frac{c^2}{10}n$ vertices. In this paper we suggest a "higher-dimensional" analogue of the notion of an induced $K_{2,2}$ which allows us to generalize their result to $k$-uniform hypergraphs. Our result also has an interesting consequence in discrete geometry. In particular, it implies that the fractional Helly theorem can be derived as a …
In this paper we deal with a Turán-type problem: given a positive integer n and a forbidden graph H, how many edges can there be in a graph on n vertices without a subgraph H? How does a graph look like if it has this extremal edge number? The forbidden graph in this article is a clique-path: a path of length k where each edge is extended to an r-clique, r >2. We determine both the extremal number and the extremal graphs for sufficiently large n.
The classical Hadwiger conjecture dating back to 1940's states that any graph of chromatic number at least $r$ has the clique of order $r$ as a minor. Hadwiger's conjecture is an example of a well studied class of problems asking how large a clique minor one can guarantee in a graph with certain restrictions. One problem of this type asks what is the largest size of a clique minor in a graph on $n$ vertices of independence number $α(G)$ at most $r$. If true Hadwiger's conjecture would imply the existence of a clique minor of order $n/α(G)$. Results of Kuhn and Osthus and Krivelevich and Sudako…
Every properly colored graph with $χ(G)=k$ colors has edge-disjoint Kempe "backbones", Kempe chains anchored by color-critical vertices for each pair of colors. Certain color permutations arrange these backbones into a clique-like structure, a strengthening of strong immersions of complete graphs. This strengthened immersion is suggested as a template for identifying the disjoint subgraphs comprising Hadwiger's conjectured $K_k$ minor present in $k$-chromatic graphs.
We present an easy structure theorem for graphs which do not admit an immersion of the complete graph. The theorem motivates the definition of a variation of tree decompositions based on edge cuts instead of vertex cuts which we call tree-cut decompositions. We give a definition for the width of tree-cut decompositions, and using this definition along with the structure theorem for excluded clique immersions, we prove that every graph either has bounded tree-cut width or admits an immersion of a large wall.
We discover new hereditary classes of graphs that are minimal (with respect to set inclusion) of unbounded clique-width. The new examples include split permutation graphs and bichain graphs. Each of these classes is characterised by a finite list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs. These, therefore, disprove a conjecture due to Daligault, Rao and Thomasse from 2010 claiming that all such minimal classes must be defined by infinitely many forbidden induced subgraphs. In the same paper, Daligault, Rao and Thomasse make another conjecture that every hereditary class of unbounded clique-width …
Here in particular, we give a characterization of Quasi-line Graphs in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs. In general, we prove a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph to be a union of two cliques.
We consider the problem of how much edge connectivity is necessary to force a graph G to contain a fixed graph H as an immersion. We show that if the maximum degree in H is D, then all the examples of D-edge connected graphs which do not contain H as a weak immersion must have a tree-like decomposition called a tree-cut decomposition of bounded width. If we consider strong immersions, then it is easy to see that there are arbitrarily highly edge connected graphs which do not contain a fixed clique K_t as a strong immersion. We give a structure theorem which roughly characterizes those highly e…
Let $\mathbf{k} := (k_1,\dots,k_s)$ be a sequence of natural numbers. For a graph $G$, let $F(G;\mathbf{k})$ denote the number of colourings of the edges of $G$ with colours $1,\dots,s$ such that, for every $c \in \{1,\dots,s\}$, the edges of colour $c$ contain no clique of order $k_c$. Write $F(n;\mathbf{k})$ to denote the maximum of $F(G;\mathbf{k})$ over all graphs $G$ on $n$ vertices. This problem was first considered by Erdős and Rothschild in 1974, but it has been solved only for a very small number of non-trivial cases. We prove that, for every $\mathbf{k}$ and $n$, there is a complete …
