We study the typical structure of oriented graphs and digraphs that do not contain a blow-up T_{r+1}^t of a transitive tournament. For any integers r >= 2, t >= 1 and any real a in (3/2,2], we prove that almost all T_{r+1}^t-free oriented graphs and almost all T_{r+1}^t-free digraphs are r-partite. This extends the results of Kuhn, Osthus, Townsend and Zhao (2017) on forbidden transitive tournaments to their blow-ups, thereby confirming a generalised form of Cherlin's conjecture. Our proof combines the hypergraph container method, a weighted analogue of the Erdos-Stone theorem for digraphs, and a stability analysis for near-extremal T_{r+1}^t-free digraphs. The core of the proof is the interplay between the directed regularity lemma and an embedding lemma, which together provide a rigorous bridge from macroscopic extremal conditions to microscopic concrete structures.
We prove the existence of a function $h(k)$ such that every simple digraph with minimum outdegree greater than $h(k)$ contains an immersion of the transitive tournament on $k$ vertices. This solves a conjecture of Devos, McDonald, Mohar and Scheide.
Continuing the program begun in the first paper of this series, we present a pair of non-reconstructable tournament on $p$ vertices for each $p=2^n \ge 4$.
Solving the kernel perfect problem by (simple) forbidden subdigraphs for digraphs in some families of generalized tournaments and generalized bipartite tournaments
Seymour's distance two conjecture states that in any digraph there exists a vertex (a "Seymour vertex") that has at least as many neighbors at distance two as it does at distance one. We explore the validity of probabilistic statements along lines suggested by Seymour's conjecture, proving that almost surely there are a "large" number of Seymour vertices in random tournaments and "even more" in general random digraphs.
We prove that a tournament with $n$ vertices has more than $0.13n^2(1+o(1))$ edge-disjoint transitive triples. We also prove some results on the existence of large packings of $k$-vertex transitive tournaments in an $n$-vertex tournament. Our proofs combine probabilistic arguments and some powerful packing results due to Wilson and to Frankl and Rödl.
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.).
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.
Motivated by his work on the classification of countable homogeneous oriented graphs, Cherlin asked about the typical structure of oriented graphs (i) without a transitive triangle, or (ii) without an oriented triangle. We give an answer to these questions (which is not quite the predicted one). Our approach is based on the recent `hypergraph containers' method, developed independently by Saxton and Thomason as well as by Balogh, Morris and Samotij. Moreover, our results generalise to forbidden transitive tournaments and forbidden oriented cycles of any order, and also apply to digraphs. Along…
We prove that for every fixed $k$, the number of occurrences of the transitive tournament $Tr_k$ of order $k$ in a tournament $T_n$ on $n$ vertices is asymptotically minimized when $T_n$ is random. In the opposite direction, we show that any sequence of tournaments $\{T_n\}$ achieving this minimum for any fixed $k\geq 4$ is necessarily quasi-random. We present several other characterizations of quasi-random tournaments nicely complementing previously known results and relatively easily following from our proof techniques.
Chordal graphs are important in the structural and algorithmic graph theory. A digraph analogue of chordal graphs was introduced by Haskin and Rose in 1973 but has not been a subject of active studies until recently when a characterization of semicomplete chordal digraphs in terms of forbidden subdigraphs was found by Meister and Telle. Locally semicomplete digraphs, quasi-transitive digraphs, and extended semi-complete digraphs are amongst the most popular generalizations of semicomplete digraphs. We extend the forbidden subdigraph characterization of semicomplete chordal digraphs to locally …
We study vertex-quasiprimitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs, reducing the problem of vertex-primitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs to almost simple groups. This includes a complete classification of vertex-quasiprimitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs where the action on vertices has O'Nan-Scott type SD or CD.
