This paper aims to study linear sets of minimum size in the projective line, that is $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear sets of rank $k$ in $\mathrm{PG}(1,q^n)$ admitting one point of weight one and having size $q^{k-1}+1$. Examples of these linear sets have been found by Lunardon and the second author (2000) and, more recently, by Jena and Van de Voorde (2021). However, classification results for minimum size linear sets are known only for $k\leq 5$. In this paper we provide classification results for those $L_U$ admitting two points with complementary weights. We construct new examples and also study the related $\mathrm{ΓL}(2,q^n)$-equivalence issue. These results solve an open problem posed by Jena and Van de Voorde. The main tool relies on two results by Bachoc, Serra and Zémor (2017 and 2018) on the linear analogues of Kneser's and Vosper's theorems. We then conclude the paper pointing out a connection between critical pairs and linear sets, obtaining also some classification results for critical pairs.
Given a connected graph with domination (or total domination) number γ>=2, we ask for the maximum number m_γand m_{γ,T} of dominating and total dominating sets of size γ. An exact answer is provided for γ=2and lower bounds are given for γ>=3.
Fricke, Hedetniemi, Hedetniemi, and Hutson asked whether every tree with domination number $γ$ has at most $2^γ$ minimum dominating sets. Bien gave a counterexample, which allows to construct forests with domination number $γ$ and $2.0598^γ$ minimum dominating sets. We show that every forest with domination number $γ$ has at most $2.4606^γ$ minimum dominating sets, and that every tree with independence number $α$ has at most $2^{α-1}+1$ maximum independent sets.
We consider numbers and sizes of independent sets in graphs with minimum degree at least $d$, when the number $n$ of vertices is large. In particular we investigate which of these graphs yield the maximum numbers of independent sets of different sizes, and which yield the largest random independent sets. We establish a strengthened form of a conjecture of Galvin concerning the first of these topics.
We consider the likely size of the endpoint sets produced by Posa rotations, when applied to a longest path in a random graph with $cn,\,c\geq 2.7$ edges that is conditioned to have minimum degree at least three.
Let $G=(V,E)$ be a simple graph without isolated vertices. A set $S\subseteq V$ is a paired-dominating set if every vertex in $V-S$ has at least one neighbor in $S$ and the subgraph induced by $S$ contains a perfect matching. In this paper, we present a linear-time algorithm to determine whether a given vertex in a block graph is contained in all its minimum paired-dominating sets.
We use probabilistic methods to find lower bounds on the maximum number, in a graph with domination number γ, of dominating sets of size γ. We find that we can randomly generate a graph that, w.h.p., is dominated by almost all sets of size γ. At the same time, we use a modified adjacency matrix to obtain lower bounds on the number of sets of a given size that do not dominate a graph on n vertices
Let $T$ be a rooted tree, and $V(T)$ its set of vertices. A subset $X$ of $V(T)$ is called an infima closed set of $T$ if for any two vertices $u,v\in X$, the first common ancestor of $u$ and $v$ is also in $X$. This paper determines the trees with minimum number of infima closed sets among all rooted trees of given order, thereby answering a question of Klazar. It is shown that these trees are essentially complete binary trees, with the exception of vertices at the last levels. Moreover, an asymptotic estimate for the minimum number of infima closed sets in a tree with $n$ vertices is also pr…
Galvin showed that for all fixed $δ$ and sufficiently large $n$, the $n$-vertex graph with minimum degree $δ$ that admits the most independent sets is the complete bipartite graph $K_{δ,n-δ}$. He conjectured that except perhaps for some small values of $t$, the same graph yields the maximum count of independent sets of size $t$ for each possible $t$. Evidence for this conjecture was recently provided by Alexander, Cutler, and Mink, who showed that for all triples $(n,δ, t)$ with $t\geq 3$, no $n$-vertex {\em bipartite} graph with minimum degree $δ$ admits more independent sets of size $t$ than…
Since ancient times mathematicians consider geometrical objects with integral side lengths. We consider plane integral point sets $\mathcal{P}$, which are sets of $n$ points in the plane with pairwise integral distances where not all the points are collinear. The largest occurring distance is called its diameter. Naturally the question about the minimum possible diameter $d(2,n)$ of a plane integral point set consisting of $n$ points arises. We give some new exact values and describe state-of-the-art algorithms to obtain them. It turns out that plane integral point sets with minimum diameter c…
Let $G=$ $\left( V,E\right) $ be a simple graph.\ A non-empty set $S \subseteq V$ is called a global offensive alliance if $S$ is a dominating set and for every vertex $v$ in $V-S$, at least half of the vertices from the closed neighborhood of $v$ are in $S$. The global offensive alliance number is the minimum cardinality of a global offensive alliance in $G$. In this paper, we give a constructive characterization of trees having a unique minimum global offensive alliance.
