A graph is $k$-vertex-critical if $χ(G)=k$ but $χ(G-v)<k$ for all $v\in V(G)$. We construct a new infinite families of $k$-vertex-critical $(P_5,C_5)$-free graphs for all $k\ge 6$. Our construction generalizes known constructions for $4$-vertex-critical $P_7$-free graphs and $5$-vertex-critical $P_5$-free graphs and is in contrast to the fact that there are only finitely many $5$-vertex-critical $(P_5,C_5)$-free graphs. In fact, our construction is actually even more well-structured, being $(2P_2,K_3+P_1,C_5)$-free.
A proper labelling of a graph $G$ is a pair $(π,c_π)$ in which $π$ is an assignment of numeric labels to some elements of $G$, and $c_π$ is a colouring induced by $π$ through some mathematical function over the set of labelled elements. In this work, we consider gap-vertex-labellings, in which the colour of a vertex is determined by a function considering the largest difference between the labels assigned to its neighbours. We present the first upper-bound for the vertex-gap number of arbitrary graphs, which is the least number of labels required to properly label a graph. We investigate famil…
A simple $n$-vertex graph has a prime vertex labeling if the vertices can be injectively labeled with the integers $1, 2, 3,\ldots, n$ such that adjacent vertices have relatively prime labels. We will present previously unknown prime vertex labelings for new families of graphs, all of which are special cases of Seoud and Youssef's conjecture that all unicyclic graphs have a prime labeling.
We consider the problem of computing identifying codes of graphs and its fractional relaxation. The ratio between the size of optimal integer and fractional solutions is between 1 and 2 ln(|V|)+1 where V is the set of vertices of the graph. We focus on vertex-transitive graphs for which we can compute the exact fractional solution. There are known examples of vertex-transitive graphs that reach both bounds. We exhibit infinite families of vertex-transitive graphs with integer and fractional identifying codes of order |V|^a with a in {1/4,1/3,2/5}. These families are generalized quadrangles (st…
A maximum stable set in a graph G is a stable set of maximum cardinality. S is a local maximum stable set of G, if S is a maximum stable set of the subgraph induced by its closed neighborhood. It is known that the family of all local maximum stable sets of a forest forms a greedoid on its vertex set. Bipartite, triangle-free, and well-covered graphs whose families of local maximum stable sets form greedoids have been analyzed as well. A unicycle graph owns only one cycle. In this paper we characterize the unicycle graphs whose families of local maximum stable sets form greedoids.
It is not hard to find many complete bipartite graphs which are not determined by their spectra. We show that the graph obtained by deleting an edge from a complete bipartite graph is determined by its spectrum. We provide some graphs, each of which is obtained from a complete bipartite graph by adding a vertex and an edge incident on the new vertex and an original vertex, which are not determined by their spectra.
We consider the following generalization of the seminal Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem, due to Frankl. For k>= 2, let F be a k-wise intersecting family of r-subsets of an n element set X, i.e. any k sets in F have a nonempty intersection. If r<= (k-1/k)n, then |F|<={n-1 \choose r-1}. We extend Frankl's theorem in a graph-theoretic direction. For a graph G, and r>=1, let P^r(G) be the family of all r-subsets of the vertex set of G such that every r-subset is either an independent set or contains a maximum independent set. We will consider k-wise intersecting subfamilies of this family for the graph M_n,…
An Euler tour in a hypergraph is a closed walk that traverses each edge of the hypergraph exactly once, while an Euler family, first defined by Bahmanian and Sajna, is a family of closed walks that jointly traverse each edge exactly once and cannot be concatenated. In this paper, we study the notions of a spanning Euler tour and a spanning Euler family, that is, an Euler tour (family) that also traverses each vertex of the hypergraph at least once. We examine necessary and sufficient conditions for a hypergraph to admit a spanning Euler family, most notably, when the hypergraph possesses a ver…
It has long been known that there exist finite connected tetravalent arc-transitive graphs with arbitrarily large vertex-stabilisers. However, beside a well known family of exceptional graphs, related to the lexicographic product of a cycle with an edgeless graph on two vertices, only a few such infinite families of graphs are known. In this paper, we present two more families of tetravalent arc-transitive graphs with large vertex-stabilisers, each significant for its own reason.