We show that for every positive integer $k$, any tournament with minimum out-degree at least $(2+o(1))k^2$ contains a subdivision of the complete directed graph on $k$ vertices, which is best possible up to a factor of $8$. This may be viewed as a directed analogue of a theorem proved by Bollobás and Thomason, and independently by Komlós and Szemerédi, concerning subdivisions of cliques in graphs with sufficiently high average degree. We also consider the following problem: given $k$, what is the smallest positive integer $f(k)$ such that any $f(k)$-vertex tournament contains a $1$-subdivision…
A detailed description of the structure of two-ended arc-transitive digraphs is given. It is also shown that several sets of conditions, involving such concepts as Property Z, local quasi-primitivity and prime out-valency, imply that an arc-transitive digraph must be highly-arc-transitive. These are then applied to give a complete classification of two-ended highly-arc-transitive digraphs with prime in- and out-valencies.
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…
We introduce a construction of highly arc transitive digraphs using a layerwise direct product. This product generalizes some known classes of highly arc transitive digraphs but also allows to construct new such. We use the product to obtain counterexamples to a conjecture by Cameron, Praeger and Wormald on the structure of certain highly arc transitive digraphs.
We further study sets of labeled dice in which the relation "is a better die than" is non-transitive. Focusing on sets with an additional symmetry we call "balance," we prove that sets of $n$ such $m$-sided dice exist for all $n,m \geq 3$. We then show how to construct a set of $n$ dice such that the relation behaves according to the direction of the arrows of any tournament (complete directed graph) on $n$ vertices.
In this work, we establish an analogue result of the Erdös-Stone theorem of weighted digraphs using Regularity Lemma of digraphs. We give a stability result of oriented graphs and digraphs with forbidden blow-up transitive triangle and show that almost all oriented graphs and almost all digraphs with forbidden blow-up transitive triangle are almost bipartite respectively.
We resolve two problems of [Cameron, Praeger, and Wormald -- Infinite highly arc transitive digraphs and universal covering digraphs, Combinatorica 1993]. First, we construct a locally finite highly arc-transitive digraph with universal reachability relation. Second, we provide constructions of 2-ended highly arc transitive digraphs where each `building block' is a finite bipartite graph that is not a disjoint union of complete bipartite graphs. This was conjectured impossible in the above paper. We also describe the structure of 2-ended highly arc transitive digraphs in more generality, altho…
We study $G$-vertex-primitive and $(G,s)$-arc-transitive digraphs for almost simple groups $G$ with socle $\mathrm{PSL}_n(q)$. It turns out that $s\leqslant2$ for such digraphs, which provides the first step in determining an upper bound on $s$ for all the vertex-primitive $s$-arc-transitive digraphs.
A general method for constructing sharply $k$-arc-transitive digraphs, i.e. digraphs that are $k$-arc-transitive but not $(k+1)$-arc-transitive, is presented. Using our method it is possible to construct both finite and infinite examples. The infinite examples can have one, two or infinitely many ends. Among the one-ended examples there are also digraphs that have polynomial growth.
In 2017, Giudici, Li and the third author constructed the first known family of vertex-primitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs of valency at least $2$. The smallest digraph in this family admits $\mathrm{PSL}_3(49)$ acting $2$-arc-transitively with vertex-stabilizer $\mathrm{A}_6$ and hence has $30758154560$ vertices. In this paper, we prove that this digraph is the vertex-primitive $2$-arc-transitive digraph of valency at least $2$ with fewest vertices.
Let $\vec{T}_k$ be the transitive tournament on $k$ vertices. We show that every oriented graph on $n=4m$ vertices with minimum total degree $(11/12+o(1))n$ can be partitioned into vertex disjoint $\vec{T}_4$'s, and this bound is asymptotically tight. We also improve the best known bound on the minimum total degree for partitioning oriented graphs into vertex disjoint $\vec{T}_k$'s.
