Let ${\cal F}$ be a family of graphs. For a graph $G$, the {\em ${\cal F}$-packing number}, denoted $ν_{\cal F}(G)$, is the maximum number of pairwise edge-disjoint elements of ${\cal F}$ in $G$. A function $ψ$ from the set of elements of ${\cal F}$ in $G$ to $[0,1]$ is a {\em fractional ${\cal F}$-packing} of $G$ if $\sum_{e \in H \in {\cal F}} {ψ(H)} \leq 1$ for each $e \in E(G)$. The {\em fractional ${\cal F}$-packing number}, denoted $ν^*_{\cal F}(G)$, is defined to be the maximum value of $\sum_{H \in {{G} \choose {\cal F}}} ψ(H)$ over all fractional ${\cal F}$-packings $ψ$. Our main result is that $ν^*_{\cal F}(G)-ν_{\cal F}(G) = o(|V(G)|^2)$. Furthermore, a set of $ν_{\cal F}(G) -o(|V(G)|^2)$ edge-disjoint elements of ${\cal F}$ in $G$ can be found in randomized polynomial time. For the special case ${\cal F}=\{H_0\}$ we obtain a significantly simpler proof of a recent difficult result of Haxell and Rödl \cite{HaRo} that $ν^*_{H_0}(G)-ν_{H_0}(G) = o(|V(G)|^2)$.
Let $H$ be a fixed graph. A {\em fractional $H$-decomposition} of a graph $G$ is an assignment of nonnegative real weights to the copies of $H$ in $G$ such that for each $e \in E(G)$, the sum of the weights of copies of $H$ containing $e$ in precisely one. An {\em $H$-packing} of a graph $G$ is a set of edge disjoint copies of $H$ in $G$. The following results are proved. For every fixed $k > 2$, every graph with $n$ vertices and minimum degree at least $n(1-1/9k^{10})+o(n)$ has a fractional $K_k$-decomposition and has a $K_k$-packing which covers all but $o(n^2)$ edges.
Motivated by a conjecture of Gyárfás, recently Böttcher, Hladký, Piguet, and Taraz showed that every collection $T_1,\dots,T_t$ of trees on $n$ vertices with $\sum_{i=1}^te(T_i)\leq \binom{n}{2}$ and with bounded maximum degree, can be packed into the complete graph on $(1+o(1))n$ vertices. We generalise this result where we relax the restriction of packing families of trees to families of graphs of any given non-trivial minor-closed class of graphs.
Let $\mathcal G$ be a separable family of graphs. Then for all positive constants $ε$ and $Δ$ and for every sufficiently large integer $n$, every sequence $G_1,\dotsc,G_t\in\mathcal G$ of graphs of order $n$ and maximum degree at most $Δ$ such that $e(G_1)+\dotsb+e(G_t) \leq (1-ε)\binom{n}{2}$ packs into $K_n$. This improves results of Böttcher, Hladký, Piguet, and Taraz when $\mathcal G$ is the class of trees and of Messuti, Rödl, and Schacht in the case of a general separable family. The result also implies approximate versions of the Oberwolfach problem and of the Tree Packing Conjecture of…
Let R be a family of n axis-parallel rectangles with packing number p-1, meaning that among any p of the rectangles, there are two with a non-empty intersection. We show that the union complexity of R is at most O(n+p^2), and that the (<=k)-level complexity of R is at most O(kn+k^2p^2). Both upper bounds are tight.
A line packing is optimal if its coherence is as small as possible. Most interesting examples of optimal line packings are achieving equality in some of the known lower bounds for coherence. In this paper two infinite families of real and complex biangular line packings are presented. New packings achieve equality in the real or complex second Levenshtein bound respectively. Both infinite families are constructed by analyzing well known representations of the finite groups SL$(2,\mathbb{F}_q)$. Until now the only known infinite familes meeting the second Levenshtein bounds were related to the …
The packing chromatic number $χ_ρ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest integer $k$ such that the vertex set of $G$ can be partitioned into sets $V_i$, $i\in \{1,\ldots,k\}$, where each $V_i$ is an $i$-packing. In this paper, we consider the packing chromatic number of several families of Sierpiński-type graphs. While it is known that this number is bounded from above by $8$ in the family of Sierpiński graphs with base $3$, we prove that it is unbounded in the families of Sierpiński graphs with bases greater than $3$. On the other hand, we prove that the packing chromatic number in the family of …
We prove that in every $2$-edge-colouring of $K_n$ there is a collection of $n^2/12 + o(n^2)$ edge-disjoint monochromatic triangles, thus confirming a conjecture of Erdős. We also prove a corresponding stability result, showing that $2$-colourings that are close to attaining the aforementioned bound have a colour class which is close to bipartite. As part of our proof, we confirm a recent conjecture of Tyomkyn about the fractional version of this problem.
