We give a simple combinatorial description of an $(n-2k+2)$-chromatic edge-critical subgraph of the Schrijver graph $\mathrm{SG}(n,k)$, itself an induced vertex-critical subgraph of the Kneser graph $\mathrm{KG}(n,k)$. This extends the main result of [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 144 (2020) 191--196] to all values of $k$, and sharpens the classical results of Lovász and Schrijver from the 1970s.
Schrijver graphs are vertex-color-critical subgraphs of Kneser graphs having the same chromatic number. They also share the value of their fractional chromatic number but Schrijver graphs are not critical for that. Here we present an induced subgraph of every Schrijver graph that is vertex-critical with respect to the fractional chromatic number. These subgraphs turn out to be isomorphic with certain circular complete graphs. We also characterize the critical edges within this subgraph.
For $k\geq 1$ and $n\geq 2k$, the Kneser graph $KG(n,k)$ has all $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set as vertices; two such subsets are adjacent if they are disjoint. It was first proved by Lovász that the chromatic number of $KG(n,k)$ is $n-2k+2$. Schrijver constructed a vertex-critical subgraph $SG(n,k)$ of $KG(n,k)$ with the same chromatic number. For the stronger notion of criticality defined in terms of removing edges, however, no analogous construction is known except in trivial cases. We provide such a construction for $k=2$ and arbitrary $n\geq 4$ by means of a nice explicit combi…
We give an elementary proof for the non-$3$-colorability of $4$-chromatic Schrijver graphs thus providing such a proof also for $4$-chromatic Kneser graphs. To this end we use a complete description of the structure of $4$-chromatic Schrijver graphs that was already given by Braun and even earlier in an unpublished manuscript by Li. We also address connections to surface quadrangulations. In particular, we show that a spanning subgraph of $4$-chromatic Schrijver graphs quadrangulates the Klein bottle, while another spanning subgraph quadrangulates the projective plane. The latter is a special …
A Kneser graph $KG_{n,k}$ is a graph whose vertices are in one-to-one correspondence with $k$-element subsets of $[n],$ with two vertices connected if and only if the corresponding sets do not intersect. A famous result due to Lovász states that the chromatic number of a Kneser graph $KG_{n,k}$ is equal to $n-2k+2$. In this paper we study the chromatic number of a random subgraph of a Kneser graph $KG_{n,k}$ as $n$ grows. A random subgraph $KG_{n,k}(p)$ is obtained by including each edge of $KG_{n,k}$ with probability $p$. For a wide range of parameters $k = k(n), p = p(n)$ we show that $χ(KG_…
In a recent paper [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B}, 113 (2015), pp. 1-17], the authors have extended the concept of quadrangulation of a surface to higher dimension, and showed that every quadrangulation of the $n$-dimensional projective space $P^n$ is at least $(n+2)$-chromatic, unless it is bipartite. They conjectured that for any integers $k\geq 1$ and $n\geq 2k+1$, the Schrijver graph $SG(n,k)$ contains a spanning subgraph which is a quadrangulation of $P^{n-2k}$. The purpose of this paper is to prove the conjecture.
For $k \geq 1$ and $n \geq 2k$, the well known Kneser graph $\operatorname{KG}(n,k)$ has all $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set as vertices; two such subsets are adjacent if they are disjoint. Schrijver constructed a vertex-critical subgraph $\operatorname{SG}(n,k)$ of $\operatorname{KG}(n,k)$ with the same chromatic number. In this paper, we compute the diameter of the graph $\operatorname{SG}(2k+r,k)$ with $r \geq 1$. We obtain an exact value of the diameter of $\operatorname{SG}(2k+r,k)$ when $r \in \{1,2\}$ or when $r \geq k-3$. For the remained cases, when $3 \leq r \leq k-4$, we o…
Investigating the equality of the chromatic number and the circular chromatic number of graphs has been an active stream of research for last decades. In this regard, Habolhassan and Zhu [Circular chromatic number of Kneser graphs, Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series B, 2003] proved that if $n$ is sufficiently large with respect to $k$, then the Schrijver graph ${\rm SG}(n,k)$ has the same chromatic and circular chromatic number. Later, Meunier [A topological lower bound for the circular chromatic number of Schrijver graphs, Journal of Graph Theory, 2005] and independently, Simonyi and Tard…
The goal of this short paper to advertise the method of gauge transformations (aka holographic reduction, reparametrization) that is well-known in statistical physics and computer science, but less known in combinatorics. As an application of it we give a new proof of a theorem of A. Schrijver asserting that the number of Eulerian orientations of a $d$--regular graph on $n$ vertices with even $d$ is at least $\left(\frac{\binom{d}{d/2}}{2^{d/2}}\right)^n$. We also show that a $d$--regular graph with even $d$ has always at least as many Eulerian orientations as $(d/2)$--regular subgraphs.
