An arc-colored digraph D is properly (properly-walk) connected if, for any ordered pair of vertices $(u, v)$, the digraph $D$ contains a directed path (a directed walk) from $u$ to $v$ such that arcs adjacent on that path (on that walk) have distinct colors. The proper connection number $\overrightarrow{pc}(D)$ (the proper-walk connection number $\overrightarrow{wc}(D)$) of a digraph $D$ is the minimum number of colours to make $D$ properly connected (properly-walk connected). We prove that $\overrightarrow{pc}(C_n(S)) \leq 2$ for every circulant digraph $C_n(S)$ with $S\subseteq\{1,\ldots ,n-1\}, |S|\ge 2$ and $1\in S$. Furthermore, we give some sufficient conditions for a Hamiltonian digraph $D$ to satisfy $\overrightarrow{pc}(D)= \overrightarrow{wc}(D) = 2$.
We approach the problem of counting the number of walks in a digraph from three different perspectives: enumerative combinatorics, linear algebra, and symbolic dynamics.
Let $n \ge 5$ and $k\ge 4$ be positive integers. We determine the maximum size of digraphs of order n that avoid distinct walks of length k with the same endpoints. We also characterize the extremal digraphs attaining this maximum number when $k \ge 5$.
Let $H = (V_H, A_H)$ be a digraph which may contain loops, and let $D = (V_D, A_D)$ be a loopless digraph with a coloring of its arcs $c: A_D \to V_H$. An $H$-walk of $D$ is a walk $(v_0, \dots, v_n)$ of $D$ such that $(c(v_{i-1}, v_i), c(v_i, v_{i+1}))$ is an arc of $H$, for every $1 \le i \le n-1$. For $u, v \in V_D$, we say that $u$ reaches $v$ by $H$-walks if there exists an $H$-walk from $u$ to $v$ in $D$. A subset $S \subseteq V_D$ is a kernel by $H$-walks of $D$ if every vertex in $V_D \setminus S$ reaches by $H$-walks some vertex in $S$, and no vertex in $S$ can reach another vertex in…
In this paper, we determine the maximum size of digraphs on $n$ vertices in which there are no two distinct walks of length $3$ with the same initial vertex and the same terminal vertex. The digraphs attaining this maximum size are also characterized. Combining this with previous results, we obtain a full solution to a problem proposed by X. Zhan in 2007.
We count the number of walks of length n on a k-node circular digraph that cover all k nodes in two ways. The first way illustrates the transfer-matrix method. The second involves counting various classes of height-restricted lattice paths. We observe that the results also count so-called k-balanced strings of length n, generalizing a 1996 Putnam problem.
We generalize the concept of strong walk-regularity to directed graphs. We call a digraph strongly $\ell$-walk-regular with $\ell >1$ if the number of walks of length $\ell$ from a vertex to another vertex depends only on whether the two vertices are the same, adjacent, or not adjacent. This generalizes also the well-studied strongly regular digraphs and a problem posed by Hoffman. Our main tools are eigenvalue methods. The case that the adjacency matrix is diagonalizable with only real eigenvalues resembles the undirected case. We show that a digraph $Γ$ with only real eigenvalues whose adjac…
Walks in a directed graph can be given a partially ordered structure that extends to possibly unconnected objects, called hikes. Studying the incidence algebra on this poset reveals unsuspected relations between walks and self-avoiding hikes. These relations are derived by considering truncated versions of the characteristic polynomial of the weighted adjacency matrix, resulting in a collection of matrices whose entries enumerate the self-avoiding hikes of length $\ell$ from one vertex to another.
