A shortcut of a directed path $v_1 v_2 \cdots v_n$ is an edge $v_iv_j$ with $j > i+1$. If $j = i+2$ the shortcut is called a hop. If all hops are present, the path is called hop complete, so the path and its hops form a square of a path. We prove that every tournament with $n \ge 4$ vertices has a Hamiltonian path with at least $(4n-10)/7$ hops, and has a hop complete path of order at least $n^{0.295}$.
A spanning binary tree of a tournament is a spanning shortcut tree if for every vertex of the tree, all its left descendants are in-neighbors and all its right descendants are out-neighbors. It is well-known that every tournament contains a spanning shortcut tree. The number of shortcuts of a shortcut tree is the number of shortcuts of its unique induced Hamiltonian path. Let $t(n)$ denote the largest integer such that every tournament with $n$ vertices has a spanning shortcut tree with at least $t(n)$ shortcuts. We almost determine the asymptotic growth of $t(n)$ as it is proved that $Θ(n\log^2n) \ge t(n)-\frac{1}{2}\binom{n}{2} \ge Θ(n \log n)$.
We prove that a tournament and its complement contain the same number of oriented Hamiltonian paths (resp. cycles) of any given type, as a generalization of Rosenfeld's result proved for antidirected paths.
Rosenfeld Conjectured in 1972 that there exists an integer K $\geq$ 8 such that any tournament of order n $\geq$ K contains any Hamiltonian oriented path. In 2000, Havet and Thomassé proved this conjecture for any tournament with exactly 3 exceptions. We give a simplified proof of this fact.
We construct a combinatorial function F which computes the number of oriented Hamiltonian paths of any given type, in a transitive tournament. We also study many properties of F that arise, and reach some observations.
We consider a generalisation of Kelly's conjecture which is due to Alspach, Mason, and Pullman from 1976. Kelly's conjecture states that every regular tournament has an edge decomposition into Hamilton cycles, and this was proved by Kühn and Osthus for large tournaments. The conjecture of Alspach, Mason, and Pullman asks for the minimum number of paths needed in a path decomposition of a general tournament $T$. There is a natural lower bound for this number in terms of the degree sequence of $T$ and it is conjectured that this bound is correct for tournaments of even order. Almost all cases of…
In 1976, Alspach, Mason, and Pullman conjectured that any tournament $T$ of even order can be decomposed into exactly ${\rm ex}(T)$ paths, where ${\rm ex}(T):= \frac{1}{2}\sum_{v\in V(T)}|d_T^+(v)-d_T^-(v)|$. We prove this conjecture for all sufficiently large tournaments. We also prove an asymptotically optimal result for tournaments of odd order.
We prove that, with high probability, any $2$-edge-colouring of a random tournament on $n$ vertices contains a monochromatic path of length $Ω(n / \sqrt{\log n})$. This resolves a conjecture of Ben-Eliezer, Krivelevich and Sudakov and implies a nearly tight upper bound on the oriented size Ramsey number of a directed path.
A square of a path on $k$ vertices is a directed path $x_1\ldots x_k$, where $x_i$ is directed to $x_{i+2}$, for every $i\in \{1,\ldots, k-1\}$. Recently, Yuster showed that any tournament on $n$ vertices contains a square of a path of length at least $n^{0.295}$. In this short note, we improve this bound. More precisely, we show that for every $\varepsilon>0$, there exists $c_{\varepsilon}>0$ such that any tournament on $n$ vertices contains a square of a path on at least $c_{\varepsilon}n^{1-\varepsilon}$ vertices.
For an arc-colored digraph $D$, define its {\em kernel by rainbow paths} to be a set $S$ of vertices such that (i) no two vertices of $S$ are connected by a rainbow path in $D$, and (ii) every vertex outside $S$ can reach $S$ by a rainbow path in $D$. In this paper, we show that it is NP-complete to decide whether an arc-colored tournament has a kernel by rainbow paths, where a {\em tournament} is an orientation of a complete graph. In addition, we show that every arc-colored $n$-vertex tournament with all its strongly connected $k$-vertex subtournaments, $3\leq k\leq n$, colored with at least…
We show that for every positive integer $k$, any tournament can be partitioned into at most $2^{ck}$ $k$-th powers of paths. This result is tight up to the exponential constant. Moreover, we prove that for every $\varepsilon>0$ and every integer $k$, any tournament on $n\ge \varepsilon^{-Ck}$ vertices which is $\varepsilon$-far from being transitive contains the $k$-th power of a cycle of length $Ω(\varepsilon n)$; both bounds are tight up to the implied constants.
In this note we show that every tournament on $n$ vertices contains the $k$-th power of a directed path of length $n/2^{6k+7}$, which improves upon the recent bound of Scott and Korándi of $n/2^{2^{3k}}$. By doing so, we get an inverse exponential dependence on $k$, which is best possible as Yuster recently showed an upper bound of $kn/{2^{k/2}}$.