The subject of this work is the study of $\LS_+$-perfect graphs defined as those graphs $G$ for which the stable set polytope $\stab(G)$ is achieved in one iteration of Lovász-Schrijver PSD-operator $\LS_+$, applied to its edge relaxation $\estab(G)$. In particular, we look for a polyhedral relaxation of $\stab(G)$ that coincides with $\LS_+(\estab(G))$ and $\stab(G)$ if and only if $G$ is $\LS_+$-perfect. An according conjecture has been recently formulated ($\LS_+$-Perfect Graph Conjecture); here we verify it for the well-studied class of claw-free graphs.
In an earlier paper, the present authors (2013) introduced the altermatic number of graphs and used Tucker's Lemma, an equivalent combinatorial version of the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem, to show that the altermatic number is a lower bound for the chromatic number. A matching graph has the set of all matchings of a specified size of a graph as vertex set and two vertices are adjacent if the corresponding matchings are edge-disjoint. It is known that the Kneser graphs, the Schrijver graphs, and the permutation graphs can be represented by matching graphs. In this paper, as a generalization of the well-…
Schrijver identified a family of vertex critical subgraphs of the Kneser graphs called the stable Kneser graphs $SG_{n,k}$. Björner and de Longueville proved that the neighborhood complex of the stable Kneser graph $SG_{n,k}$ is homotopy equivalent to a $k-$sphere. In this article, we prove that the homotopy type of the neighborhood complex of the Kneser graph $KG_{2,k}$ is a wedge of $(k+4)(k+1)+1$ spheres of dimension $k$. We construct a maximal subgraph $S_{2,k}$ of $KG_{2,k}$, whose neighborhood complex is homotopy equivalent to the neighborhood complex of $SG_{2,k}$. Further, we prove tha…
The abstract induced subgraph poset of a graph is the isomorphism class of the induced subgraph poset of the graph, suitably weighted by subgraph counting numbers. The abstract bond lattice and the abstract edge-subgraph poset are defined similarly by considering the lattice of subgraphs induced by connected partitions and the poset of edge-subgraphs, respectively. Continuing our development of graph reconstruction theory on these structures, we show that if a graph has no isolated vertices, then its abstract bond lattice and the abstract induced subgraph poset can be constructed from the abst…
Solving a conjecture of M. H. Freedman, L. Lovász and A. Schrijver we prove that a graph parameter is edge reflection positive and multiplicative if and only if it can be represented by an edge coloring model.
In 1995, Galvin proved that a bipartite graph $G$ admits a list edge coloring if every edge is assigned a color list of length $Δ(G)$, the maximum degree of the graph. This result was improved by Borodin, Kostochka and Woodall, who proved that $G$ still admits a list edge coloring if every edge $e=st$ is assigned a list of $\max\{d_{G}(s), d_{G}(t)\}$ colors. Recently, Iwata and Yokoi provided the list supermodular coloring theorem, that extends Galvin's result to the setting of Schrijver's supermodular coloring. This paper provides a common generalization of these two extensions of Galvin's r…
In this article, the author proposes a new approach for the estimating of the number of edges in induced subgraphs of a special distance graph. Author significantly improves previous estimates and suggests a new approach to obtaining better ones.
Let $G=(V,E)$ be a complete $n$-vertex graph with distinct positive edge weights. We prove that for $k\in\{1,2,...,n-1\}$, the set consisting of the edges of all minimum spanning trees (MSTs) over induced subgraphs of $G$ with $n-k+1$ vertices has at most $nk-\binom{k+1}{2}$ elements. This proves a conjecture of Goemans and Vondrak \cite{GV2005}. We also show that the result is a generalization of Mader's Theorem, which bounds the number of edges in any edge-minimal $k$-connected graph.