Given a graph $G$, the strong clique number of $G$, denoted $ω_S(G)$, is the maximum size of a set $S$ of edges such that every pair of edges in $S$ has distance at most $2$ in the line graph of $G$. As a relaxation of the renowned Erdős--Nešetřil conjecture regarding the strong chromatic index, Faudree et al. suggested investigating the strong clique number, and conjectured a quadratic upper bound in terms of the maximum degree. Recently, Cames van Batenburg, Kang, and Pirot conjectured a linear upper bound in terms of the maximum degree for graphs without even cycles. Namely, if $G$ is a $C_…
If a graph has no induced subgraph isomorphic to any graph in a finite family $\{H_1,\ldots,H_p\}$, it is said to be $(H_1,\ldots,H_p)$-free. The class of $H$-free graphs has bounded clique-width if and only if $H$ is an induced subgraph of the 4-vertex path $P_4$. We study the (un)boundedness of the clique-width of graph classes defined by two forbidden induced subgraphs $H_1$ and $H_2$. Prior to our study it was not known whether the number of open cases was finite. We provide a positive answer to this question. To reduce the number of open cases we determine new graph classes of bounded cli…
Zero forcing parameters, associated with graphs, have been studied for over a decade, and have gained popularity as the number of related applications grows. In particular, it is well-known that such parameters are related to certain vertex coverings. Continuing along these lines, we investigate positive zero forcing within the context of certain clique coverings. A key object considered here is the compressed cliques graph. We study a number of properties associated with the compressed cliques graph, including: uniqueness, forbidden subgraphs, connections to Johnson graphs, and positive zero …
Erdős and Szekeres's quantitative version of Ramsey's theorem asserts that any complete graph on n vertices that is edge-colored with two colors has a monochromatic clique on at least 1/2log(n) vertices. The famous Erdős-Hajnal conjecture asserts that forbidding fixed color patterns ensures larger monochromatic cliques. Specifically, it claims that for any fixed integer k and any clique K on k vertices edge-colored with two colors, there is a positive constant a such that in any complete n-vertex graph edge-colored with two colors that does not contain a copy of K, there is a monochromatic cli…
The critical ideals of a graph are the determinantal ideals of the generalized Laplacian matrix associated to a graph. In this article we provide a set of minimal forbidden graphs for the set of graphs with at most three trivial critical ideals. Then we use these forbidden graphs to characterize the graphs with at most three trivial critical ideals and clique number equal to 2 and 3.
Although the chromatic number of a graph is not known in general, attempts have been made to find good bounds for the number. Here we prove that for a graph G with two forbidden subgraphs and maximum degree less than or equal to 2ω - 3, χ equals its maximum clique size. We also give examples to show that the condition is necessary.
Motivated by an application in condensed matter physics and quantum information theory, we prove that every non-null even-hole-free claw-free graph has a simplicial clique, that is, a clique $K$ such that for every vertex $v \in K$, the set of neighbours of $v$ outside of $K$ is a clique. In fact, we prove the existence of a simplicial clique in a more general class of graphs defined by forbidden induced subgraphs.
Reed and Wood and independently Norine, Seymour, Thomas, and Wollan proved that for each positive integer $t$ there is a constant $c(t)$ such that every graph on $n$ vertices with no $K_t$-minor has at most $c(t)n$ cliques. Wood asked in 2007 if we can take $c(t) = c^t$ for some absolute constant $c$. This question was recently answered affirmatively by Lee and Oum. In this paper, we determine the exponential constant. We prove that every graph on $n$ vertices with no $K_t$-minor has at most $3^{2t/3+o(t)}n$ cliques. This bound is tight for $n \geq 4t/3$. More generally, let $H$ be a connected…
In 1976 Erdos, Kleitman and Rothschild determined the number of graphs without a clique of size $\ell$. In this note we extend their result to the case of forbidden cliques of increasing size. More precisely we prove that for $\ell_n \le \frac12(\log n)^{1/4}$ there are $$2^{(1-1/(\ell_n-1))n^2/2+o(n^2/\ell_n)}$$ $K_{\ell_n}$-free graphs of order $n$. Our proof is based on the recent hypergraph container theorems of Saxton, Thomason and Balogh, Morris, Samotij, in combination with a theorem of Lovasz and Simonovits.