PhD Thesis--A compilation of the papers: "Lower Bounds for Identifying Codes in Some Infinite Grids", "Improved Bounds for r-identifying Codes of the Hex Grid", and "Vertex Identifying Codes for the n-dimensional Lattics" along with some other results
Homomorphism duality pairs play crucial role in the theory of relational structures and in the Constraint Satisfaction Problem. The case where both classes are finite is fully characterized. The case when both side are infinite seems to be very complex. It is also known that no finite-infinite duality pair is possible if we make the additional restriction that both classes are antichains. In this paper we characterize the infinite-finite antichain dualities and infinite-finite dualities with trees or forest on the left hand side. This work builds on our earlier papers that gave several example…
Given an Eulerian digraph, we consider the genus distribution of its face-oriented embeddings. We prove that such distribution is log-concave for two families of Eulerian digraphs, thus giving a positive answer for these families to a question asked in Bonnington, Conder, Morton and McKenna (2002). Our proof uses real-rooted polynomials and the representation theory of the symmetric group $\mathbb{S}_n$. The result is also extended to some factorizations of the identity in $\mathbb{S}_n$ that are rotation systems of some families of one-face constellations.
We study $Q$-polynomial distance-regular graphs from the point of view of what we call descendents, that is to say, those vertex subsets with the property that the width $w$ and dual width $w^*$ satisfy $w+w^*=d$, where $d$ is the diameter of the graph. We show among other results that a nontrivial descendent with $w\ge 2$ is convex precisely when the graph has classical parameters. The classification of descendents has been done for the 5 classical families of graphs associated with short regular semilattices. We revisit and characterize these families in terms of posets consisting of descend…
In this paper we introduce a construction of directed strongly regular graphs from smaller ones using equitable partitions. Each equitable partition of a single DSRG satisfying several conditions leads to an infinite family of directed strongly regular graphs. We construct in this way dozens of infinite families. For order at most 110, we confirm the existence of DSRGs for 30 previously open parameter sets.
We study groups acting vertex-transitively on connected, trivalent graphs such that stabilizers of vertices are infinite. If the action is edge-transitive, we prove that the graph has to be a tree. We analyze the case where the action is not edge-transitive and fully classify the possible $2$-ended graphs. We draw connections to Willis' scale function and re-prove a result by Trofimov.
Let $n\geq 3$ and $r_n$ be a $3$-polytopal graph such that for every $3\leq i\leq n$, $r_n$ has at least one vertex of degree $i$. We find the minimal vertex count for $r_n$. We then describe an algorithm to construct the graphs $r_n$. A dual statement may be formulated for faces of $3$-polytopes. The ideas behind the algorithm generalise readily to solve related problems. Moreover, given a $3$-polytope $t_l$ comprising a vertex of degree $i$ for all $3\leq i\leq l$, $l$ fixed, we define an algorithm to output for $n>l$ a $3$-polytope $t_n$ comprising a vertex of degree $i$, for all $3\leq i\l…
We generalize the zig-zag product construction to produce infinite families of regular graphs of any constant degree. We analyze the second largest eigenvalue of this new zig-zag product to show that the modified zig-zag product of good expanders is again a good expander (yet not Ramanujan).
We investigate families of two-dimensional simplicial complexes defined in terms of vertex decompositions. They include nonevasive complexes, strongly collapsible complexes of Barmak and Miniam and analogues of 2-trees of Harary and Palmer. We investigate the complexity of recognition problems for those families and some of their combinatorial properties. Certain results follow from analogous decomposition techniques for graphs. For example, we prove that it is NP-complete to decide if a graph can be reduced to a discrete graph by a sequence of removals of vertices of degree 3.
We consider the problem of constructing optimal authentication codes with splitting. New infinite families of such codes are obtained. In particular, we establish the first known infinite family of optimal authentication codes with splitting that are secure against spoofing attacks of order two.
For a tournament $H$ with $h$ vertices, its typical density is $h!2^{-\binom{h}{2}}/aut(H)$, i.e. this is the expected density of $H$ in a random tournament. A family ${\mathcal F}$ of $h$-vertex tournaments is {\em dominant} if for all sufficiently large $n$, there exists an $n$-vertex tournament $G$ such that the density of each element of ${\mathcal F}$ in $G$ is larger than its typical density by a constant factor. Characterizing all dominant families is challenging already for small $h$. Here we characterize several large dominant families for every $h$. In particular, we prove the follow…
The existence of $1$-factorizations of an infinite complete equipartite graph $K_m[n]$ (with $m$ parts of size $n$) admitting a vertex-regular automorphism group $G$ is known only when $n=1$ and $m$ is countable (that is, for countable complete graphs) and, in addition, $G$ is a finitely generated abelian group $G$ of order $m$. In this paper, we show that a vertex-regular $1$-factorization of $K_m[n]$ under the group $G$ exists if and only if $G$ has a subgroup $H$ of order $n$ whose index in $G$ is $m$. Furthermore, we provide a sufficient condition for an infinite Cayley graph to have a reg…
We focus our attention on well-covered graphs that are vertex decomposable. We show that for many known families of these vertex decomposable graphs, the set of shedding vertices forms a dominating set. We then construct three new infinite families of well-covered graphs, none of which have this property. We use these results to provide a minimal counterexample to a conjecture of Villarreal regarding Cohen-Macaulay graphs.