Symmetric edge polytopes, a.k.a. PV-type adjacency polytopes, associated with undirected graphs have been defined and studied in several seemingly independent areas including number theory, discrete geometry, and dynamical systems. In particular, the authors are motivated by the study of the algebraic Kuramoto equations of unmixed form whose Newton polytopes are the symmetric edge polytopes. The interplay between the geometric structure of symmetric edge polytopes and the topological structure of the underlying graphs has been a recurring theme in recent studies. In particular, ``facet/face su…
A subgraph of an edge-coloured complete graph is called rainbow if all its edges have different colours. In 1980 Hahn conjectured that every properly edge-coloured complete graph $K_n$ has a rainbow Hamiltonian path. Although this conjecture turned out to be false, it was widely believed that such a colouring always contains a rainbow cycle of length almost $n$. In this paper, improving on several earlier results, we confirm this by proving that every properly edge-coloured $K_n$ has a rainbow cycle of length $n-O(n^{3/4})$. One of the main ingredients of our proof, which is of independent int…
We prove that a.a.s. the maximum size of an induced subtree of the binomial random graph $G(n,p)$ is concentrated in 2 consecutive points. We also prove that, given a non-negative integer-valued function $t(k)<\varepsilon k^2$, under a certain smoothness condition on this function, a.a.s. the maximum size $k$ of an induced subgraph with exactly $t(k)$ edges of $G(n,p)$ is concentrated in 2 consecutive points as well.
In this paper we further our understanding of the structure of class two cubic graphs, or snarks, as they are commonly known. We do this by investigating their 3-critical subgraphs, or as we will call them, minimal conflicting subgraphs. We consider how the minimal conflicting subgraphs of a snark relate to its possible minimal 4-edge-colourings. We fully characterise the relationship between the resistance of a snark and the set of minimal conflicting subgraphs. That is, we show that the resistance of a snark is equal to the minimum number of edges which can be selected from the snark, such t…
The Ascending Subgraph Decomposition (ASD) Conjecture asserts that every graph $G$ with ${n+1\choose 2}$ edges admits an edge decomposition $G=H_1\oplus\cdots \oplus H_n$ such that $H_i$ has $i$ edges and it is isomorphic to a subgraph of $H_{i+1}$, $i=1,\ldots ,n-1$. We show that every bipartite graph $G$ with ${n+1\choose 2}$ edges such that the degree sequence $d_1,\ldots ,d_k$ of one of the stable sets satisfies $ d_{k-i}\ge n-i\; \text{for each}\; 0\le i\le k-1,$, admits an ascending subgraph decomposition with star forests. We also give a necessary condition on the degree sequence which …
Erdős posed the problem of finding conditions on a graph $G$ that imply the largest number of edges in a triangle-free subgraph is equal to the largest number of edges in a bipartite subgraph. We generalize this problem to general cases. Let $δ_r$ be the least number so that any graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with minimum degree $δ_rn$ has the property $P_{r-1}(G)=K_rf(G),$ where $P_{r-1}(G)$ is the largest number of edges in an $(r-1)$-partite subgraph and $K_rf(G)$ is the largest number of edges in a $K_r$-free subgraph. We show that $\frac{3r-4}{3r-1}<δ_r\le\frac{4(3r-7)(r-1)+1}{4(r-2)(3r-4)}$ w…
The well-known 1-2-3 Conjecture asserts that the edges of every graph without isolated edges can be weighted with $1$, $2$ and $3$ so that adjacent vertices receive distinct weighted degrees. This is open in general. We prove that every $d$-regular graph, $d\geq 2$, can be decomposed into at most $2$ subgraphs (without isolated edges) fulfilling the 1-2-3 Conjecture if $d\notin\{10,11,12,13,15,17\}$, and into at most $3$ such subgraphs in the remaining cases. Additionally, we prove that in general every graph without isolated edges can be decomposed into at most $24$ subgraphs fulfilling the 1…
Let Delta>1 be a fixed integer. We show that the random graph G(n,p) with p>>(log n/n)^{1/Delta} is robust with respect to the containment of almost spanning bipartite graphs H with maximum degree Delta and sublinear bandwidth in the following sense: asymptotically almost surely, if an adversary deletes arbitrary edges in G(n,p) such that each vertex loses less than half of its neighbours, then the resulting graph still contains a copy of all such H.
We prove that for every integer $r\geq 2$, an $n$-vertex $k$-uniform hypergraph $H$ containing no $r$-regular subgraphs has at most $(1+o(1)){{n-1}\choose{k-1}}$ edges if $k\geq r+1$ and $n$ is sufficiently large. Moreover, if $r\in\{3,4\}$, $r\mid k$ and $k,n$ are both sufficiently large, then the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $k$-uniform hypergraph containing no $r$-regular subgraphs is exactly ${{n-1} \choose {k-1}}$, with equality only if all edges contain a specific vertex $v$. We also ask some related questions.