In an earlier paper the first two authors have shown that self-complementary graphs can always be oriented in such a way that the union of the oriented version and its isomorphically oriented complement gives a transitive tournament. We investigate the possibilities of generalizing this theorem to decompositions of the complete graph into three or more isomorphic graphs. We find that a complete characterization of when an orientation with similar properties is possible seems elusive. Nevertheless, we give sufficient conditions that generalize the earlier theorem and also imply that decompositi…
We investigate the complexity of generalizations of colourings (acyclic colourings, $(k,\ell)$-colourings, homomorphisms, and matrix partitions), for the class of transitive digraphs. Even though transitive digraphs are nicely structured, many problems are intractable, and their complexity turns out to be difficult to classify. We present some motivational results and several open problems.
In this paper, we combine group-theoretic and combinatorial techniques to study $\wedge$-transitive digraphs admitting a cartesian decomposition of their vertex set. In particular, our approach uncovers a new family of digraphs that may be of considerable interest.
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.
The oriented Ramsey number $\vec{r}(H)$ for an acyclic digraph $H$ is the minimum integer $n$ such that any $n$-vertex tournament contains a copy of $H$ as a subgraph. We prove that the $1$-subdivision of the $k$-vertex transitive tournament $H_k$ satisfies $\vec{r}(H_k)= O(k^2\log\log k)$. This is tight up to multiplicative $\log\log k$-term. We also show that if $T$ is an $n$-vertex tournament with $Δ^+(T)-δ^+(T)= O(n/k) - k^2$, then $T$ contains a $1$-subdivision of $\vec{K}_k$, a complete $k$-vertex digraph with all possible $k(k-1)$ arcs. This is also tight up to multiplicative constant.
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…
A descent of a labeled digraph is a directed edge (s, t) with s > t. We count strong tournaments, strong digraphs, and acyclic digraphs by descents and edges. To count strong tournaments we use Eulerian generating functions and to count strong and acyclic digraphs we use a new type of generating function that we call a graphic Eulerian generating function.
We investigate the structure of a digraph having a transitive automorphism group where every cutset of minimal cardinality consists of all successors or all predecessors of some vertex. We improve most of the existing results in this area.
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.
Decomposing a digraph into subdigraphs with a fixed structure or property is a classical problem in graph theory and a useful tool in a number of applications of networks and communication. A digraph is strongly connected if it contains a directed path from each vertex to all others. In this paper we consider multipartite tournaments, and we study the existence of a partition of a multipartite tournament with $c$ partite sets into strongly connected $c$-tournaments. This is a continuation of the study started in 1999 by Volkmann of the existence of strongly connected subtournaments in multipar…
A tournament is called locally transitive if the outneighbourhood and the inneighbourhood of every vertex are transitive. Equivalently, a tournament is locally transitive if it avoids the tournaments $W_4$ and $L_4$, which are the only tournaments up to isomorphism on four vertices containing a unique $3$-cycle. On the other hand, a sequence of tournaments $(T_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ with $|V(T_n)| = n$ is called almost balanced if all but $o(n)$ vertices of $T_n$ have outdegree $(1/2 + o(1))n$. In the same spirit of quasi-random properties, we present several characterizations of tournament sequ…
A $k$-majority digraph is a directed graph created by combining $k$ individual rankings on the same ground set to form a consensus where edges point in the direction indicated by a strict majority of the rankings. The $k$-majority digraph is used to model voting scenarios, where the vertices correspond to options ranked by $k$ voters. When $k$ is odd, the resulting digraph is always a tournament, called $k$-majority tournament. Let $f_k(n)$ be the minimum, over all $k$-majority tournaments with $n$ vertices, of the maximum order of an induced transitive sub-tournament. Recently, Milans, Schrei…