Let $G$ be a graph, and $Z$ a subset of its vertices, which we color black, while the remaining are colored white. We define the skew color change rule as follows: if $u$ is a vertex of $G$, and exactly one of its neighbors $v$, is white, then change the color of $v$ to black. A set $Z$ is a skew zero forcing set for $G$ if the application of the skew color change rule (as many times as necessary) will result in all the vertices in $G$ colored black. A set $Z$ is a minimum skew zero forcing set for $G$ if it is a skew zero forcing set for $G$ of least cardinality. The skew zero forcing number …
A minimum feedback arc set of a directed graph $G$ is a smallest set of arcs whose removal makes $G$ acyclic. Its cardinality is denoted by $β(G)$. We show that an Eulerian digraph with $n$ vertices and $m$ arcs has $β(G) \ge m^2/2n^2+m/2n$, and this bound is optimal for infinitely many $m, n$. Using this result we prove that an Eulerian digraph contains a cycle of length at most $6n^2/m$, and has an Eulerian subgraph with minimum degree at least $m^2/24n^3$. Both estimates are tight up to a constant factor. Finally, motivated by a conjecture of Bollobás and Scott, we also show how to find lon…
The $r$-neighbour bootstrap process is an update rule for the states of vertices in which `uninfected' vertices with at least $r$ `infected' neighbours become infected and a set of initially infected vertices is said to \emph{percolate} if eventually all vertices are infected. For every $r \geq 3$, a sharp condition is given for the minimum degree of a sufficiently large graph that guarantees the existence of a percolating set of size $r$. In the case $r=3$, for $n$ large enough, any graph on $n$ vertices with minimum degree $\lfloor n/2 \rfloor +1$ has a percolating set of size $3$ and for $r…
The independent domination number $i(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a maximal independent set of $G$, also called an $i(G)$-set. The $i$-graph of $G$, denoted $\mathcal{I}(G)$, is the graph whose vertices correspond to the $i(G)$-sets, and where two $i(G)$-sets are adjacent if and only if they differ by two adjacent vertices. We show that not all graphs are $i$-graph realizable, that is, given a target graph $H$, there does not necessarily exist a source graph $G$ such that $H$ is isomorphic to $\mathcal{I}(G)$. Examples of such graphs include $K_{4}-e$ and $K_{2,3}$. We buil…
A planar integral point set is a set of non-collinear points in plane such that for any pair of the points the Euclidean distance between the points is integral. We discuss the classification of planar integral point sets and provide examples of sets that are not covered by the existent classification.
An $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear set of rank $k$ on a projective line $\mathrm{PG}(1,q^h)$, containing at least one point of weight one, has size at least $q^{k-1}+1$ (see [J. De Beule and G. Van De Voorde, The minimum size of a linear set, J. Comb. Theory, Ser: A 164 (2019), 109-124.]). The classical example of such a set is given by a club. In this paper, we construct a broad family of linear sets meeting this lower bound, where we are able to prescribe the weight of the heaviest point to any value between $k/2$ and $k-1$. Our construction extends the known examples of linear sets of size $q^{k-1}+1…
The classification of all the minimal 1-saturating sets in PG(v, 2) for 2 <= v <= 5, and the classification of the smallest and of the second smallest minimal 1-saturating sets in PG(6, 2) are presented. These results have been found using a computer-based exhaustive search.
Geometrical objects with integral sides have attracted mathematicians for ages. For example, the problem to prove or to disprove the existence of a perfect box, that is, a rectangular parallelepiped with all edges, face diagonals and space diagonals of integer lengths, remains open. More generally an integral point set $\mathcal{P}$ is a set of $n$ points in the $m$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{E}^m$ with pairwise integral distances where the largest occurring distance is called its diameter. From the combinatorial point of view there is a natural interest in the determination of the s…
Following recent work by Kollár and Sarnak, we study gaps in the spectra of large connected cubic and quartic graphs with minimum spectral gap. We focus on two sequences of graphs, denoted $Δ_n$ and $Γ_n$ which are more `symmetric' compared to the other graphs in these two families, respectively. We prove that $(1,\sqrt{5}]$ is a gap interval for $Δ_n$, and $[(-1+\sqrt{17})/2,3]$ is a gap interval for $Γ_n$. We conjecture that these two are indeed maximal gap intervals. As a by-product, we show that the eigenvalues of $Δ_n$ lying in the interval $[-3,-\sqrt{5}]$ (in particular, its minimum eig…
We characterize the vertices belonging to all minimum dominating sets, to some minimum dominating sets but not all, and to no minimum dominating set. We refine this characterization for some well studied sub-classes of graphs: chordal, claw-free, triangle-free. Also we exhibit some graphs answering to some open questions of the literature on minimum dominating sets.