In this short note we prove that every tournament contains the $k$-th power of a directed path of linear length. This improves upon recent results of Yuster and of Girão. We also give a complete solution for this problem when $k=2$, showing that there is always a square of a directed path of length $\lceil 2n/3 \rceil-1$, which is best possible.
Given $k$ pairs of vertices $(s_i,t_i)$, $1\le i\le k$, of a digraph $G$, how can we test whether there exist $k$ vertex-disjoint directed paths from $s_i$ to $t_i$ for $1\le i\le k$? This is NP-complete in general digraphs, even for $k = 2$, but for $k=2$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm when $G$ is a tournament (or more generally, a semicomplete digraph), due to Bang-Jensen and Thomassen. Here we prove that for all fixed $k$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem when $G$ is semicomplete.
An open conjecture of Erdős states that for every positive integer $k$ there is a (least) positive integer $f(k)$ so that whenever a tournament has its edges colored with $k$ colors, there exists a set $S$ of at most $f(k)$ vertices so that every vertex has a monochromatic path to some point in $S$. We consider a related question and show that for every (finite or infinite) cardinal $κ>0$ there is a cardinal $ λ_κ$ such that in every $κ$-edge-coloured tournament there exist disjoint vertex sets $K,S$ with total size at most $ λ_κ$ so that every vertex $ v $ has a monochromatic path of length a…
Given $k$ pairs of vertices $(s_i,t_i)\;(1\le i\le k)$ of a digraph $G$, how can we test whether there exist vertex-disjoint directed paths from $s_i$ to $t_i$ for $1\le i\le k$? This is NP-complete in general digraphs, even for $k = 2$, but in an earlier paper we proved that for all fixed $k$, there is a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem if $G$ is a tournament (or more generally, a semicomplete digraph). Here we prove that for all fixed $k$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem when $V(G)$ is partitioned into a bounded number of sets each inducing a semicomple…
We discuss two approaches to a recent question of Loh: must a 3-colored transitive tournament on $N$ vertices have a 1-color-\emph{avoiding} path of vertex-length at least $N^{2/3}$? This question generalizes the Erdős--Szekeres theorem on monotone subsequences. First, we define three canonical transformations on these tournaments called Color, Record, and Dual. We use these to establish a reduction to special tournaments with natural geometric and combinatorial properties. In many cases (including all known tight examples), these tournaments have recursive Gallai decompositions. Not all relev…
Forward Arc Maximization for Hamilton Oriented Cycles and Paths in Generalizations of Tournaments
Center for Combinatorics and LPMC, Nankai University（南开大学组合数学中心与LPMC）；School of Mathematical Sciences and LPMC, Nankai University（南开大学数学科学学院与LPMC）；School of Science, Hebei University of Technology（河北工业大学理学院）；Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学数学与计算机系）；Department of Mathematics, University of Johannesburg（约翰内斯堡大学数学系）；Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology（深圳先进技术研究院）
A digraph $D$ is $k$-linked if it satisfies that for every choice of disjoint sets $\{x_1,\ldots{},x_k\}$ and $\{y_1,\ldots{},y_k\}$ of vertices of $D$ there are vertex disjoint paths $P_1,\ldots{},P_k$ such that $P_i$ is an $(x_i,y_i)$-path. Confirming a conjecture by Kühn et al, Pokrovskiy proved in 2015 that every $452k$-strong tournament is $k$-linked and asked for a better linear bound. Very recently Meng et al proved that every $(40k-31)$-strong tournament is $k$-linked. In this note we use an important lemma from their paper to give a short proof that every $(13k-6)$-strong tournament o…
Starting from an innocent Ramsey-theoretic question regarding directed paths in tournaments, we discover a series of rich and surprising connections that lead into the theory around a fundamental problem in Combinatorics: the Ruzsa-Szemerédi induced matching problem. Using these relationships, we prove that every coloring of the edges of the transitive $n$-vertex tournament using three colors contains a directed path of length at least $\sqrt{n} \cdot e^{\log^* n}$ which entirely avoids some color. We also expose connections to a family of constructions for Ramsey tournaments, and introduce an…
In this work we present a version of the so called Chen and Chvátal's conjecture for directed graphs. A line of a directed graph D is defined by an ordered pair (u, v), with u and v two distinct vertices of D, as the set of all vertices w such that u, v, w belong to a shortest directed path in D containing a shortest directed path from u to v. A line is empty if there is no directed path from u to v. Another option is that a line is the set of all vertices. The version of the Chen and Chvátal's conjecture we study states that if none of previous options hold, then the number of distinct lines …
We prove that, with high probability, in every $2$-edge-colouring of the random tournament on $n$ vertices there is a monochromatic copy of every oriented tree of order $O (n / \sqrt{\log n})$. This generalises a result of the first, third and forth authors who proved the same statement for paths, and is tight up to a constant factor.
