We address the six vertex model on a random lattice, which in combinatorial terms corresponds to the enumeration of weighted 4-valent planar maps equipped with an Eulerian orientation. This problem was exactly, albeit non-rigorously solved by Ivan Kostov in 2000 using matrix integral techniques. We convert Kostov's work to a combinatorial argument involving functional equations coming from recursive decompositions of the maps, which we solve rigorously using complex analysis. We then investigate modular properties of the solution, which lead to simplifications in certain special cases. In particular, in two special cases of combinatorial interest we rederive the formulae discovered by Bousquet-Mélou and the first author.
It is a celebrated result in early combinatorics that, in bipartite graphs, the size of maximum matching is equal to the size of a minimum vertex cover. Kőnig's proof of this fact gave an algorithm for finding a minimum vertex cover from a maximum matching. In this paper, we revisit the connection this algorithm induces between the two types of structures. We find that all minimum vertex covers can be found by applying this algorithm to some matching and then classify which matchings give minimum vertex covers when this algorithm is applied to them.
We connect twisted vertex operator presentation of Hall-Littlewood polynomials with the action of charged free fermions, describe a boson-fermion correspondence that relates twisted vertex operators with classical Heisenberg algebra. We also show that the elements of the orthogonal to Schur functions basis of the one-parameter deformation of the ring of symmetric functions $Λ[t]$ are $τ$-functions of KP hierarchy.
Thomassen (1994) proved that every planar graph is 5-choosable. This result was generalised by {Š}krekovski (1998) and He et al. (2008), who proved that every $K_5$-minor-free graph is 5-choosable. Both proofs rely on the characterisation of $K_5$-minor-free graphs due to Wagner (1937). This paper proves the same result without using Wagner's structure theorem or even planar embeddings. Given that there is no structure theorem for graphs with no $K_6$-minor, we argue that this proof suggests a possible approach for attacking the Hadwiger Conjecture.
We give a simple geometric interpretation of an algebraic construction of Wenger that yields $n$-vertex graphs with no cycle of length $4$, $6$ or $10$ and close to the maximum number of edges.
We initiate a systematic study of the fractional vertex-arboricity of planar graphs and demonstrate connections to open problems concerning both fractional coloring and the size of the largest induced forest in planar graphs. In particular, the following three long-standing conjectures concern the size of a largest induced forest in a planar graph, and we conjecture that each of these can be generalized to the setting of fractional vertex-arboricity. In 1979, Albertson and Berman conjectured that every planar graph has an induced forest on at least half of its vertices, in 1987, Akiyama and Wa…
We prove that every triangulation of either of the torus, projective plane and Klein bottle, contains a vertex-spanning planar Laman graph as a subcomplex. Invoking a result of Kir{á}ly, we conclude that every $1$-skeleton of a triangulation of a surface of nonnegative Euler characteristic has a rigid realization in the plane using at most 26 locations for the vertices.
For a planar graph with a given f-vector $(f_{0}, f_{1}, f_{2}),$ we introduce a cubic polynomial whose coefficients depend on the f-vector. The planar graph is said to be real if all the roots of the corresponding polynomial are real. Thus we have a bipartition of all planar graphs into two disjoint class of graphs, real and complex ones. As a contribution toward a full recognition of planar graphs in this bipartition, we study and recognize completely a subclass of planar graphs that includes all the connected grid subgraphs. Finally, all the 2-connected triangle-free complex planar graphs o…
We compute the distance-dependent two-point function of vertex-bicolored planar maps, i.e., maps whose vertices are colored in black and white so that no adjacent vertices have the same color. By distance-dependent two-point function, we mean the generating function of these maps with both a marked oriented edge and a marked vertex which are at a prescribed distance from each other. As customary, the maps are enumerated with arbitrary degree-dependent face weights, but the novelty here is that we also introduce color-dependent vertex weights. Explicit expressions are given for vertex-bicolored…
A graph is $(k_1,k_2)$-colorable if its vertex set can be partitioned into a graph with maximum degree at most $k_1$ and and a graph with maximum degree at most $k_2$. We show that every $(C_3,C_4,C_6)$-free planar graph is $(0,6)$-colorable. We also show that deciding whether a $(C_3,C_4,C_6)$-free planar graph is $(0,3)$-colorable is NP-complete.
Let $G_1$ be a planar graph such that all cycles of length at most 4 are independent and let $G_2$ be a planar graph without 3-cycles and adjacent 4-cycles. It is proved that the set of vertices of $G_1$ and $G_2$ can be equitably partitioned into $t$ subsets for every $t\geq 3$ so that each subset induces a forest. These results partially confirm a conjecture of Wu, Zhang and Li.