The interplay between coding theory and $t$-designs has attracted a lot of attention for both directions. It is well known that the supports of all codewords with a fixed weight in a code may hold a $t$-design. In this paper, by determining the weight distributions of two classes of linear codes, we derive infinite families of $2$-designs from the supports of codewords with a fixed weight in these codes, and explicitly obtain their parameters.
We construct infinite families of abstract regular polytopes of type $\{4,p_1,\ldots,p_{n-1}\}$ from extensions of centrally symmetric spherical abstract regular $n$-polytopes. In addition, by applying the halving operation, we obtain infinite families of both locally spherical and locally toroidal regular hypertopes of type $\left\{{p_1 \atop p_1},\ldots,p_{n-1}\right\}$.
Let $H$ be a graph with maximum degree $d$, and let $d'\ge 0$. We show that for some $c>0$ depending on $H,d'$, and all integers $n\ge 0$, there are at most $c^n$ unlabelled simple $d$-connected $n$-vertex graphs with maximum degree at most $d'$ that do not contain $H$ as a subdivision. On the other hand, the number of unlabelled simple $(d-1)$-connected $n$-vertex graphs with minimum degree $d$ and maximum degree at most $d+1$ that do not contain $K_{d+1}$ as a subdivision is superexponential in $n$.
For a graph $G$ with vertex set $V(G)=\{v_1, v_2, \cdots, v_n\}$, the extended double cover $G^*$ is a bipartite graph with bipartition (X, Y), $X=\{x_1, x_2, \cdots, x_n\}$ and $Y=\{y_1, y_2, \cdots, y_n\}$, where two vertices $x_i$ and $y_j$ are adjacent if and only if $i=j$ or $v_i$ adjacent to $v_j$ in $G$. The double graph $D[G]$ of $G$ is a graph obtained by taking two copies of $G$ and joining each vertex in one copy with the neighbours of corresponding vertex in another copy. In this paper we study energy and Laplacian energy of the graphs $G^*$ and $D[G]$, $L$-spectra of $G^{k*}$ the …
A graph property is said to be elusive ( evasive) if every algorithm testing this property by asking questions of the form "is there an edge between vertices x and y" requires, in the worst case, to ask about all pairs of vertices. The unsettled Aanderaa-Karp-Rosenberg conjecture is that every monotone graph property is elusive for finite vertex sets. We show that the situation is completely different for infinite vertex sets: the monotone graph properties "every vertex has degree at least n" and "every connected components has size at least n" where n is a natural number, are not elusive for …
A perfect matching in the complete graph on $2k$ vertices is a set of edges such that no two edges have a vertex in common and every vertex is covered exactly once. Two perfect matchings are said to be $t$-intersecting if they have at least $t$ edges in common. The main result in this paper is an extension of the famous Erdős-Ko-Rado (EKR) theorem \cite{EKR} to 2-intersecting families of perfect matchings for all values of $k$. Specifically, for $k\geq 3$ a set of 2-intersecting perfect matchings in $K_{2k}$ of maximum size has $(2k-5)(2k-7)\cdots (1)$ perfect matchings.
Erdös-Hajnal conjecture states that for every undirected graph $H$ there exists $ ε(H) > 0 $ such that every undirected graph on $ n $ vertices that does not contain $H$ as an induced subgraph contains a clique or a stable set of size at least $ n^{ε(H)} $. This conjecture has a directed equivalent version stating that for every tournament $H$ there exists $ ε(H) > 0 $ such that every $H-$free $n-$vertex tournament $T$ contains a transitive subtournament of order at least $ n^{ε(H)} $. This conjecture is known to hold for a few infinite families of tournaments. In this paper we construct two n…
For a graph, $G$, and a vertex $v \in V(G)$, let $N[v]$ be the set of vertices adjacent to and including $v$. A set $D \subseteq V(G)$ is a vertex identifying code if for any two distinct vertices $v_1, v_2 \in V(G)$, the vertex sets $N[v_1] \cap D$ and $N[v_2] \cap D$ are distinct and non-empty. We consider the minimum density of a vertex identifying code for the infinite hexagonal grid. In 2000, Cohen et al. constructed two codes with a density of $3/7 \approx 0.428571$, and this remains the best known upper bound. Until now, the best known lower bound was $12/29 \approx 0.413793$ and was pr…
We construct for all $ k\in \mathbb{N} $ a $ k $-edge-connected digraph $ D $ with $ s,t\in V(D) $ such that there are no edge-disjoint $ s \rightarrow t $ and $t\rightarrow s $ paths. We use in our construction "self-similar" graphs which technique could be useful in other problems as well.