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…
A $\overrightarrow{P_{3}}$-decomposition of a directed graph $D$ is a partition of the arcs of $D$ into directed paths of length $2$. In this paper, we give a characterization for a tournament and a bipartite digraph admitting a $\overrightarrow{P_{3}}$-decomposition. This solves a problem posed by Diwan ($\overrightarrow{P_{3}}$-decomposition of directed graphs, Discrete Appl. Math., http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2016.01.039.).
For an orientation $H$ with $n$ vertices, let $T(H)$ denote the maximum possible number of labeled copies of $H$ in an $n$-vertex tournament. It is easily seen that $T(H) \ge n!/2^{e(H)}$ as the latter is the expected number of such copies in a random tournament. For $n$ odd, let $R(H)$ denote the maximum possible number of labeled copies of $H$ in an $n$-vertex regular tournament. Adler et al. proved that, in fact, for $H=C_n$ the directed Hamilton cycle, $T(C_n) \ge (e-o(1))n!/2^{n}$ and it was observed by Alon that already $R(C_n) \ge (e-o(1))n!/2^{n}$. Similar results hold for the directed…
A (possibly directed) graph is $k$-linked if for any two disjoint sets of vertices $\{x_1, \dots, x_k\}$ and $\{y_1, \dots, y_k\}$ there are vertex disjoint paths $P_1, \dots, P_k$ such that $P_i$ goes from $x_i$ to $y_{i}$. A theorem of Bollobás and Thomason says that every $22k$-connected (undirected) graph is $k$-linked. It is desirable to obtain analogues for directed graphs as well. Although Thomassen showed that the Bollobás-Thomason Theorem does not hold for general directed graphs, he proved an analogue of the theorem for tournaments - there is a function $f(k)$ such that every strongl…
A rooted tree is called a $k$-ary tree, if all non-leaf vertices have exactly $k$ children, except possibly one non-leaf vertex has at most $k-1$ children. Denote by $h(k)$ the minimum integer such that every tournament of order at least $h(k)$ contains a $k$-ary spanning tree. It is well-known that every tournament contains a Hamiltonian path, which implies that $h(1)=1$. Lu et al. [J. Graph Theory {\bf 30}(1999) 167--176] proved the existence of $h(k)$, and showed that $h(2)=4$ and $h(3)=8$. The exact values of $h(k)$ remain unknown for $k\geq 4$. A result of Erdős on the domination number o…
Let $D$ be a digraph. A $k$-container of $D$ between $u$ and $v$, $C(u,v)$, is a set of $k$ internally disjoint paths between $u$ and $v$. A $k$-container $C(u,v)$ of $D$ is a strong (resp. weak) $k^{*}$-container if there is a set of $k$ internally disjoint paths with the same direction (resp. with different directions allowed) between $u$ and $v$ and it contains all vertices of $D$. A digraph $D$ is $k^{*}$-strongly (resp. $k^{*}$-weakly) connected if there exists a strong (resp. weak) $k^{*}$-container between any two distinct vertices. We define the strong (resp. weak) spanning connectivit…
We prove the following new results. (a) Let $T$ be a regular tournament of order $2n+1\geq 11$ and $S$ a subset of $V(T)$. Suppose that $|S|\leq \frac{1}{2}(n-2)$ and $x$, $y$ are distinct vertices in $V(T)\setminus S$. If the subtournament $T-S$ contains an $(x,y)$-path of length $r$, where $3\leq r\leq |V(T)\setminus S|-2$, then $T-S$ also contains an $(x,y)$-path of length $r+1$. (b) Let $T$ be an $m$-irregular tournament of order $p$, i.e., $|d^+(x)-d^-(x)|\le m$ for every vertex $x$ of $T.$ If $m\leq \frac{1}{3}(p-5)$ (respectively, $m\leq \frac{1}{5}(p-3)$), then for every pair of vertic…
We propose a purely combinatorial quadratic time algorithm that for any $n$-vertex $P_{k}$-free tournament $T$, where $P_{k}$ is a directed path of length $k$, finds in $T$ a transitive subset of order $n^{\frac{c}{k\log(k)^{2}}}$. As a byproduct of our method, we obtain subcubic $O(n^{1-\frac{c}{k\log(k)^{2}}})$-approximation algorithm for the optimal acyclic coloring problem on $P_{k}$-free tournaments. Our results are tight up to the $\log(k)$-factor in the following sense: there exist infinite families of $P_{k}$-free tournaments with largest transitive subsets of order at most $n^{\frac{c…
We prove that in a random tournament the events $\{s\rightarrow a\}$ and $\{t\rightarrow b\}$ are positively correlated, for distinct vertices $a,s,b,t \in K_n.$ It is also proven that the correlation between the events $\{s\rightarrow a\}$ and $\{t\rightarrow b\}$ in the random graphs $G(n,p)$ and $G(n,m)$ with random orientation is positive for every fixed $p>0$ and sufficiently large $n$ (with $m=\left\lfloor p \binom{n}{2}\right\rfloor$). We conjecture it to be positive for all $p$ and all $n$. An exact recursion for $¶(\{s\rightarrow a\} \cap \{t\rightarrow b\})$ in $\gnp$ is given.