The Erdős--Faber--Lovász Conjecture, posed in 1972, states that if a graph $G$ is the union of $n$ cliques of order $n$ (referred to as defining $n$-cliques) such that two cliques can share at most one vertex, then the vertices of $G$ can be properly coloured using $n$ colours. Although still open after almost 50 years, it can be easily shown that the conjecture is true when every shared vertex belongs to exactly two defining $n$-cliques. We here provide a quick and easy algorithm to colour the vertices of $G$ in this case, and discuss connections with clique-decompositions and edge-colourings…
Given a graph G and k pairs of vertices (s_1,t_1), ..., (s_k,t_k), the k-Vertex-Disjoint Paths problem asks for pairwise vertex-disjoint paths P_1, ..., P_k such that P_i goes from s_i to t_i. Schrijver [SICOMP'94] proved that the k-Vertex-Disjoint Paths problem on planar directed graphs can be solved in time n^{O(k)}. We give an algorithm with running time 2^{2^{O(k^2)}} n^{O(1)} for the problem, that is, we show the fixed-parameter tractability of the problem.
A feedback vertex set of a graph is a subset of vertices intersecting all cycles. We provide tight upper bounds on the size of a minimum feedback vertex set in planar graphs of girth at least five. We prove that if $G$ is a connected planar graph of girth at least five on $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, then $G$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{2m-n+2}{7}$. By Euler's formula, this implies that $G$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{m}{5}$ and $\frac{n-2}{3}$. These results not only improve a result of Dross, Montassier and Pinlou and confirm the girth-5 case of one o…
Let $G$ be a directed planar graph of complexity $n$, each arc having a nonnegative length. Let $s$ and $t$ be two distinct faces of $G$; let $s_1,...,s_k$ be vertices incident with $s$; let $t_1,...,t_k$ be vertices incident with $t$. We give an algorithm to compute $k$ pairwise vertex-disjoint paths connecting the pairs $(s_i,t_i)$ in $G$, with minimal total length, in $O(kn\log n)$ time.
In the problem of 2-coloring without monochromatic triangles (or triangle-tree 2-coloring), vertices of the simple, connected, undirected graph are colored with either 'black' or 'white' such that there are no 3 mutually adjacent vertices of the same color. In this paper we are positively answering the question posed in our previous work, namely, if there exists an algorithm solving 2-coloring without monochromatic triangles on planar graphs with linear-time complexity.
Ehrenborg noted that all tilings of a bipartite planar graph are encoded by its cubical matching complex and claimed that this complex is collapsible. We point out to an oversight in his proof and explain why these complexes can be the union of collapsible complexes. Also, we prove that all links in these complexes are suspensions up to homotopy. Furthermore, we extend the definition of a cubical matching complex to planar graphs that are not necessarily bipartite, and show that these complexes are either contractible or a disjoint union of contractible complexes. For a simple connected region…
At IPEC 2020, Bergougnoux, Bonnet, Brettell, and Kwon showed that a number of problems related to the classic Feedback Vertex Set (FVS) problem do not admit a $2^{o(k \log k)} \cdot n^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$-time algorithm on graphs of treewidth at most $k$, assuming the Exponential Time Hypothesis. This contrasts with the $3^{k} \cdot k^{\mathcal{O}(1)} \cdot n$-time algorithm for FVS using the Cut&Count technique. During their live talk at IPEC 2020, Bergougnoux et al.~posed a number of open questions, which we answer in this work. - Subset Even Cycle Transversal, Subset Odd Cycle Transversal, Sub…
We prove a general multi-dimensional central limit theorem for the expected number of vertices of a given degree in the family of planar maps whose vertex degrees are restricted to an arbitrary (finite or infinite) set of positive integers D. Our results rely on a classical bijection with mobiles (objects exhibiting a tree structure), combined with refined analytic tools to deal with the systems of equations on infinite variables that arise. We also discuss some possible extension to maps of higher genus.
Let $G$ be a directed planar graph on $n$ vertices, with no directed cycle of length less than $g\ge 4$. We prove that $G$ contains a set $X$ of vertices such that $G-X$ has no directed cycle, and $|X|\le \tfrac{5n-5}9$ if $g=4$, $|X|\le \tfrac{2n-5}4$ if $g=5$, and $|X|\le \tfrac{2n-6}{g}$ if $g\ge 6$. This improves recent results of Golowich and Rolnick.