We construct two infinite families of locally toroidal chiral polytopes of type $\{4,4,4\}$, with $1024m^2$ and $2048m^2$ automorphisms for every positive integer $m$, respectively. The automorphism groups of these polytopes are solvable groups, and when $m$ is a power of $2$, they provide examples with automorphism groups of order $2^n$ where $n$ can be any integer greater than $9$. (On the other hand, no chiral polytopes of type $[4,4,4]$ exist for $n \leq 9$.) In particular, our two families give a partial answer to a problem proposed by Schulte and Weiss in [Problems on polytopes, their gr…
Combinatorial $t$-designs have wide applications in coding theory, cryptography, communications and statistics. It is well known that the supports of all codewords with a fixed weight in a code may give a $t$-design. In this paper, we first determine the weight distribution of a class of linear codes derived from the dual of extended cyclic code with two non-zeros. We then obtain infinite families of $2$-designs and explicitly compute their parameters from the supports of all the codewords with a fixed weight in the codes. By simple counting argument, we obtain exponentially many $2$-designs.
For any undirected and simple graph G = (V;E), where V denotes the vertex set and E the edge set of G. G is called hamiltonian if it contains a cycle that visits each vertex of G exactly once. Ore (1960) proved that G is hamiltonian if degG(u) + degG(v) >= n holds for every nonadjacent pair of vertices u and v in V, where n is the total number of distinct vertices of G. Kao et al. (2012) proved that any graph G satisfying Ore's theorem remains hamiltonian after the removal of any vertex x in V unless G belongs to one of the two exceptional families of graphs. In this paper, we proved that in f…
The interplay between coding theory and $t$-designs started many years ago. While every $t$-design yields a linear code over every finite field, the largest $t$ for which an infinite family of $t$-designs is derived directly from a linear or nonlinear code is $t=3$. Sporadic $4$-designs and $5$-designs were derived from some linear codes of certain parameters. The major objective of this paper is to construct many infinite families of $2$-designs and $3$-designs from linear codes. The parameters of some known $t$-designs are also derived. In addition, many conjectured infinite families of $2$-…
We survey the area of strongly regular graphs satisfying the 4-vertex condition and find several new families. We describe a switching operation on collinearity graphs of polar spaces that produces cospectral graphs. The obtained graphs satisfy the 4-vertex condition if the original graph belongs to a symplectic polar space.
Let ${\cal G}=(G,w)$ be a weighted graph , that is, a graph $G$ endowed with a function $w$ from the edge set of $G$ to the set of real numbers; for any subset $S$ of the vertex set of $G$, we define $D_S({\cal G})$ to be the minimum of the weights of the subgraphs of $G$ whose vertex set contains $S$; we call $D_S({\cal G})$ a multiweight of ${\cal G}$. Let $X$ be a finite set and let $\{D_S\}_{S \subset X, \; \sharp S \geq 2} $ be a family of positive real numbers. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for the family to be the family of multiweights of a positive-weighted graph with ve…
Brändén and Claesson introduced mesh patterns to provide explicit expansions for certain permutation statistics as linear combinations of (classical) permutation patterns. The first systematic study of avoidance of mesh patterns was conducted by Hilmarsson et al., while the first systematic study of the distribution of mesh patterns was conducted by the first two authors. In this paper, we provide far-reaching generalizations for 8 known distribution results and 5 known avoidance results related to mesh patterns by giving distribution or avoidance formulas for certain infinite families of mesh…
Group action is a standard approach to obtain $t$-designs. In this approach, selecting a specific permutation group with a certain degree of transitivity or homogeneity and a proper set of base blocks is important for obtaining $t$-$(v, k, λ)$ designs with computable parameters $t, v, k$, and $λ$. The general affine group $\GA_1(q)$ is $2$-transitive on $\gf(q)$, and has relatively a small size. In this paper, we determine the parameters of a number of infinite families of $2$-designs obtained from the action of the group $\GA_1(q)$ on certain base blocks, and demonstrate that some of the $2$-…
Siran constructed infinite families of k-crossing-critical graphs for every k=>3 and Kochol constructed such families of simple graphs for every k=>2. Richter and Thomassen argued that, for any given k>=1 and r>=6, there are only finitely many simple k-crossing-critical graphs with minimum degree r. Salazar observed that the same argument implies such a conclusion for simple k-crossing-critical graphs of prescribed average degree r>6. He established existence of infinite families of simple k-crossing-critical graphs with any prescribed rational average degree r in [4,6) for infinitely many k a…
This paper gives new solutions to the problem: 'Can we construct monohedral tilings of the disk such that a neighbourhood of the origin has trivial intersection with at least one tile?'