Let $n,k,t$ be positive integers. What is the maximum number of arcs in a digraph on $n$ vertices in which there are at most $t$ distinct walks of length $k$ with the same endpoints? In this paper, we prove that the maximum number is equal to $n(n-1)/2$ and the extremal digraph are the transitive tournaments when $k\ge n-1\ge \max\{2t+1,2\left\lceil \sqrt{2t+9/4}+1/2\right\rceil+3\}$. Based on this result, we may determine the maximum numbers and the extremal digraphs for $k\ge \max\{2t+1,2\left\lceil \sqrt{2t+9/4}+1/2\right\rceil+3\}$ and $n$ is sufficiently large, which generalises the exist…
Let $H$ be a digraph possibly with loops and $D$ a digraph without loops whose arcs are colored with the vertices of $H$ ($D$ is said to be an $H-$colored digraph). If $W=(x_{0},\ldots,x_{n})$ is an open walk in $D$ and $i\in \{1,\ldots,n-1\}$, we say that there is an obstruction on $x_{i}$ if $(color(x_{i-1},x_{i}),color(x_{i},x_{i+1}))\notin A(H)$. If $S\subseteq V(D)$, we say that $S$ is a $(k,l,H)$-kernel by walks if for every pair of different vertices in $S$, every walk between them has at least $k-1$ obstructions, and for every $x\in V(D)\setminus S$ there exists an $xS$-walk with at mo…
The rotor-router model is a popular deterministic analogue of random walk. In this paper we prove that all orbits of the rotor-router operation have the same size on a strongly connected directed graph (digraph) and give a formula for the size. By using this formula we address the following open question about orbits of the rotor-router operation: Is there an infinite family of non-Eulerian strongly connected digraphs such that the rotor-router operation on each digraph has a single orbit? It turns out that on a strongly connected digraph the stationary distribution of the simple random walk c…
We propose a quantum walk defined by digraphs (mixed graphs). This is like Grover walk that is perturbed by a certain complex-valued function defined by digraphs. The discriminant of this quantum walk is a matrix that is a certain normalization of generalized Hermitian adjacency matrices. Furthermore, we give definitions of the positive and negative supports of the transfer matrix, and clarify explicit formulas of their supports of the square. In addition, we give tables by computer on the identification of digraphs by their eigenvalues.
We study sequences of optimal walks of a growing length, in weighted digraphs, or equivalently, sequences of entries of max-algebraic matrix powers with growing exponents. It is known that these sequences are eventually periodic when the digraphs are strongly connected. The transient of such periodicity depends, in general, both on the size of digraph and on the magnitude of the weights. In this paper, we show that some bounds on the indices of periodicity of (unweighted) digraphs, such as the bounds of Wielandt, Dulmage-Mendelsohn, Schwarz, Kim and Gregory-Kirkland-Pullman, apply to the weigh…
Inspired by the work of Backelin on non-commutative correspondences to Macaulay's theorem of the growth of the Hilbert series of affine algebras, we study embedding dimension dependant versions of his degree 2 to degree 3 result. In graph-theoretical terms, we study the following question: what is the maximal number of directed walks of length 2 in a digraph with (k) edges and (n) vertices? The problem can also be formulated as follows: maximize (< λ, λ^T >) when (λ) is a partition of (k), contained in an (n \times n) box. We show that for mild restrictions on (n), optimal digraphs are the ``s…
We study properties of a simple random walk on the random digraph D_{n,p} when np={d\log n},\; d>1. We prove that whp the stationary probability pi_v of a vertex v is asymptotic to deg^-(v)/m where deg^-(v) is the in-degree of v and m=n(n-1)p is the expected number of edges of D_{n,p}. If d=d(n) tends to infinity with n, the stationary distribution is asymptotically uniform whp. Using this result we prove that, for d>1, whp the cover time of D_{n,p} is asymptotic to d\log (d/(d-1))n\log n. If d=d(n) tends to infinity with n, then the cover time is asymptotic to n\log n.