We prove a general multi-dimensional central limit theorem for the expected number of vertices of a given degree in the family of planar maps whose vertex degrees are restricted to an arbitrary (finite or infinite) set of positive integers $D$. Our results rely on a classical bijection with mobiles (objects exhibiting a tree structure), combined with refined analytic tools to deal with the systems of equations on infinite variables that arise. We also discuss possible extensions to maps of higher genus and to weighted maps.
In 1880, P. G. Tait showed that the four colour theorem is equivalent to the assertion that every 3-regular planar graph without cut-edges is 3-edge-colourable, and in 1891, J. Petersen proved that every 3-regular graph with at most two cut-edges has a 1-factor. In this paper, we introduce the notion of collapsing all edges of a 1-factor of a 3-regular planar graph, thereby obtaining what we call a vertex-oriented 4-regular planar graph. We also introduce the notion of o-colouring a vertex-oriented 4-regular planar graph, and we prove that the four colour theorem is equivalent to the assertion…
We show that every $n$-vertex planar graph admits a simultaneous embedding with no mapping and with fixed edges with any $(n/2)$-vertex planar graph. In order to achieve this result, we prove that every $n$-vertex plane graph has an induced outerplane subgraph containing at least $n/2$ vertices. Also, we show that every $n$-vertex planar graph and every $n$-vertex planar partial 3-tree admit a simultaneous embedding with no mapping and with fixed edges.
A graph is well-covered if all its maximal independent sets are of the same size (M. D. Plummer, 1970). A well-covered graph is 1-well-covered if the deletion of every vertex leaves a graph which is well-covered as well (J. W. Staples, 1975). A graph G belongs to class W_{n} if every n pairwise disjoint independent sets in G are included in $n$ pairwise disjoint maximum independent sets (J. W. Staples, 1975). Clearly, W_{1} is the family of all well-covered graphs. It turns out that G belongs to W_{2} if and only if it is a 1-well-covered graph without isolated vertices. We show that deleting …
Let $O_{m+1}$ denote the Odd graph on a set of cardinality $2m+1$, where $m$ is a positive integer. Denote by $X$ its vertex set and by $T:=T(x_0)$ its Terwilliger algebra with respect to any fixed vertex $x_0\in X$. In this paper, we first prove that $T$ coincides with the centralizer algebra of the stabilizer of $x_0$ in the automorphism group of $O_{m+1}$ by considering the action of this automorphism group on $X\times X\times X$. Then we give the decomposition of $T$ for $m\geq 3$ by using all the homogeneous components of $V:=\mathbb{C}^X$, each of which is a nonzero subspace of $V$ spann…
A (vertex) $\ell$-ranking is a colouring $φ:V(G)\to\mathbb{N}$ of the vertices of a graph $G$ with integer colours so that for any path $u_0,\ldots,u_p$ of length at most $\ell$, $φ(u_0)\neqφ(u_p)$ or $φ(u_0)<\max\{φ(u_0),\ldots,φ(u_p)\}$. We show that, for any fixed integer $\ell\ge 2$, every $n$-vertex planar graph has an $\ell$-ranking using $O(\log n/\log\log\log n)$ colours and this is tight even when $\ell=2$; for infinitely many values of $n$, there are $n$-vertex planar graphs, for which any 2-ranking requires $Ω(\log n/\log\log\log n)$ colours. This result also extends to bounded genu…
A subset of vertices of a graph is minimal if, within all subsets of the same size, its vertex boundary is minimal. We give a complete, geometric characterization of minimal sets for the planar integer lattice X. Our characterization elucidates the structure of all minimal sets, and we are able to use it to obtain several applications. We characterize uniquely minimal sets of X: those which are congruent to any other minimal set of the same size. We also classify all efficient sets of X: those that have maximal size amongst all such sets with a fixed vertex boundary. We define and investigate …
A graph is path-pairable if for any pairing of its vertices there exist edge-disjoint paths joining the vertices in each pair. We investigate the behaviour of the maximum degree in path-pairable planar graphs. We show that any $n$-vertex path-pairable planar graph must contain a vertex of degree linear in $n$.