Let $p$ be an odd prime. In this paper we provide a construction which gives four non-Schurian association schemes for every $p\geq 5$ and two for $p=3$. This construction is explained using incidences between points and lines of a biaffine plane and we also provide a pure algebraic model for it with the aid of finite Heisenberg groups. The obtained results are discussed in a more wide framework.
It is conjectured by Berge and Fulkerson that every bridgeless cubic graph has six perfect matchings such that each edge is contained in exactly two of them. H$\ddot{a}$gglund constructed two graphs Blowup$(K_4, C)$ and Blowup$(Prism, C_4)$. Based on these two graphs, Chen constructed infinite families of bridgeless cubic graphs $M_{0,1,2, \ldots,k-2, k-1}$ which is obtained from cyclically 4-edge-connected and having a Fulkerson-cover cubic graphs $G_0,G_1,\ldots, G_{k-1}$ by recursive process. If each $G_i$ for $1\leq i\leq k-1$ is a cyclically 4-edge-connected snarks with excessive index at…
Branched molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can self-assemble into nanostructures through complementary cohesive strand base pairing. The production of DNA nanostructures is valuable in targeted drug delivery and biomolecular computing. With theoretical efficiency of laboratory processes in mind, we use a flexible tile model for DNA assembly. We aim to minimize the number of different types of branched junction molecules necessary to assemble certain target structures. We represent target structures as discrete graphs and branched DNA molecules as vertices with half-edges. We present the…
The transmission of a vertex $v$ of a graph $G$ is the sum of distances from $v$ to all the other vertices in $G$. A graph is transmission irregular if all of its vertices have pairwise different transmissions. A starlike tree $T(k_1,\ldots,k_t)$ is a tree obtained by attaching to an isolated vertex $t$ pendant paths of lengths $k_1,\ldots,k_t$, respectively. It is proved that if a starlike tree $T(a,a+1,\ldots,a+k)$, $k\ge 2$, is of odd order, then it is transmission irregular. $T(1,2,\ldots,\ell)$, $\ell \ge 3$, is transmission irregular if and only if $\ell \notin \{r^2 + 1:\ r\ge 2\}$. Add…
We prove that there exist infinite families of regular bipartite Ramanujan graphs of every degree bigger than 2. We do this by proving a variant of a conjecture of Bilu and Linial about the existence of good 2-lifts of every graph. We also establish the existence of infinite families of `irregular Ramanujan' graphs, whose eigenvalues are bounded by the spectral radius of their universal cover. Such families were conjectured to exist by Linial and others. In particular, we prove the existence of infinite families of (c,d)-biregular bipartite graphs with all non-trivial eigenvalues bounded by sq…
Frame difference families, which can be obtained via a careful use of cyclotomic conditions attached to strong difference families, play an important role in direct constructions for resolvable balanced incomplete block designs. We establish asymptotic existences for several classes of frame difference families. As corollaries new infinite families of 1-rotational $(pq+1,p+1,1)$-RBIBDs over $\mathbb{F}_{p}^+ \times \mathbb{F}_{q}^+$ are derived, and the existence of $(125q+1,6,1)$-RBIBDs is discussed. We construct $(v,8,1)$-RBIBDs for $v\in\{624,1576,2976,5720,5776,10200,14176,24480\}$, whose …
It is shown that there are infinitely many connected vertex-transitive graphs that have no Hamilton decomposition, including infinitely many Cayley graphs of valency 6, and including Cayley graphs of arbitrarily large valency.
Combinatorial $t$-designs have been an interesting topic in combinatorics for decades. It is a basic fact that the codewords of a fixed weight in a code may hold a $t$-design. Till now only a small amount of work on constructing $t$-designs from codes has been done. In this paper, we determine the weight distributions of two classes of cyclic codes: one related to the triple-error correcting binary BCH codes, and the other related to the cyclic codes with parameters satisfying the generalized Kasami case, respectively. We then obtain infinite families of $2$-designs from these codes by proving…