Let $G$ be a graph of order $n$. It is well-known that $α(G)\geq \sum_{i=1}^n \frac{1}{1+d_i}$, where $α(G)$ is the independence number of $G$ and $d_1,\ldots,d_n$ is the degree sequence of $G$. We extend this result to digraphs by showing that if $D$ is a digraph with $n$ vertices, then $ α(D)\geq \sum_{i=1}^n \left( \frac{1}{1+d_i^+} + \frac{1}{1+d_i^-} - \frac{1}{1+d_i}\right)$, where $α(D)$ is the maximum size of an acyclic vertex set of $D$. Golowich proved that for any digraph $D$, $χ(D)\leq \lceil \frac{4k}{5} \rceil+2$, where $k=max(Δ^+(D),Δ^-(D))$. We give a short and simple proof for…
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…
The study of problems concerning subdivisions of graphs has a rich history in extremal combinatorics. Confirming a conjecture of Burr and Erdős, Alon proved in 1994 that subdivided graphs have linear Ramsey numbers. Later, Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov showed that every $n$-vertex graph with at least $\varepsilon n^2$ edges contains a $1$-subdivision of the complete graph on $c_{\varepsilon}\sqrt{n}$ vertices, resolving another old conjecture of Erdős. In this paper we consider the directed analogue of these problems and show that every tournament on at least $(2+o(1))k^2$ vertices contains th…
We investigate the class of infinite distance-transitive digraphs $D$ of finite out-valency. We show that if $D$ is a weakly descendant-homogeneous in such a class then either (1) $D$ has property $Z$ and the reachability relation is not universal; or (2) $D$ does not have property $Z$, the reachability relation is universal and $D$ has infinite in-valency. Also, we show that earlier results, proved in the context of highly-arc-transitive digraphs, hold under the weaker condition of distance-transitivity. Finally, we give a description of a subclass of the class distance-transitive weakly desc…
Ladder tournaments are widely used to rank individuals in real-world organizations and games. Their mathematical properties however are still poorly understood. We formalize the ranking rule generated by a ladder tournament, and we show that it is neither complete nor transitive in general. If it is complete, then it is transitive and its asymmetric component is a finite union of transitive tournaments. We also study the relationship between an individual's rank and his performance as measured by the frequency at which he is pivotal. We show an individual's pivotability is a weakly increasing …
Tournaments are graphs obtained by assigning a direction for every edge in an undirected complete graph. We give a formula for the number of isomorphism classes of vertex-transitive tournaments with prime order. For that, we introduce Cayley tournaments, which are special Cayley digraphs, and show that there is a one to one identification between the isomorphism classes of vertex-transitive tournaments with prime order and the isomorphism classes of Cayley tournaments with prime order.
Let $k$ be an integer with $k\geq 2$. A digraph $D$ is $k$-quasi-transitive, if for any path $x_0x_1\ldots x_k$ of length $k$, $x_0$ and $x_k$ are adjacent. Suppose that there exists a path of length at least $k+2$ in $D$. Let $P$ be a shortest path of length $k+2$ in $D$. Wang and Zhang [Hamiltonian paths in $k$-quasi-transitive digraphs, Discrete Mathematics, 339(8) (2016) 2094--2099] proved that if $k$ is even and $k\ge 4$, then $D[V(P)]$ and $D[V(D)\setminus V(P)]$ are both semicomplete digraphs. In this paper, we shall prove that if $k$ is odd and $k\ge 5$, then $D[V(P)]$ is either a semi…
This paper initiates the investigation of the family of $(G,s)$-geodesic-transitive digraphs with $s\geq 2$. We first give a global analysis by providing a reduction result. Let $Γ$ be such a digraph and let $N$ be a normal subgroup of $G$ maximal with respect to having at least $3$ orbits. Then the quotient digraph $Γ_N$ is $(G/N,s')$-geodesic-transitive where $s'=\min\{s,\diam(Γ_N)\}$, $G/N$ is either quasiprimitive or bi-quasiprimitive on $V(Γ_N)$, and $Γ_N$ is either directed or an undirected complete graph. Moreover, it is further shown that if $Γ$ is not $(G,2)$-arc-transitive, then $G/N…
In this paper, we consider upper bounds on the size of transitive subtournaments in a digraph. In particular, we give an analogy of Hoffman's bound for the size of cocliques in a regular graph. Furthermore, we partially improve the Hoffman type bound for doubly regular tournaments by using the technique of Greaves and Soicher for strongly regular graphs [4], which gives a new application of block intersection polynomials.
