We study the ratio, in a finite graph, of the sizes of the largest matching in any pair of disjoint matchings with the maximum total number of edges and the largest possible matching. Previously, it was shown that this ratio is between 4/5 and 1, and the class of graphs achieving 4/5 was completely characterized. In this paper, we first show that graph decompositions into paths and even cycles provide a new way to study this ratio. We then use this technique to characterize the graphs achieving ratio 1 among all graphs that can be covered by a certain choice of a maximum matching and maximum disjoint matchings.
For a fixed graph $F$, a graph $G$ is said to be $F$-saturated if $G$ does not contain a subgraph isomorphic to $F$ but does contain $F$ after the addition of any new edge. Let $M_k$ be a matching consisting of $k$ edges and $S_{n,k}$ be the join graph of a complete graph $K_k$ and an empty graph $\overline{K_{n-k}}$. In this paper, we prove that for $s \geq3$ and $k\geq 2$, $S_{n,s-2}$ contains the minimum number of $M_k$ among all $n$-vertex $K_s$-saturated graphs for sufficiently large $n$, and when $k \leq s-2$, it is the unique extremal graph. In addition, we also show that $S_{n,1}$ is t…
We characterize the class of infinite connected graphs $ G $ for which there exists a $ T $-join for any choice of an infinite $ T \subseteq V(G) $. We also show that the following well-known fact remains true in the infinite case. If $ G $ is connected and does not contain a $ T $-join, then it will if we either remove an arbitrary vertex from $ T $ or add any new vertex to $ T $.
Let $n\ge 34$ be an even integer, and $D_n=2\lceil n/4 \rceil-1$. In this paper, we prove that every $\{D_n,\,D_n+1\}$-graph of order $n$ contains $\lceil n/4 \rceil$ disjoint perfect matchings. This result is sharp in the sense that (i) there exists a $\{D_n,\,D_n+1\}$-graph containing exactly $\lceil n/4 \rceil$ disjoint perfect matchings, and that (ii) there exists a $\{D_n-1,\,D_n\}$-graph without perfect matchings for each $n$. As a consequence, for any integer $D\ge D_n$, every $\{D,\,D+1\}$-graph of order $n$ contains $\lceil (D+1)/2 \rceil$ disjoint perfect matchings. This extends Csab…
In this paper, we consider dominating sets $D$ and $D'$ such that $D$ and $D'$ are disjoint and there exists a perfect matching between them. Let $DD_{\textrm{m}}(G)$ denote the cardinality of smallest such sets $D, D'$ in $G$ (provided they exist, otherwise $DD_{\textrm{m}}(G) = \infty$). This concept was introduced in [Klostermeyer et al., Theory and Application of Graphs, 2017] in the context of studying a certain graph protection problem. We characterize the trees $T$ for which $DD_{\textrm{m}}(T)$ equals a certain graph protection parameter and for which $DD_{\textrm{m}}(T) = α(T)$, where…
Win [\emph{J. Graph Theory} {\bf 6}(1982), 489--492] conjectured that a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices contains $k$ disjoint perfect matchings, if the degree sum of any two nonadjacent vertices is at least $n+k-2$, where $n$ is even and $n\geq k+2$. In this paper, we prove that Win's conjecture is true for $k\geq n/2$, where $n$ is sufficiently large. To show this result, we prove a theorem on $k$-factor in a graph under some Ore-type condition. Our main tools include Tutte's $k$-factor theorem, the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker theorem on convex optimization, and the solution to the longstanding 1-factor dec…
We study extremal type problem arising from the question: What is the maximum number of edge-disjoint non-crossing perfect matchings on a set S of 2n points in the plane such that their union is a triangle-free geometric graph? We approach this problem by considering four different situations of S. In particular, in the general position, we obtain (i) a sufficient condition for the existence of n edge-disjoint non-crossing perfect matchings in the general position whose union is a maximal triangle-free geometric graph, and (ii) a lower bound on the number of edge-disjoint non-crossing perfect …
Let $G$ be a bridgeless cubic graph. The Berge--Fulkerson Conjecture (1970s) states that $G$ admits a list of six perfect matchings such that each edge of $G$ belongs to exactly two of these perfect matchings. If answered in the affirmative, two other recent conjectures would also be true: the Fan--Raspaud Conjecture (1994), which states that $G$ admits three perfect matchings such that every edge of $G$ belongs to at most two of them; and a conjecture by Mazzuoccolo (2013), which states that $G$ admits two perfect matchings whose deletion yields a bipartite subgraph of $G$. It can be shown th…
We consider the following question: given an $(X,Y)$-bigraph $G$ and a set $S \subset X$, does $G$ contain two disjoint matchings $M_1$ and $M_2$ such that $M_1$ saturates $X$ and $M_2$ saturates $S$? When $|S|\geq |X|-1$, this question is solvable by finding an appropriate factor of the graph. In contrast, we show that when $S$ is allowed to be an arbitrary subset of $X$, the problem is NP-hard.