Let $X$ be a lazy random walk on a graph $G$. If $G$ is undirected, then the mixing time is upper bounded by the maximum hitting time of the graph. This fails for directed chains, as the biased random walk on the cycle $\mathbb{Z}_n$ shows. However, we establish that for Eulerian digraphs, the mixing time is $O(mn)$, where $m$ is the number of edges and $n$ is the number of vertices. In the reversible case, the mixing time is robust to the change of the laziness parameter. Surprisingly, in the directed setting the mixing time can be sensitive to such changes. We also study exploration and cove…
A finite ergodic Markov chain exhibits cutoff if its distance to equilibrium remains close to its initial value over a certain number of iterations and then abruptly drops to near 0 on a much shorter time scale. Originally discovered in the context of card shuffling (Aldous-Diaconis, 1986), this remarkable phenomenon is now rigorously established for many reversible chains. Here we consider the non-reversible case of random walks on sparse directed graphs, for which even the equilibrium measure is far from being understood. We work under the configuration model, allowing both the in-degrees an…
The cutoff phenomenon was recently confirmed for random walks on Ramanujan graphs by the first author and Peres. In this work, we obtain analogs in higher dimensions, for random walk operators on any Ramanujan complex associated with a simple group $G$ over a local field $F$. We show that if $T$ is any $k$-regular $G$-equivariant operator on the Bruhat-Tits building with a simple combinatorial property (collision-free), the associated random walk on the $n$-vertex Ramanujan complex has cutoff at time $\log_k n$. The high dimensional case, unlike that of graphs, requires tools from non-commutat…
The watchman's walk problem in a digraph calls for finding a minimum length closed dominating walk, where direction of arcs is respected. The watchman's walk of a de Bruijn graph of order $k$ is described by a de Bruijn sequence of order $k-1$. This idea is extended to certain subdigraphs of de Bruijn graphs.
We consider the generalised PageRank walk on a digraph $G$, with refresh probability $α$ and resampling distribution $λ$. We analyse convergence to stationarity when $G$ is a large sparse random digraph with given degree sequences, in the limit of vanishing $α$. We identify three scenarios: when $α$ is much smaller than the inverse of the mixing time of $G$ the relaxation to equilibrium is dominated by the simple random walk and displays a cutoff behaviour; when $α$ is much larger than the inverse of the mixing time of $G$ on the contrary one has pure exponential decay with rate $α$; when $α$ …
The $d$-Fibonacci digraphs $F(d,k)$, introduced here, have the number of vertices following generalized Fibonacci-like sequences. They can be defined both as digraphs on alphabets and as iterated line digraphs. Here we study some of their nice properties. For instance, $F(2,k)$ has diameter $d+k-2$ and is semi-pancyclic, that is, it has a cycle of every length between 1 and $\ell$, with $\ell\in\{2k-2,2k-1\}$. Moreover, it turns out that several other numbers of $F(d,k)$ (of closed $l$-walks, classes of vertices, etc.) also follow the same linear recurrences as the numbers of vertices of the $…
A {\em kernel by properly colored paths} of an arc-colored digraph $D$ is a set $S$ of vertices of $D$ such that (i) no two vertices of $S$ are connected by a properly colored directed path in $D$, and (ii) every vertex outside $S$ can reach $S$ by a properly colored directed path in $D$. In this paper, we conjecture that every arc-colored digraph with all cycles properly colored has such a kernel and verify the conjecture for unicyclic digraphs, semi-complete digraphs and bipartite tournaments, respectively. Moreover, weaker conditions for the latter two classes of digraphs are given.
Catch digraphs was introduced by Hiroshi Maehara in 1984 as an analog of intersection graphs where a family of pointed sets represents a digraph. After that Prisner continued his research particularly on interval catch digraphs by characterizing them diasteroidal triple free. It has numerous applications in the field of real world problems like network technology and telecommunication operations. Recently, we characterized three important subclasses of interval catch digraphs. In this article we introduce a new class of catch digraphs, namely circular-arc catch digraphs. The definition is same…
In this paper, we compute competition indices and periods of multipartite tournaments. We first show that the competition period of an acyclic digraph $D$ is one and $ζ(D) +1$ is a sharp upper bound of the competition index of $D$ where $ζ(D)$ is the sink elimination index of $D$. Then we prove that, especially, for an acyclic $k$-partite tournament $D$, the competition index of $D$ is $ζ(D)$ or $ζ(D) +1$ for an integer $k \ge 3$. By developing useful tools to create infinitely many directed walks in a certain regular pattern from given directed walks, we show that the competition period of a …
Given D and H two digraphs, D is H-coloured iff the arcs of D are coloured with the vertices of H. After defining what do we mean by an H-walk in the coloured D, we characterise those H, which we call panchromatic patterns, for which all D and all H-colourings of D admit a kernel by H-walks. This solves a problem of Arpin and Linek from 2007.