Let $K$ be a complete graph of order $n$. For $d\in (0,1)$, let $c$ be a $\pm 1$-edge labeling of $K$ such that there are $d{n\choose 2}$ edges with label $+1$, and let $G$ be a spanning subgraph of $K$ of maximum degree at most $Δ$. We prove the existence of an isomorphic copy $G'$ of $G$ in $K$ such that the number of edges with label $+1$ in $G'$ is at least $\left(c_{d,Δ}-O\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)\right)m(G)$, where $c_{d,Δ}=d+Ω\left(\frac{1}Δ\right)$ for fixed $d$, that is, this number visibly deviates from its expected value when considering a uniformly random copy of $G$ in $K$. For $d=…
Mader proved that for $k\geq 2$ and $n\geq 2k$, every $n$-vertex graph with no $(k+1)$-connected subgraphs has at most $(1+\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}})k(n-k)$ edges. He also conjectured that for $n$ large with respect to $k$, every such graph has at most $\frac{3}{2}\left(k - \frac{1}{3}\right)(n-k)$ edges. Yuster improved Mader's upper bound to $\frac{193}{120}k(n-k)$ for $n\geq\frac{9k}{4}$. In this note, we make the next step towards Mader's Conjecture: we improve Yuster's bound to $\frac{19}{12}k(n-k)$ for $n\geq\frac{5k}{2}$.
In this paper we modify slightly Razborov's flag algebra machinery to be suitable for the hypercube. We use this modified method to show that the maximum number of edges of a 4-cycle-free subgraph of the n-dimensional hypercube is at most 0.6068 times the number of its edges. We also improve the upper bound on the number of edges for 6-cycle-free subgraphs of the n-dimensional hypercube from the square root of 2 - 1 to 0.3755 times the number of its edges. Additionally, we show that if the n-dimensional hypercube is considered as a poset, then the maximum vertex density of three middle layers …
Compared to the classical binomial random (hyper)graph model, the study of random regular hypergraphs is made more challenging due to correlations between the occurrence of different edges. We develop an edge-switching technique for hypergraphs which allows us to show that these correlations are limited for a large range of densities. This extends some previous results of Kim, Sudakov and Vu for graphs. From our results we deduce several corollaries on subgraph counts in random $d$-regular hypergraphs. We also prove a conjecture of Dudek, Frieze, Ruciński and Šileikis on the threshold for the …
Given a simple graph $G$, a poset of its even subgraphs was firstly considered by S. Choi and H. Park to study the topology of a real toric manifold associated with $G$. S. Choi and the authors extended this to a graph allowing multiple edges, motivated by the work on the pseudograph associahedron of Carr, Devadoss and Forcey. In this paper, we completely characterize the graphs (allowing multiple edges) whose posets of even subgraphs are always shellable. By the result, we also compute the Betti numbers of a real toric manifold corresponding to a path with two multiple edges.
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 …
Let $K_{\mathbb{N}}$ be the complete symmetric digraph on the positive integers. Answering a question of DeBiasio and McKenney, we construct a $2$-colouring of the edges of $K_{\mathbb{N}}$ in which every monochromatic path has density~$0$. However, if we restrict the length of monochromatic paths in one colour, then no example as above can exist: We show that every $(r+1)$-edge-coloured complete symmetric digraph (of arbitrary infinite cardinality) containing no directed paths of edge-length $\ell_i$ for any colour $i\leq r$ can be covered by $\prod_{i\leq r} \ell_i$ pairwise disjoint monochr…
An edge-coloring of a complete graph with a set of colors $C$ is called completely balanced if any vertex is incident to the same number of edges of each color from $C$. Erdős and Tuza asked in $1993$ whether for any graph $F$ on $\ell$ edges and any completely balanced coloring of any sufficiently large complete graph using $\ell$ colors contains a rainbow copy of $F$. This question was restated by Erdős in his list of ``Some of my favourite problems on cycles and colourings''. We answer this question in the negative for most cliques $F=K_q$ by giving explicit constructions of respective comp…
Fix an oriented graph H, and let G be a graph with bounded clique number and very large chromatic number. If we somehow orient its edges, must there be an induced subdigraph isomorphic to H? Kierstead and Rodl raised this question for two specific kinds of digraph H: the three-edge path, with the first and last edges both directed towards the interior; and stars (with many edges directed out and many directed in). Aboulker et al subsequently conjectured that the answer is affirmative in both cases. We give affirmative answers to both questions.
Consider the triangle-free graph process, which starts from the empty graph on $n$ vertices and a random ordering of the possible ${n \choose 2}$ edges; the edges are added in this ordering provided the graph remains triangle free. We will show that there exists a constant $c$ such that no copy of any fixed finite triangle-free graph on $k$ vertices with at least $ck$ edges asymptotically almost surely appears in the triangle-free graph process.