Let $X_{2k}$ be a set of $2k$ labeled points in convex position in the plane. We consider geometric non-intersecting straight-line perfect matchings of $X_{2k}$. Two such matchings, $M$ and $M'$, are disjoint compatible if they do not have common edges, and no edge of $M$ crosses an edge of $M'$. Denote by $\mathrm{DCM}_k$ the graph whose vertices correspond to such matchings, and two vertices are adjacent if and only if the corresponding matchings are disjoint compatible. We show that for each $k \geq 9$, the connected components of $\mathrm{DCM}_k$ form exactly three isomorphism classes -- n…
A bipartite graph B is called a brace if it is connected and every matching of size at most two in B is contained in some perfect matching of B and a cycle C in B is called conformal if B-V(C) has a perfect matching. We show that there do not exist two disjoint alternating paths that form a cross over a conformal cycle C in a brace B if and only if one can reduce B, by an application of a matching theoretic analogue of small clique sums, to a planar brace H in which C bounds a face. We then utilise this result and provide a polynomial time algorithm which solves the 2-linkage problem for alter…
The weighted $\mathcal{T}$-free $2$-matching problem is the following problem: given an undirected graph $G$, a weight function on its edge set, and a set $\mathcal{T}$ of triangles in $G$, find a maximum weight $2$-matching containing no triangle in $\mathcal{T}$. When $\mathcal{T}$ is the set of all triangles in $G$, this problem is known as the weighted triangle-free $2$-matching problem, which is a long-standing open problem. A main contribution of this paper is to give a first polynomial-time algorithm for the weighted $\mathcal{T}$-free $2$-matching problem under the assumption that $\ma…
On saturation problems involving clique number and matching number
Center for Discrete Mathematics, Fuzhou University（福州大学离散数学中心）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Fuzhou University（福州大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology（南京理工大学数学与统计学院）
We call a finite undirected graph minimally k-matchable if it has at least k distinct perfect matchings but deleting any edge results in a graph which has not. An odd subdivision of some graph G is any graph obtained by replacing every edge of G by a path of odd length connecting its end vertices such that all these paths are internally disjoint. We prove that for every k>0 there exists a finite set of graphs S(k) such that every minimally k-matchable graph is isomorphic to a disjoint union of an odd subdivision of some graph from S(k) and any number of copies of the complete graph on two vert…
We show that provided $\log^{50} n/n \leq p \leq 1 - n^{-1/4}\log^9 n$ we can with high probability find a collection of $\lfloor δ(G)/2 \rfloor$ edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles in $G \sim G_{n, p}$, plus an additional edge-disjoint matching of size $\lfloor n/2 \rfloor$ if $δ(G)$ is odd. This confirms, for the above range of $p$, a conjecture of Frieze and Krivelevich.
We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the maximum multiplicity of a root of the matching polynomial of a tree to be equal to the minimum number of vertex disjoint paths needed to cover it.