A digraph that represents reasonably a scheduling problem should be a directed acyclic graph. Here down we shall deal with special kind of graded $DAGs$ named $KoDAGs$. For their definition and first primary properties see $ [1]$, where natural join of directed biparted graphs and their corresponding adjacency matrices is defined and then applied to investigate cobweb posets and their $Hasse$ digraphs called $KoDAGs$. In this report we extend the notion of cobweb poset while delivering some elementary consequences of the description and observations established in $[1]$.
Let $D$ be a digraph. A subset $S$ of $V(D)$ is a stable set if every pair of vertices in $S$ is non-adjacent in $D$. A collection of disjoint paths $\mathcal{P}$ of $D$ is a path partition of $V(D)$, if every vertex in $V(D)$ is exactly on a path of $\mathcal{P}$. We say that a stable set $S$ and a path partition $\mathcal{P}$ are orthogonal if each path of $P$ contains exactly one vertex of $S$. A digraph $D$ satisfies the $α$-property if for every maximum stable set $S$ of $D$, there exists a path partition $\mathcal{P}$ such that $S$ and $\mathcal{P}$ are orthogonal. A digraph $D$ is $α$-d…
Let $H$ be a digraph possibly with loops and $D$ a digraph without loops with a coloring of its arcs $c:A(D) \rightarrow V(H)$ ($D$ is said to be an $H$-colored digraph). A directed path $W$ in $D$ is said to be an $H$-path if and only if the consecutive colors encountered on $W$ form a directed walk in $H$. A subset $N$ of vertices of $D$ is said to be an $H$-kernel if (1) for every pair of different vertices in $N$ there is no $H$-path between them and (2) for every vertex $u$ in V($D$)$\setminus$$N$ there exists an $H$-path in $D$ from $u$ to $N$. Under this definition an $H$-kernel is a ke…
In this paper, we introduce the notion of the weak majority dimension of a digraph which is well-defined for any digraph. We first study properties shared by the weak dimension of a digraph and show that a weak majority dimension of a digraph can be arbitrarily large. Then we present a complete characterization of digraphs of weak majority dimension $0$ and $1$, respectively, and show that every digraph with weak majority dimension at most two is transitive. Finally, we compute the weak majority dimensions of directed paths and directed cycles and pose open problems.
Hamidoune's connectivity results for hierarchical Cayley digraphs are extended to Cayley coset digraphs and thus to arbitrary vertex transitive digraphs. It is shown that if a Cayley coset digraph can be hierarchically decomposed in a certain way, then it is optimally vertex connected. The results are obtained by extending the methods used by Hamidoune. They are used to show that cycle-prefix graphs are optimally vertex connected. This implies that cycle-prefix graphs have good fault tolerance properties.
Let $D=(V,A)$ be a digraph and $\mathfrak{S}$ a partition of $V(D)$. We say that $\mathfrak{S}$ is a strong in-domatic partition if every $S$ in $\mathfrak{S}$ holds that every vertex not in $S$ has at least one out-neighbor in $S$, that is $S$ is an in-dominating set, and $D\langle S \rangle$ is strongly connected. The maximum number of elements in a strong in-domatic partition is called the strong in-domatic number of $D$ and it is denoted by $\mathsf{d}_{s}^{-}(D)$. In this paper we introduce those concepts and determine the value of $\mathsf{d}_{s}^{-}$ for semicomplete digraphs and planar…
Let $H$ be a digraph possibly with loops, $D$ a digraph without loops, and $ρ: A(D) \rightarrow V(H)$ a coloring of $A(D)$ ($D$ is said to be an $H$-colored digraph). If $W=(x_{0}, \ldots , x_{n})$ is a walk in $D$, and $i \in \{ 0, \ldots , n-1 \}$, we say that there is an obstruction on $x_{i}$ whenever $(ρ(x_{i-1}, x_{i}), ρ(x_{i}, x_{i+1})) \notin A(H)$ (when $x_{0} = x_{n}$ the indices are taken modulo $n$). We denote by $O_{H}(W)$ the set $\{ i \in \{0, \ldots , n-1 \} :$ there is an obstruction on $x_{i} \}$. The $H$-length of $W$, denoted by $l_{H}(W)$, is defined by $|O_{H}(W)|+1$ whe…
For digraphs $G$ and $H$, let ${\cal H}(G,H)$ be the set of all homomorphisms from $G$ to $H$, and let ${\cal S}(G,H)$ be the subset of those homomorphisms mapping all proper arcs in $G$ to proper arcs in $H$. From an earlier investigation we know that for certain digraphs $R$ and $S$, the relation "$\# {\cal S}(G,R) \leq \# {\cal S}(G,S)$ for all $G \in \mathfrak{ D }'$" implies "$\# {\cal H}(G,R) \leq \# {\cal H}(G,S)$ for all $G \in \mathfrak{ D }'$", where $\mathfrak{ D }'$ is a subclass of digraphs. Now we ask for the inverse: For which digraphs $R, S$ and which subclasses $\mathfrak{ D }…
In this article, we evaluate determinants of block hook matrices, which are block matrices consist of hook matrices. In particular, we deduce that the determinant of a block hook matrix factorizes nicely. In addition we give a combinatorial interpretation of the aforesaid factorization property by counting weighted paths in a suitable weighted digraph.