In 1995, Stiebitz asked the following question: For any positive integers $s,t$, is there a finite integer $f(s,t)$ such that every digraph $D$ with minimum out-degree at least $f(s,t)$ admits a bipartition $(A, B)$ such that $A$ induces a subdigraph with minimum out-degree at least $s$ and $B$ induces a subdigraph with minimum out-degree at least $t$? We give an affirmative answer for tournaments, multipartite tournaments, and digraphs with bounded maximum in-degrees. In particular, we show that for every $ε$ with $0<ε<1/2$, there exists an integer $δ_0$ such that every tournament with minimu…
Let $TT_k$ denote the transitive tournament on $k$ vertices. Let $TT(h,k)$ denote the graph obtained from $TT_k$ by replacing each vertex with an independent set of size $h \geq 1$. The following result is proved: Let $c_2=1/2$, $c_3=5/6$ and $c_k=1-2^{-k-\log k}$ for $k \geq 4$. For every $ε> 0$ there exists $N=N(ε,h,k)$ such that for every undirected graph $G$ with $n > N$ vertices and with $δ(G) \geq c_kn$, every orientation of $G$ contains vertex disjoint copies of $TT(h,k)$ that cover all but at most $εn$ vertices. In the cases $k=2$ and $k=3$ the result is asymptotically tight. For $k \g…
If $T$ is an $n$-vertex tournament with a given number of $3$-cycles, what can be said about the number of its $4$-cycles? The most interesting range of this problem is where $T$ is assumed to have $c\cdot n^3$ cyclic triples for some $c>0$ and we seek to minimize the number of $4$-cycles. We conjecture that the (asymptotic) minimizing $T$ is a random blow-up of a constant-sized transitive tournament. Using the method of flag algebras, we derive a lower bound that almost matches the conjectured value. We are able to answer the easier problem of maximizing the number of $4$-cycles. These questi…
A digraph is {\bf eulerian} if it is connected and every vertex has its in-degree equal to its out-degree. Having a spanning eulerian subdigraph is thus a weakening of having a hamiltonian cycle. A digraph is {\bf semicomplete} if it has no pair of non-adjacent vertices. A {\bf tournament} is a semicomplete digraph without directed cycles of length 2. Fraise and Thomassen \cite{fraisseGC3} proved that every $(k+1)$-strong tournament has a hamiltonian cycle which avoids any prescribed set of $k$ arcs. In \cite{bangsupereuler} the authors demonstrated that a number of results concerning vertex-c…
A tournament is $k$-spectrally monomorphic if all the $k\times k$ principal submatrices of its adjacency matrix have the same characteristic polynomial. Transitive $n$-tournaments are trivially $k$-spectrally monomorphic. We show that there are no other for $k\in \{3,\ldots,n-3\} $. Furthermore, we prove that for $n\geq 5$, a non-transitive $n$-tournament is $(n-2)$-spectrally monomorphic if and only if it is doubly regular. Finally, we give some results on $(n-1)$-spectrally monomorphic regular tournaments.
In the mid-1990s, two groups of authors independently obtained classifications of vertex-transitive graphs whose order is a product of two distinct primes. In the intervening years it has become clear that there is additional information concerning these graphs that would be useful, as well as making explicit the extensions of these results to digraphs. Additionally, there are several small errors in some of the papers that were involved in this classification. The purpose of this paper is to fill in the missing information as well as correct all known errors.
We give a new proof of the theorem of Boesch-Tindell and Farzad-Mahdian-Mahmoodian-Saberi-Sadri that a directed graph extends to a strongly connected digraph on the same vertex set if and only if it has no complete directed cut. Our proof bounds the number of edges needed for such an extension; we give examples to demonstrate sharpness. We apply the characterization to a problem on non-transitive dice.