In 1965, Paul Erdős asked about the largest family $Y$ of $k$-sets in $\{ 1, \ldots, n \}$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint sets. This problem is commonly known as the Erdős Matching Conjecture. We investigate the $q$-analog of this question, that is we want to determine the size of a largest family $Y$ of $k$-spaces in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint $k$-spaces. Here we call two subspaces disjoint if they intersect trivially. Our main result is, slightly simplified, that if $16 s \leq \min\{ q^{\frac{n-k}{4}},$ $q^{\frac{n-2k+1}{3}…
An induced matching $M$ in a graph $G$ is a matching in $G$ that is also the edge set of an induced subgraph of $G$. That is, any edge not in $M$ must have no more than one incident vertex saturated by $M$. The maximum size $|M|$ of an induced matching $M$ of $G$ is maximum induced matching number of $G$, which is denoted by $\textrm{Max}(G)$. In this article, we obtain upper bounds for $\textrm{Max}(G)$, for $G=G_{n,m}$, grids with $n,m \geq 9$, $m\equiv 1 \mod 4$ and $nm$ odd.
Homogeneous substructures in random ordered uniform matchings
Western Michigan University（西密歇根大学）；Warsaw University of Technology（华沙理工大学）；AGH University of Krakow（克拉科夫AGH科技大学）；Adam Mickiewicz University（亚当·密茨凯维奇大学）
We study the following general disjoint paths problem: given a supply graph $G$, a set $T\subseteq V(G)$ of terminals, a demand graph $H$ on the vertices $T$, and an integer $k$, the task is to find a set of $k$ pairwise vertex-disjoint valid paths, where we say that a path of the supply graph $G$ is valid if its endpoints are in $T$ and adjacent in the demand graph $H$. For a class $\mathcal{H}$ of graphs, we denote by $\mathcal{H}$-Maximum Disjoint Paths the restriction of this problem when the demand graph $H$ is assumed to be a member of $\mathcal{H}$. We study the fixed-parameter tractabi…
Let $G$ be a connected graph. If $G$ contains a matching of size $k$, and every matching of size $k$ is contained in a perfect matching of $G$, then $G$ is said to be \emph{$k$-extendable}. A $k$-regular spanning subgraph of $G$ is called a \textit{$k$-factor}. In this paper, we provide spectral conditions for a (balanced bipartite) graph with minimum degree $δ$ to be $k$-extendable, and for the existence of a $k$-factor in a balanced bipartite graph, respectively. Our results generalize some previous results on perfect matchings of graphs, and extend the results in \cite{D.F} and \cite{W.L} t…
A graph $G$ with a perfect matching is called saturated if $G+e$ has more perfect matchings than $G$ for any edge $e$ that is not in $G$. Lovász gave a characterization of the saturated graphs called the cathedral theorem, with some applications to the enumeration problem of perfect matchings, and later Szigeti gave another proof. In this paper, we give a new proof with our preceding works which revealed canonical structures of general graphs with perfect matchings. Here, the cathedral theorem is derived in quite a natural way, providing more refined or generalized properties. Moreover, the ne…
A graph $G$ is $H$-saturated for a graph $H$, if $G$ does not contain a copy of $H$ but adding any new edge to $G$ results in such a copy. An $H$-saturated graph on a given number of vertices always exists and the properties of such graphs, for example their highest density, have been studied intensively. A graph $G$ is $H$-induced-saturated if $G$ does not have an induced subgraph isomorphic to $H$, but adding an edge to $G$ from its complement or deleting an edge from $G$ results in an induced copy of $H$. It is not immediate anymore that $H$-induced-saturated graphs exist. In fact, Martin a…
We show that if a multigraph $G$ with maximum edge-multiplicity of at most $\frac{\sqrt{n}}{\log^2 n}$, is edge-coloured by $n$ colours such that each colour class is a disjoint union of cliques with at least $2n + o(n)$ vertices, then it has a full rainbow matching, that is, a matching where each colour appears exactly once. This asymptotically solves a question raised by Clemens, Ehrenmüller and Pokrovskiy, and is related to problems on algebras of sets studied by Grinblat in [Grinblat 2002].