The {\em planar Turán number} of $H$, denoted by $ex_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H)$, is the maximum number of edges in an $H$-free planar graph. The planar Turán number of $k\geq 3$ vertex-disjoint union of cycles is a trivial value $3n-6$. Lan, Shi and Song determine the exact value of $ex_{\mathcal{P}}(n,2C_3)$. We continue to study planar Turán number of vertex-disjoint union of cycles and obtain the exact value of $ex_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H)$, where $H$ is vertex-disjoint union of $C_3$ and $C_4$. The extremal graphs are also characterized. We also improve the lower bound of $ex_{\mathcal{P}}(n,2C_k)$ whe…
We study the statistics of edges and vertices in the vicinity of a reference vertex (origin) within random planar quadrangulations and Eulerian triangulations. Exact generating functions are obtained for theses graphs with fixed numbers of edges and vertices at given geodesic distances from the origin. Our analysis relies on bijections with labeled trees, in which the labels encode the information on the geodesic distance from the origin. In the case of infinitely large graphs, we give in particular explicit formulas for the probabilities that the origin have given numbers of neighboring edges…
The spread of a graph $G$ is the difference between the largest and smallest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of $G$. Gotshall, O'Brien and Tait conjectured that for sufficiently large $n$, the $n$-vertex outerplanar graph with maximum spread is the graph obtained by joining a vertex to a path on $n-1$ vertices. In this paper, we disprove this conjecture by showing that the extremal graph is the graph obtained by joining a vertex to a path on $\lceil (2n-1)/3\rceil$ vertices and $\lfloor(n-2)/3\rfloor$ isolated vertices. For planar graphs, we show that the extremal $n$-vertex planar graph at…
Cubic planar $n$-vertex graphs with faces of length at most $6$, e.g., fullerene graphs, have diameter in $Ω(\sqrt{n})$. It has been suspected, that a similar result can be shown for cubic planar graphs with faces of bounded length. This note provides a family of cubic planar $n$-vertex graphs with faces of length at most $7$ and diameter in ${O}(\log n)$, thus refuting the above suspicion.
A graph $G$ is $d$-degenerate if every non-null subgraph of $G$ has a vertex of degree at most $d$. We prove that every $n$-vertex planar graph has a $3$-degenerate induced subgraph of order at least $3n/4$.
We give here new upper bounds on the size of a smallest feedback vertex set in planar graphs with high girth. In particular, we prove that a planar graph with girth $g$ and size $m$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{4m}{3g}$, improving the trivial bound of $\frac{2m}{g}$. We also prove that every $2$-connected graph with maximum degree $3$ and order $n$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $\frac{n+2}{3}$.
We consider embeddings of planar graphs in $R^2$ where vertices map to points and edges map to polylines. We refer to such an embedding as a polyline drawing, and ask how few bends are required to form such a drawing for an arbitrary planar graph. It has long been known that even when the vertex locations are completely fixed, a planar graph admits a polyline drawing where edges bend a total of $O(n^2)$ times. Our results show that this number of bends is optimal. In particular, we show that $Ω(n^2)$ total bends is required to form a polyline drawing on any set of fixed vertex locations for al…
In 1979, Hakimi and Schmeichel considered the problem of maximizing the number of cycles of a given length in an $n$-vertex planar graph. They precisely determined the maximum number of triangles and $4$-cycles and presented a conjecture for the maximum number of pentagons. In this work, we confirm their conjecture. Even more, we characterize the $n$-vertex, planar graphs with the maximum number of pentagons.
Fan-planar graphs were recently introduced as a generalization of 1-planar graphs. A graph is fan-planar if it can be embedded in the plane, such that each edge that is crossed more than once, is crossed by a bundle of two or more edges incident to a common vertex. A graph is outer-fan-planar if it has a fan-planar embedding in which every vertex is on the outer face. If, in addition, the insertion of an edge destroys its outer-fan-planarity, then it is maximal outer-fan-planar. In this paper, we present a polynomial-time algorithm to test whether a given graph is maximal outer-fan-planar. The…
The Wiener index of a connected graph is the sum of the distances between all pairs of vertices in the graph. It was conjectured that the Wiener index of an $n$-vertex maximal planar graph is at most $\lfloor\frac{1}{18}(n^3+3n^2)\rfloor$. We prove this conjecture and for every $n$, $n \geq 10$, determine the unique $n$-vertex maximal planar graph for which this maximum is attained.
Steinberg and Tovey proved that every n-vertex planar triangle-free graph has an independent set of size at least (n+1)/3, and described an infinite class of tight examples. We show that all n-vertex planar triangle-free graphs except for this one infinite class have independent sets of size at least (n+2)/3.