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…
The Apollonian networks display the remarkable power-law and small-world properties as observed in most realistic networked systems. Their dual graphs are extended Tower of Hanoi graphs, which are obtained from the Tower of Hanoi graphs by adding a special vertex linked to all its three extreme vertices. In this paper, we study analytically maximum matchings and minimum dominating sets in Apollonian networks and their dual graph- s, both of which have found vast applications in various fields, e.g. structural controllability of complex networks. For both networks, we determine their matching n…
Given a graph $G=(V,E)$, $S\subseteq V$ is a dominating set if every $v\in V\setminus S$ is adjacent to an element of $S$. The Minimum Dominating Set problem asks for a dominating set with minimum cardinality. It is well known that its decision version is $NP$-complete even when $G$ is a claw-free graph. We give a complexity dichotomy for the Minimum Dominating Set problem for the class of $(claw, H)$-free graphs when $H$ has at most six vertices. In an intermediate step we show that the Minimum Dominating Set problem is $NP$-complete for cubic graphs.
For a simple graph $G=(V,E)$ and for a pair of vertices $u,v \in V$, we say that a vertex $w \in V$ resolves $u$ and $v$ if the shortest path from $w$ to $u$ is of a different length than the shortest path from $w$ to $v$. A set of vertices ${R \subseteq V}$ is a resolving set if for every pair of vertices $u$ and $v$ in $G$, there exists a vertex $w \in R$ that resolves $u$ and $v$. The minimum weight resolving set problem is to find a resolving set $M$ for a weighted graph $G$ such that$\sum_{v \in M} w(v)$ is minimum, where $w(v)$ is the weight of vertex $v$. In this paper, we explore the p…
Minimal 1-saturating sets in the projective plane $PG(2,q)$ are considered. They correspond to covering codes which can be applied to many branches of combinatorics and information theory, as data compression, compression with distortion, broadcasting in interconnection network, write-once memory or steganography (see \cite{Coh} and \cite{BF2008}). The full classification of all the minimal 1-saturating sets in PG(2,9) and PG(2,11) and the classification of minimal 1-saturating sets of smallest size in PG(2,q), $16\leq q\leq 23$ are given. These results have been found using a computer-based e…
Let $G$ be a graph whose edges are labeled by ideals of a commutative ring $R$ with identity. Such a graph is called an edge-labeled graph over $R$. A generalized spline is a vertex labeling so that the difference between the labels of any two adjacent vertices lies in the ideal corresponding to the edge. These generalized splines form a module over $R$. In this paper, we consider complete graphs whose edges are labeled with proper ideals of $\mathbb{Z} / m\mathbb{Z}$. We compute minimum generating sets of constant flow-up classes for spline modules on edge-labeled complete graphs over $\mathb…
We classify 8-divisible binary linear codes with minimum distance 24 and small length. As an application we consider the codes associated to nodal sextics with 65 ordinary double points.
The closure $\textrm{cl}(R)$ of a consistent set $R$ of triples (rooted binary trees on three leaves) provides essential information about tree-like relations that are shown by any supertree that displays all triples in $R$. In this contribution, we are concerned with representative triple sets, that is, subsets $R'$ of $R$ with $\textrm{cl}(R') = \textrm{cl}(R)$. In this case, $R'$ still contains all information on the tree structure implied by $R$, although $R'$ might be significantly smaller. We show that representative triple sets that are minimal w.r.t.\ inclusion form the basis of a matr…
Let F be a finite union-closed family of sets whose largest set contains n elements. In \cite{Wojcik92}, Wojcik defined the density of F to be the ratio of the average set size of F to n and conjectured that the minimum density over all union-closed families whose largest set contains n elements is (1 + o(1))\log_2(n)/(2n) as n approaches infinity. We use a result of Reimer \cite{Reimer03} to show that the density of F is always at least log_2(n)/(2n), verifying Wojcik's conjecture. As a corollary we show that for n \geq 16, some element must appear in at least \sqrt{(\log_2(n))/n}(|F|/2) sets…
We study the minimum degree necessary to guarantee the existence of perfect and almost-perfect triangle-tilings in an $n$-vertex graph $G$ with sublinear independence number. In this setting, we show that if $δ(G) \ge n/3 + o(n)$ then $G$ has a triangle-tiling covering all but at most four vertices. Also, for every $r \ge 5$, we asymptotically determine the minimum degree threshold for a perfect triangle-tiling under the additional assumptions that $G$ is $K_r$-free and $n$ is divisible by $3$.