We describe two constructions of (very) dense graphs which are edge disjoint unions of large {\em induced} matchings. The first construction exhibits graphs on $N$ vertices with ${N \choose 2}-o(N^2)$ edges, which can be decomposed into pairwise disjoint induced matchings, each of size $N^{1-o(1)}$. The second construction provides a covering of all edges of the complete graph $K_N$ by two graphs, each being the edge disjoint union of at most $N^{2-δ}$ induced matchings, where $δ> 0.058$. This disproves (in a strong form) a conjecture of Meshulam, substantially improves a result of Birk, Linia…
A conjecture of the first two authors is that $n$ matchings of size $n$ in any graph have a rainbow matching of size $n-1$. We prove a lower bound of $\frac{2}{3}n-1$, improving on the trivial $\frac{1}{2}n$, and an analogous result for hypergraphs. For $\{C_3,C_5\}$-free graphs and for disjoint matchings we obtain a lower bound of $\frac{3n}{4}-O(1)$. We also discuss a conjecture on rainbow alternating paths, that if true would yield a lower bound of $n-\sqrt{2n}$. We prove the non-alternating (ordinary paths) version of this conjecture.
Let F be a set system on [n] with all sets having k elements and every pair of sets intersecting. The celebrated theorem of Erdos-Ko-Rado from 1961 says that any such system has size at most ${n-1 \choose k-1}$. A natural question, which was asked by Ahlswede in 1980, is how many disjoint pairs must appear in a set system of larger size. Except for the case k=2, solved by Ahlswede and Katona, this problem has remained open for the last three decades. In this paper, we determine the minimum number of disjoint pairs in small k-uniform families, thus confirming a conjecture of Bollobas and Leader…
A famous conjecture of Ryser states that every $r$-partite hypergraph has vertex cover number at most $r - 1$ times the matching number. In recent years, hypergraphs meeting this conjectured bound, known as $r$-Ryser hypergraphs, have been studied extensively. It was recently proved by Haxell, Narins and Szabó that all $3$-Ryser hypergraphs with matching number $ν> 1$ are essentially obtained by taking $ν$ disjoint copies of intersecting $3$-Ryser hypergraphs. Abu-Khazneh showed that such a characterisation is false for $r = 4$ by giving a computer generated example of a $4$-Ryser hypergraph w…
A subset $D\subseteq V_G$ is a dominating set of $G$ if every vertex in $V_G-D$ has a~neighbor in $D$, while $D$ is a paired-dominating set of $G$ if $D$ is a~dominating set and the subgraph induced by $D$ contains a perfect matching. A graph $G$ is a $D\!P\!D\!P$-graph if it has a pair $(D,P)$ of disjoint sets of vertices of $G$ such that $D$ is a dominating set and $P$ is a paired-dominating set of $G$. The study of the $D\!P\!D\!P$-graphs was initiated by Southey and Henning (Cent. Eur. J. Math. 8 (2010) 459--467; J. Comb. Optim. 22 (2011) 217--234). In this paper, we provide conditions whi…
The main result of the paper is motivated by the following two, apparently unrelated graph optimization problems: (A) as an extension of Edmonds' disjoint branchings theorem, characterize digraphs comprising $k$ disjoint branchings $B_i$ each having a specified number $μ_i$ of arcs, (B) as an extension of Ryser's maximum term rank formula, determine the largest possible matching number of simple bipartite graphs complying with degree-constraints. The solutions to these problems and to their generalizations will be obtained from a new min-max theorem on covering a supermodular function by a sim…