In this paper, we show that every planar graph without $4$-cycles and $6$-cycles has a partition of its vertex set into two sets, where one set induces a forest, and the other induces a forest with maximum degree at most $2$ (equivalently, a disjoint union of paths). Note that we can partition the vertex set of a forest into two independent sets. However, a pair of independent sets combined may not induce a forest. Thus our result extends the result of Wang and Xu (2013) stating that the vertex set of every planar graph without $4$-cycles and $6$-cycles can be partitioned into three sets, wher…
In \cite{listnoC3adjC4}), Borodin and Ivanova proved that every planar graph without $4$-cycles adjacent to $3$-cycle is list vertex-$2$-aborable. In fact, they proved a more general result. Inspired by these results and DP-coloring which becomes a widely studied topic, we introduce a generalization on variable degeneracy including list vertex arboricity. We use this notion to extend a general result by Borodin and Ivanova. Not only that this theorem implies results about planar graphs without $4$-cycles adjacent to $3$-cycle by Borodin and Ivanova, it implies many other results including a re…
An edge-colored graph $G$ is rainbow connected if any two vertices are connected by a path whose edges have distinct colors. The rainbow connection number of a connected graph $G$, denoted by $rc(G)$, is the smallest number of colors that are needed in order to make $G$ rainbow connected. It was proved that computing $rc(G)$ is an NP-Hard problem, as well as that even deciding whether a graph has $rc(G)=2$ is NP-Complete. It is known that deciding whether a given edge-colored graph is rainbow connected is NP-Complete. We will prove that it is still NP-Complete even when the edge-colored graph …
We show that there exists an adjacency labelling scheme for planar graphs where each vertex of an $n$-vertex planar graph $G$ is assigned a $(1+o(1))\log_2 n$-bit label and the labels of two vertices $u$ and $v$ are sufficient to determine if $uv$ is an edge of $G$. This is optimal up to the lower order term and is the first such asymptotically optimal result. An alternative, but equivalent, interpretation of this result is that, for every $n$, there exists a graph $U_n$ with $n^{1+o(1)}$ vertices such that every $n$-vertex planar graph is an induced subgraph of $U_n$. These results generalize…
A digraph is 2-regular if every vertex has both indegree and outdegree two. We define an embedding of a 2-regular digraph to be a 2-cell embedding of the underlying graph in a closed surface with the added property that for every vertex~$v$, the two edges directed away from $v$ are not consecutive in the local rotation around $v$. In other words, at each vertex the incident edges are oriented in-out-in-out. The goal of this article is to provide an analogue of Whitney's theorem on planar embeddings in the setting of 2-regular digraphs. In the course of doing so, we note that Tutte's Theorem on…
A $d$-defective $k$-painting game on a graph $G$ is played by two players: Lister and Painter. Initially, each vertex is uncolored and has $k$ tokens. In each round, Lister marks a chosen set $M$ of uncolored vertices and removes one token from each marked vertex. In response, Painter colors vertices in a subset $X$ of $M$ which induce a subgraph $G[X]$ of maximum degree at most $d$. Lister wins the game if at the end of some round there is an uncolored vertex that has no more tokens left. Otherwise, all vertices eventually get colored and Painter wins the game. We say that $G$ is $d$-defectiv…
Bootstrap percolation on a graph with infection threshold $r\in \mathbb{N}$ is an infection process, which starts from a set of initially infected vertices and in each step every vertex with at least $r$ infected neighbours becomes infected. We consider bootstrap percolation on the binomial random graph $G(n,p)$, which was investigated among others by Janson, Łuczak, Turova and Valier (2012). We improve their results by strengthening the probability bounds for the number of infected vertices at the end of the process.
The Cartesian product of P_2 and P_n is called an n-ladder graph for a positive integer n. We call two paths P_m and P_n together with some edges each of which joins a vertex on P_m and a vertex on P_n a generalized (m,n)-ladder graph. In this paper, we completely characterize the planar generalized ladder graphs and the outerplanar generalized ladder graphs. A functigraph C(P_n ,f) is a generalized (n,n)-ladder graph. Consequently, our result solves the problem posed by A. Chen et al. (2011) to characterize planar functigraphs C(P_n ,f).
The reconfiguration graph $R_k(G)$ for the $k$-colorings of a graph $G$ has as vertex set the set of all possible proper $k$-colorings of $G$ and two colorings are adjacent if they differ in the color of exactly one vertex. A result of Bousquet and Perarnau (2016) regarding graphs of bounded degeneracy implies that if $G$ is a planar graph with $n$ vertices, then $R_{12}(G)$ has diameter at most $6n$. We improve on the number of colors, showing that $R_{10}(G)$ has diameter at most $8n$ for every planar graph $G$ with $n$ vertices.