The Rényi $α$-entropy $H_α$ of complete antisymmetric directed graphs (i.e., tournaments) is explored. We optimize $H_α$ when $α= 2$ and $3$, and find that as $α$ increases $H_α$'s sensitivity to what we refer to as `regularity' increases as well. A regular tournament on $n$ vertices is one with each vertex having out-degree $\frac{n-1}{2}$, but there is a lot of diversity in terms of structure among the regular tournaments; for example, a regular tournament may be such that each vertex's out-set induces a regular tournament (a doubly-regular tournament) or a transitive tournament (a rotationa…
Thus far, digraphs that are uniquely determined by their Hermitian spectra have proven elusive. Instead, researchers have turned to spectral determination of classes of switching equivalent digraphs, rather than individual digraphs. In the present paper, we consider the traditional notion: a digraph (or mixed graph) is said to be strongly determined by its Hermitian spectrum (abbreviated SHDS) if it is isomorphic to each digraph to which it is cospectral. Convincing numerical evidence to support the claim that this property is extremely rare is provided. Nonetheless, the first infinite family …
The dichromatic number $\vecχ(D)$ of a digraph $D$ is the least number $k$ such that the vertex set of $D$ can be partitioned into $k$ parts each of which induces an acyclic subdigraph. Introduced by Neumann-Lara in 1982, this digraph invariant shares many properties with the usual chromatic number of graphs and can be seen as the natural analog of the graph chromatic number. In this paper, we study the list dichromatic number of digraphs, giving evidence that this notion generalizes the list chromatic number of graphs. We first prove that the list dichromatic number and the dichromatic number…
Deza digraphs were introduced in 2003 by Zhang and Wang as directed graph version of Deza graphs, that also generalize the notion of directed strongly regular graphs. In this paper we give several new constructions of Deza digraphs. Further, we introduce twin and Siamese twin (directed) Deza graphs and construct several examples. Moreover, we classify directed Deza graphs with parameters $(n,k,b,a,t)$ having the property that $b=t$. Finally, we introduce a variation of directed Deza graphs and provide a construction from finite fields.
A complete list of all connected arc-transitive asymmetric digraphs of in-valence and out-valence 2 on up to 1000 vertices is presented. As a byproduct, a complete list of all connected 4-valent graphs admitting a half-arc-transitive group of automorphisms on up to 1000 vertices is obtained. Several graph-theoretical properties of the elements of our census are calculated and discussed.