Consider the random graph process $\{G_t\}_{t\geq 0}$. For $k\geq 3$ let $G_{t}^{(k)}$ denote the $k$-core of $G_t$ and let $τ_k$ be the minimum $t$ such that the $k$-core of $G_t$ is nonempty. It is well known that w.h.p. for $G_{τ_k}^{(k)}$ has linear size while it is believed to be Hamiltonian. Bollobás, Cooper, Fenner and Frieze further conjectured that w.h.p. $G_{t}^{(k)}$ spans $\lfloor \frac{k-1}{2} \rfloor$ edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles plus, when $k$ is even, a perfect matching for $t\geq τ_k$. We prove that w.h.p.\@ if $k$ is odd then $G_{t}^{(k)}$ spans $\frac{k-3}{2}$ edge disjoint…
Let $G$ be a graph and $r\in\mathbb{N}$. The matching Kneser graph $\textsf{KG}(G, rK_2)$ is a graph whose vertex set is the set of $r$-matchings in $G$ and two vertices are adjacent if their corresponding matchings are edge-disjoint. In [Alishahi, M. and Hajiabolhassan, H., On the Chromatic Number of Matching Kneser Graphs, Combin. Probab. and Comput. 29 (2020), no. 1, 1--21.] it was conjectured that for any connected graph $G$ and positive integer $r\geq 2$, the chromatic number of $\textsf{KG}(G, rK_2)$ is equal to $|E(G)|-\textsf{ex}(G,rK_2)$, where $\textsf{ex}(G,rK_2)$ denotes the larges…
In this note, we analyze two random greedy processes on sparse random graphs and hypergraphs with a given degree sequence. First we analyze the matching process, which builds a set of disjoint edges one edge at a time; then we analyze the independent process, which builds an independent set of vertices one vertex at a time. We use the differential equations method and apply a general theorem of Warnke. Our main contribution is to significantly reduce the associated systems of differential equations and simplify the expression for the final size of the matching or independent set.
For graphs F and G an F-matching in G is a subgraph of G consisting of pairwise vertex disjoint copies of F. The number of F-matchings in G is denoted by s(F,G). We show that for every fixed positive integer m and every fixed tree F, the probability that s(F,T_n) = 0 mod m, where T_n is a random labeled tree with n vertices, tends to one exponentially fast as n grows to infinity. A similar result is proven for induced F-matchings. This generalizes a recent result of Wagner who showed that the number of independent sets in a random labeled tree is almost surely a zero residue.
We study noncrossing geometric graphs and their disjoint compatible geometric matchings. Given a cycle (a polygon) P we want to draw a set of pairwise disjoint straight-line edges with endpoints on the vertices of P such that these new edges neither cross nor contain any edge of the polygon. We prove NP-completeness of deciding whether there is such a perfect matching. For any n-vertex polygon, with n > 3, we show that such a matching with less than n/7 edges is not maximal, that is, it can be extended by another compatible matching edge. We also construct polygons with maximal compatible matc…
A $2k$-matching is a perfect matching of the complete graph on $2k$ vertices. Two $2k$-matchings are defined to be $t$-intersecting if they have at least $t$ edges in common. The main result in this paper is that if $k \geq 3t/2+1$, then the largest system of $t$-intersecting $2k$-matchings has size $(2(k-t)-1)!! = \prod_{i=0}^{k-t-1}(2k-2t-2i-1)$ and the only systems that meet this bound consist of all $2k$-matchings that contain a set of $t$ disjoint edges. Further, this bound on $k$ is sharp for $t\geq 6$. The method used is this paper is similar to the proof of the complete Erdős-Ko-Rado t…
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-…
Given a graph $F$, a hypergraph is a Berge-$F$ if it can be obtained by expanding each edge in $F$ to a hyperedge containing it. A hypergraph $H$ is Berge-$F$-saturated if $H$ does not contain a subgraph that is a Berge-$F$, but for any edge $e\in E(\overline{H})$, $H+e$ does. The $k$-uniform saturation number of Berge-$F$ is the minimum number of edges in a $k$-uniform Berge-$F$-saturated hypergraph on $n$ vertices. For $k=2$ this definition coincides with the classical definition of saturation for graphs. In this paper we study the saturation numbers for Berge triangles, paths, cycles, stars…