Daligault, Rao and Thomassé asked whether a hereditary class of graphs well-quasi-ordered by the induced subgraph relation has bounded clique-width. Lozin, Razgon and Zamaraev recently showed that this is not true for classes defined by infinitely many forbidden induced subgraphs. However, in the case of finitely many forbidden induced subgraphs the question remains open and we conjecture that in this case the answer is positive. The conjecture is known to hold for classes of graphs defined by a single forbidden induced subgraph $H$, as such graphs are well-quasi-ordered and are of bounded cli…
An immersion of a graph $H$ into a graph $G$ is a one-to-one mapping $f:V(H) \to V(G)$ and a collection of edge-disjoint paths in $G$, one for each edge of $H$, such that the path $P_{uv}$ corresponding to edge $uv$ has endpoints $f(u)$ and $f(v)$. The immersion is strong if the paths $P_{uv}$ are internally disjoint from $f(V(H))$. It is proved that for every positive integer $t$, every simple graph of minimum degree at least $200t$ contains a strong immersion of the complete graph $K_t$. For dense graphs one can say even more. If the graph has order $n$ and has $2cn^2$ edges, then there is a…
We study the complexity of the Graph Isomorphism problem on graph classes that are characterized by a finite number of forbidden induced subgraphs, focusing mostly on the case of two forbidden subgraphs. We show hardness results and develop techniques for the structural analysis of such graph classes, which applied to the case of two forbidden subgraphs give the following results: A dichotomy into isomorphism complete and polynomial-time solvable graph classes for all but finitely many cases, whenever neither of the forbidden graphs is a clique, a pan, or a complement of these graphs. Further …
Treewidth is an important graph invariant, relevant for both structural and algorithmic reasons. A necessary condition for a graph class to have bounded treewidth is the absence of large cliques. We study graph classes closed under taking induced subgraphs in which this condition is also sufficient, which we call $(tw,ω)$-bounded. Such graph classes are known to have useful algorithmic applications related to variants of the clique and $k$-coloring problems. We consider six well-known graph containment relations: the minor, topological minor, subgraph, induced minor, induced topological minor,…
Let $A\subset\mathbb{R}_{>0}$ be a finite set of distances, and let $G_{A}(\mathbb{R}^{n})$ be the graph with vertex set $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ and edge set $\{(x,y)\in\mathbb{R}^{n}:\ \|x-y\|_{2}\in A\}$, and let $χ(\mathbb{R}^{n},A)=χ\left(G_{A}(\mathbb{R}^{n})\right)$. Erdős asked about the growth rate of the $m$-distance chromatic number \[ \barχ(\mathbb{R}^{n};m)=\max_{|A|=m}χ(\mathbb{R}^{n},A). \] We improve the best existing lower bound for $\barχ(\mathbb{R}^{n};m)$, and show that \[ \barχ(\mathbb{R}^{n};m)\geq\left(Γ_χ\sqrt{m+1}+o(1)\right)^{n} \] where $Γ_χ=0.79983\dots$ is an explicit cons…
A cycle-transversal of a graph G is a subset T of V(G) such that T intersects every cycle of G. A clique cycle-transversal, or cct for short, is a cycle-transversal which is a clique. Recognizing graphs which admit a cct can be done in polynomial time; however, no structural characterization of such graphs is known. We characterize distance-hereditary graphs admitting a cct in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs. This extends similar results for chordal graphs and cographs.
We consider the structure of $H$-free subgraphs of graphs with high minimal degree. We prove that for every $k>m$ there exists an $ε:=ε(k,m)>0$ so that the following holds. For every graph $H$ with chromatic number $k$ from which one can delete an edge and reduce the chromatic number, and for every graph $G$ on $n>n_0(H)$ vertices in which all degrees are at least $(1-ε)n$, any subgraph of $G$ which is $H$-free and contains the maximum number of copies of the complete graph $K_m$ is $(k-1)$-colorable. We also consider several extensions for the case of a general forbidden graph $H$ of a given …
We characterise the pairs of graphs $\{ X, Y \}$ such that all $\{ X, Y \}$-free graphs (distinct from $C_5$) are perfect. Similarly, we characterise pairs $\{ X, Y \}$ such that all $\{ X, Y \}$-free graphs (distinct from $C_5$) are $ω$-colourable (that is, their chromatic number is equal to their clique number). More generally, we show characterizations of pairs $\{ X, Y \}$ for perfectness and $ω$-colourability of all connected $\{ X, Y \}$-free graphs which are of independence at least $3$, distinct from an odd cycle, and of order at least $n_0$, and similar characterisations subject to ea…
Given a graph $G$, the Hadwiger number of $G$, denoted by $h(G)$, is the largest integer $k$ such that $G$ contains the complete graph $K_k$ as a minor. A hole in $G$ is an induced cycle of length at least four. Hadwiger's Conjecture from 1943 states that for every graph $G$, $h(G)\ge χ(G)$, where $χ(G)$ denotes the chromatic number of $G$. In this paper we establish more evidence for Hadwiger's conjecture by showing that if a graph $G$ with independence number $α(G)\ge3$ has no hole of length between $4$ and $2α(G)-1$, then $h(G)\geχ(G)$. We also prove that if a graph $G$ with independence nu…
We analyze the asymptotic extremal growth rate of the Betti numbers of clique complexes of graphs on n vertices not containing a fixed forbidden induced subgraph H. In particular, we prove a theorem of the alternative: for any H the growth rate achieves exactly one of five possible exponentials, that is, independent of the field of coefficients, the nth root of the maximal total Betti number over n-vertex graphs with no induced copy of H has a limit, as n tends to infinity, and, ranging over all H, exactly five different limits are attained. For the interesting case where H is the 4-cycle, the…
A graph is strongly perfect if every induced subgraph H has a stable set that meets every nonempty maximal clique of H. The characterization of strongly perfect graphs by a set of forbidden induced subgraphs is not known. Here we provide several new minimal non-strongly-perfect graphs.