Let $D$ be a digraph. Given a set of vertices $S \subseteq V(D)$, an $S$-path partition $\mathcal{P}$ of $D$ is a collection of paths of $D$ such that $\{V(P) \colon P \in \mathcal{P}\}$ is a partition of $V(D)$ and $|V(P) \cap S| = 1$ for every $P \in \mathcal{P}$. We say that $D$ satisfies the $α$-property if, for every maximum stable set $S$ of $D$, there exists an $S$-path partition of $D$, and we say that $D$ is $α$-diperfect if every induced subdigraph of $D$ satisfies the $α$-property. A digraph $C$ is an anti-directed odd cycle if (i) the underlying graph of $C$ is a cycle $x_1x_2 \cdo…
Let $D$ be a digraph. A subset $S$ of $V(D)$ is a stable set if every pair of vertices in $S$ is non-adjacent in $D$. A collection of disjoint paths $\mathcal{P}$ of $D$ is a path partition of $V(D)$, if every vertex in $V(D)$ is on a path of $\mathcal{P}$. We say that a stable set $S$ and a path partition $\mathcal{P}$ are orthogonal if each path of $P$ contains exactly one vertex of $S$. A digraph $D$ satisfies the $α$-property if for every maximum stable set $S$ of $D$, there exists a path partition $\mathcal{P}$ such that $S$ and $\mathcal{P}$ are orthogonal. A digraph $D$ is $α$-diperfect…
We extend the Grundy number and the ochromatic number, parameters on graph colorings, to digraph colorings, we call them {\emph{digrundy number}} and {\emph{diochromatic number}}, respectively. First, we prove that for every digraph the diochromatic number equals the digrundy number (as it happen for graphs). Then, we prove the interpolation property and the Nordhaus-Gaddum relations for the digrundy number, and improve the Nordhaus-Gaddum relations for the dichromatic and diachromatic numbers bounded previously by the authors in [Electron. J. Combin. 25 (2018) no. 3, Paper {\#} 3.51, 17 pp.]
The chromatic number $\overrightarrowχ(D)$ of a digraph $D$ is the minimum number of colors needed to color the vertices of $D$ such that each color class induces an acyclic subdigraph of $D$. A digraph $D$ is $k$-critical if $\overrightarrowχ(D) = k$ but $\overrightarrowχ(D') < k$ for all proper subdigraphs $D'$ of $D$. We examine methods for creating infinite families of critical digraphs, the Dirac join and the directed and bidirected Hajós join. We prove that a digraph $D$ has chromatic number at least $k$ if and only if it contains a subdigraph that can be obtained from bidirected complet…
A classical result by Erdos and Posa states that there is a function $f: {\mathbb N} \rightarrow {\mathbb N}$ such that for every $k$, every graph $G$ contains $k$ pairwise vertex disjoint cycles or a set $T$ of at most $f(k)$ vertices such that $G-T$ is acyclic. The generalisation of this result to directed graphs is known as Younger's conjecture and was proved by Reed, Robertson, Seymour and Thomas in 1996. This so-called Erdos-Posa-property can naturally be generalised to arbitrary graphs and digraphs. Robertson and Seymour proved that a graph $H$ has the Erdos-Posa-property if, and only if…
In this paper we show a correspondence between directed graphs and bipartite undirected graphs with a perfect matching, that allows to study properties of directed graphs through the properties of the corresponding undirected graphs. In particular it is shown that a directed graph is transitive iff a corresponding undirected graph is Cohen-Macaulay.
This paper is devoted to the study of directed graphs with extremal properties relative to certain metric functionals. We characterize up to isomorphism critical digraphs with infinite values of diameter, quasi-diameter, radius and quasi-radius. Moreover, maximal digraphs with finite values of radius and quasi-diameter are studied.
A proof of the Generalized Road Coloring Problem, independent of the recent work by Beal and Perrin, is presented, using both semigroup methods and Trakhtman's algorithm. Algebraic properties of periodic, strongly connected digraphs are studied in the semigroup context. An algebraic condition which characterizes periodic, strongly connected digraphs is determined in the context of periodic Markov chains.
A digraph is connected-homogeneous if any isomorphism between finite connected induced subdigraphs extends to an automorphism of the digraph. We consider locally-finite connected-homogeneous digraphs with more than one end. In the case that the digraph embeds a triangle we give a complete classification, obtaining a family of tree-like graphs constructed by gluing together directed triangles. In the triangle-free case we show that these digraphs are highly arc-transitive. We give a classification in the two-ended case, showing that all examples arise from a simple construction given by gluing …
We introduce the notion of z-topological orderings for digraphs. We prove that given a digraph G on n vertices admitting a z-topological order- ing, together with such an ordering, one may count the number of subgraphs of G that at the same time satisfy a monadic second order formula ϕ and are the union of k directed paths, in time f (ϕ, k, z) * n^O(k*z) . Our result implies the polynomial time solvability of many natural counting problems on digraphs admitting z-topological orderings for constant values of z and k. Concerning the relationship between z-topological orderability and other digra…