A graph $G=(V,E)$ is $γ$-excellent if $V$ is a union of all $γ$-sets of $G$, where $γ$ stands for the domination number. Let $\mathcal{I}$ be a set of all mutually nonisomorphic graphs and $\emptyset \not= \mathcal{H} \subsetneq \mathcal{I}$. In this paper we initiate the study of the $\mathcal{H}$-$γ$-excellent graphs, which we define as follows. A graph $G$ is $\mathcal{H}$-$γ$-excellent if the following hold: (i) for every $H \in \mathcal{H}$ and for each $x \in V(G)$ there exists an induced subgraph $H_x$ of $G$ such that $H$ and $H_x$ are isomorphic, $x \in V(H_x)$ and $V(H_x)$ is a subse…
A locating-dominating set in a graph G is a subset of vertices representing "detectors" which can locate an "intruder" given that each detector covers its closed neighborhood and can distinguish its own location from its neighbors. We explore a fault-tolerant variant of locating-dominating sets called redundant locating-dominating sets, which can tolerate one detector malfunctioning (going offline or being removed). In particular, we characterize redundant locating-dominating sets and prove that the problem of determining the minimum cardinality of a redundant locating-dominating set is NP-com…
We introduce a general class of algorithms and supply a number of general results useful for analysing these algorithms when applied to regular graphs of large girth. As a result, we can transfer a number of results proved for random regular graphs into (deterministic) results about all regular graphs with sufficiently large girth. This is an uncommon direction of transfer of results, which is usually from the deterministic setting to the random one. In particular, this approach enables, for the first time, the achievement of results equivalent to those obtained on random regular graphs by a p…
For a finite field GF(q) a Kakeya set K is a subset of GF(q)^n that contains a line in every direction. This paper derives new upper bounds on the minimum size of Kakeya sets when q is even.
A forbidden transition graph is a graph defined together with a set of permitted transitions i.e. unordered pair of adjacent edges that one may use consecutively in a walk in the graph. In this paper, we look for the smallest set of transitions needed to be able to go from any vertex of the given graph to any other. We prove that this problem is NP-hard and study approximation algorithms. We develop theoretical tools that help to study this problem.
We introduce the cycle intersection graph of a graph, an adaptation of the cycle graph of a graph, and use the structure of these graphs to prove an upper bound for the decycling number of all even graphs. This bound is shown to be significantly better when an even graph admits a cycle decomposition in which any two cycles intersect in at most one vertex. Links between the cycle rank of the cycle intersection graph of an even graph and the decycling number of the even graph itself are found. The problem of choosing an ideal cycle decomposition is addressed and is presented as an optimization p…
Isaak posed the following problem. Suppose $T$ is a tournament having a minimum feedback arc set which induces an acyclic digraph with a hamiltonian path. Is it true that the maximum number of arc-disjoint cycles in $T$ equals the cardinality of minimum feedback arc set of $T$? We prove that the answer to the problem is in the negative. Further, we study the number of arc-disjoint cycles through a vertex $v$ of the minimum out-degree in an oriented graph $D$. We prove that if $v$ is adjacent to all other vertices, then $v$ belongs to $δ^+(D)$ arc-disjoint cycles.
This paper addresses the problem of finding minimum forcing sets in origami. The origami material folds flat along straight lines called creases that can be labeled as mountains or valleys. A forcing set is a subset of creases that force all the other creases to fold according to their labels. The result is a flat folding of the origami material. In this paper we develop a linear time algorithm that finds minimum forcing sets in one dimensional origami.
This paper presents algorithms that relate to the problem of finding a minimum-cost sum-of-primes representation of a Boolean function f when the cost function C is positive and additive. A set of primes whose sum equals f is called a basis for f, so a solution to the problem is a minimum-cost basis. The algorithms construct the following canonical partition of the complete set of primes and identify the members of sets 1, 2, and 3: (1) Essential Primes, which must be part of any basis for f, (2) Unnecessary Primes that cannot be part of a minimum-cost basis for f for any positive additive cos…