We show combinatorially that the higher-order matching polynomials of several families of graphs are d-orthogonal polynomials. The matching polynomial of a graph is a generating function for coverings of a graph by disjoint edges; the higher-order matching polynomial corresponds to coverings by paths. Several families of classical orthogonal polynomials -- the Chebyshev, Hermite, and Laguerre polynomials -- can be interpreted as matching polynomials of paths, cycles, complete graphs, and complete bipartite graphs. The notion of d-orthogonality is a generalization of the usual idea of orthogona…
Let $n,m$ be integers such that $1\leq m\leq (n-2)/2$ and let $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$. Let $\mathcal{G}=\{G_1,\ldots,G_{m+1}\}$ be a family of graphs on the same vertex set $[n]$. In this paper, we prove that if for any $i\in [m+1]$, the spectral radius of $G_i$ is not less than $\max\{2m,\frac{1}{2}(m-1+\sqrt{(m-1)^2+4m(n-m)})\}$, then $\mathcal{G}$ admits a rainbow matching, i.e. a choice of disjoint edges $e_i\in G_i$, unless $G_1=G_2=\ldots=G_{m+1}$ and $G_1\in \{K_{2m+1}\cup (n-2m-1)K_1, K_m\vee (n-m)K_1\}$.
The families $\mathcal F_1,\ldots, \mathcal F_s\subset 2^{[n]}$ are called $q$-dependent if there are no pairwise disjoint $F_1\in \mathcal F_1,\ldots, F_s\in\mathcal F_s$ satisfying $|F_1\cup\ldots\cup F_s|\le q.$ We determine $\max |\mathcal F_1|+\ldots +|\mathcal F_s| $ for all values $n\ge q,s\ge 2$. The result provides a far-reaching generalization of an important classical result of Kleitman. The well-known Erd\H os Matching Conjecture suggests the largest size of a family $\mathcal F\subset {[n]\choose k}$ with no $s$ pairwise disjoint sets. After more than 50 years its full solution is…
A subgraph of an edge-coloured graph is called rainbow if all its edges have distinct colours. The study of rainbow subgraphs goes back more than two hundred years to the work of Euler on Latin squares and has been the focus of extensive research ever since. Euler posed a problem equivalent to finding properly $n$-edge-coloured complete bipartite graphs $K_{n,n}$ which can be decomposed into rainbow perfect matchings. While there are proper edge-colourings of $K_{n,n}$ without even a single rainbow perfect matching, the theme of this paper is to show that with some very weak additional constra…
Let $3\le d\le k$ and $ν\ge 0$ be fixed and $\mathcal{F}\subset\binom{[n]}{k}$. The matching number of $\mathcal{F}$, denoted by $ν(\mathcal{F})$, is the maximum number of pairwise disjoint sets in $\mathcal{F}$, and $\mathcal{F}$ is $d$-cluster-free if it does not contain $d$ sets with the union of size at most $2k$ and empty intersection. In this paper, we give a lower bound and an upper bound for the maximum size of a $d$-cluster-free family with a matching number at least $ν+1$. In particular, our result of the case $ν=1$ settles a conjecture of Mammoliti and Britz. We also introduce a Tur…
We prove a conjecture of Penrose about the standard random geometric graph process, in which n vertices are placed at random on the unit square and edges are sequentially added in increasing order of lengths taken in the l_p norm. We show that the first edge that makes the random geometric graph Hamiltonian is a.a.s. exactly the same one that gives 2-connectivity. We also extend this result to arbitrary connectivity, by proving that the first edge in the process that creates a k-connected graph coincides a.a.s. with the first edge that causes the graph to contain k/2 pairwise edge-disjoint Ham…