In this paper we raise a variant of a classic problem in extremal graph theory, which is motivated by a design of fractional repetition codes, a model in distributed storage systems. For any feasible positive integers $d\geq 3$, $n \geq 3$, and $k$, where $n-1 \leq k \leq \binom{n}{2}$, what is the minimum possible number of vertices in a $d$-regular undirected graph whose subgraphs with $n$ vertices contain at most $k$ edges? The goal of this paper is to give the exact number of vertices for each instance of the problem and also to provide some bounds for general values of $n$, $d$, and $k$. …
We consider the following random model for edge-colored graphs. A graph $G$ on $n$ vertices is fixed, and a random subgraph $G_p$ is chosen by letting each edge of $G$ remain independently with probability $p$. Then, each edge of $G_p$ is colored uniformly at random from the set $[n-1]$. A result of Frieze and McKay (Random Structures and Algorithms, 1994) implies that when $G = K_n$ and $p = (2 + ε) \frac{\log n}{n}$ for some constant $ε> 0$, then $G_p$ almost surely contains a rainbow spanning tree. In this paper, we show that if $G$ is a $d$-regular $Ω(n)$-edge-connected graph, then when $p…
The generalized Turán number ${\rm ex}(G,H)$ is the maximum number of edges in an $H$-free subgraph of a graph $G.$ It is an important extension of the classical Turán number ${\rm ex}(n,H)$, which is the maximum number of edges in a graph with $n$ vertices that does not contain $H$ as a subgraph. In this paper, we consider the maximum number of edges in an even-cycle-free subgraph of the doubled Johnson graphs $J(n;k,k+1)$, which are bipartite subgraphs of hypercube graphs. We give an upper bound for ${\rm ex}(J(n;k,k+1),C_{2r})$ with any fixed $k\in\mathbb{Z}^+$ and any $n\in\mathbb{Z}^+$ wi…
Let $G$ be an edge-colored graph with $n$ vertices. A subgraph $H$ of $G$ is called a rainbow subgraph of $G$ if the colors of each pair of the edges in $E(H)$ are distinct. We define the minimum color degree of $G$ to be the smallest number of the colors of the edges that are incident to a vertex $v$, for all $v\in V(G)$. Suppose that $G$ contains no rainbow-cycle subgraph of length four. We show that if the minimum color degree of $G$ is at least $\frac{n+3k-2}{2}$, then $G$ contains a rainbow-cycle subgraph of length at least $k$, where $k\geq 5$. Moreover, if the condition of $G$ is restri…
We prove that if $M$ is a maximal $k$-edge-colorable subgraph of a multigraph $G$ and if $F = \{v \in V(G) : d_M(v) \leq k-μ(v)\}$, then $d_F(v) \leq d_M(v)$ for all $v \in F$. (When $G$ is a simple graph, the set $F$ is just the set of vertices having degree less than $k$ in $M$.) This implies Vizing's Theorem as well as a special case of Tuza's Conjecture on packing and covering of triangles. A more detailed version of our result also implies Vizing's Adjacency Lemma for simple graphs.
A hypergraph $\mathcal{F}$ is non-trivial intersecting if every two edges in it have a nonempty intersection but no vertex is contained in all edges of $\mathcal{F}$. Mubayi and Verstraëte showed that for every $k \ge d+1 \ge 3$ and $n \ge (d+1)n/d$ every $k$-graph $\mathcal{H}$ on $n$ vertices without a non-trivial intersecting subgraph of size $d+1$ contains at most $\binom{n-1}{k-1}$ edges. They conjectured that the same conclusion holds for all $d \ge k \ge 4$ and sufficiently large $n$. We confirm their conjecture by proving a stronger statement. They also conjectured that for $m \ge 4$ a…
We study graphs on $n$ vertices which have $2n-2$ edges and no proper induced subgraphs of minimum degree $3$. Erdős, Faudree, Gyárfás, and Schelp conjectured that such graphs always have cycles of lengths $3,4,5,\dots, C(n)$ for some function $C(n)$ tending to infinity. We disprove this conjecture, resolve a related problem about leaf-to-leaf path lengths in trees, and characterize graphs with $n$ vertices and $2n-2$ edges, containing no proper subgraph of minimum degree $3$.
We study Turán and Ramsey-type problems on edge-colored graphs. An edge-colored graph is called {\em $\varepsilon$-balanced} if each color class contains at least an $\varepsilon$-proportion of its edges. Given a family $\mathcal{F}$ of edge-colored graphs, the Ramsey function $R(\varepsilon, \mathcal{F})$ is the smallest $n$ for which any $\varepsilon$-balanced $K_n$ must contain a copy of an $F\in\mathcal{F}$, and the Turán function $\mathrm{ex}(\varepsilon, n, \mathcal{F})$ is the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $\varepsilon$-balanced graph which avoids all of $\mathcal{F}$. In thi…