This paper applies techniques from algebraic and differential geometry to determine how to best pack points in real projective spaces. We present a computer-assisted proof of the optimality of a particular 6-packing in $\mathbb{R}\mathbf{P}^3$, we introduce a linear-time constant-factor approximation algorithm for packing in the so-called Gerzon range, and we provide local optimality certificates for two infinite families of packings. Finally, we present perfected versions of various putatively optimal packings from Sloane's online database, along with a handful of infinite families they sugge…
Given an irreducible fraction $\frac{c}{d} \in [0,1]$, a pair $(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{B})$ is called a $\frac{c}{d}$-cross-intersecting pair of $2^{[n]}$ if $\mathcal{A}, \mathcal{B}$ are two families of subsets of $[n]$ such that for every pair $A \in\mathcal{A}$ and $B\in\mathcal{B}$, $|A \cap B|= \frac{c}{d}|B|$. Mathew, Ray, and Srivastava [{\it\small Fractional cross intersecting families, Graphs and Comb., 2019}] proved that $|\mathcal{A}||\mathcal{B}|\le 2^n$ if $(\mathcal{A}, \mathcal{B})$ is a $\frac{c}{d}$-cross-intersecting pair of $2^{[n]}$ and characterized all the pairs $(\mathcal…
A $d$-{\em interval} is a union of at most $d$ disjoint closed intervals on a fixed line. Tardos [Combinatorica 15 (1995), 123-134] and the second author [Disc. Comput. Geom. 18 (1997), 195-203] used topological tools to bound the transversal number $τ$ of a family $H$ of $d$-intervals in terms of $d$ and the matching number $ν$ of $H$. We investigate the weighted and fractional versions of this problem and prove upper bounds that are tight up to constant factors. We apply both the topological method and an approach of Alon [Disc. Comput. Geom. 19 (1998), 333-334]. For the use of the latter, w…
Tuza conjectured that for every graph $G$, the maximum size $ν$ of a set of edge-disjoint triangles and minimum size $τ$ of a set of edges meeting all triangles satisfy $τ\leq 2ν$. We consider an edge-weighted version of this conjecture, which amounts to packing and covering triangles in multigraphs. Several known results about the original problem are shown to be true in this context, and some are improved. In particular, we answer a question of Krivelevich who proved that $τ\leq 2ν^*$ (where $ν^*$ is the fractional version of $ν$), and asked if this is tight. We prove that $τ\leq 2ν^*-\frac{…
Let $G$ be an undirected network with a distinguished set of terminals $T \subseteq V(G)$ and edge capacities $cap: E(G) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_+$. By an odd $T$-walk we mean a walk in $G$ (with possible vertex and edge self-intersections) connecting two distinct terminals and consisting of an odd number of edges. Inspired by the work of Schrijver and Seymour on odd path packing for two terminals, we consider packings of odd $T$-walks subject to capacities $cap$. First, we present a strongly polynomial time algorithm for constructing a maximum fractional packing of odd $T$-walks. For even inte…
A subset $S$ of the vertices $V$ of a connected graph $G$ resolves $G$ if no two vertices of $V$ share the same list of distances (shortest-path metric) with respect to the vertices of $S$ listed in a given order. The choice of such an $S$ in $V$ amounts to selecting a binary valued function $g$, said to be a resolving function, on $V$. The notion of a fractional resolving function is obtained by relaxing the codomain of $g$ to be the unit interval. Let $|g|=\sum_{v\in V}g(v)$. Given a finite collection $\mathcal{G}$ of connected graphs on a common vertex set $V$, the simultaneous metric dimen…
Let $L = \{\frac{a_1}{b_1}, \ldots , \frac{a_s}{b_s}\}$, where for every $i \in [s]$, $\frac{a_i}{b_i} \in [0,1)$ is an irreducible fraction. Let $\mathcal{F} = \{A_1, \ldots , A_m\}$ be a family of subsets of $[n]$. We say $\mathcal{F}$ is a \emph{fractional $L$-intersecting family} if for every distinct $i,j \in [m]$, there exists an $\frac{a}{b} \in L$ such that $|A_i \cap A_j| \in \{ \frac{a}{b}|A_i|, \frac{a}{b} |A_j|\}$. In this paper, we introduce and study the notion of fractional $L$-intersecting families.
We prove a new fractional Helly theorem for families of sets obeying topological conditions. More precisely, we show that the nerve of a finite family of open sets (and of subcomplexes of cell complexes) in R^d is k-Leray where k depends on the dimension d and the homological intersection complexity of the family. This implies fractional Helly number k+1 for families F. Moreover, we obtain a topological (p,q)-theorem. Our result contains the (p,q)-theorem for good covers of Alon, Kalai, Matousek, and Meshulam (2003) as a special case. The proof uses a spectral sequence argument. The same metho…
We show that if a semisimple synchronizing automaton with $n$ states has a minimal reachable non-unary subset of cardinality $r\ge 2$, then there is a reset word of length at most $(n-1)D(2,r,n)$, where $D(2,r,n)$ is the $2$-packing number for families of $r$-subsets of $[1,n]$.
In the first part of this paper, we prove a theorem which is the $q$-analogue of a generalized modular Ray-Chaudhuri-Wilson Theorem shown in [Alon, Babai, Suzuki, J. Combin. Theory Series A, 1991]. It is also a generalization of the main theorem in [Frankl and Graham, European J. Combin. 1985] under certain circumstances. In the second part of this paper, we prove $q$-analogues of results on a recent notion called \emph{fractional $L$-intersecting family} for families of subspaces of a given vector space. We use the above theorem to obtain a general upper bound to the cardinality of such famil…
Let $\mathcal{A}=\{A_{1},...,A_{p}\}$ and $\mathcal{B}=\{B_{1},...,B_{q}\}$ be two families of subsets of $[n]$ such that for every $i\in [p]$ and $j\in [q]$, $|A_{i}\cap B_{j}|= \frac{c}{d}|B_{j}|$, where $\frac{c}{d}\in [0,1]$ is an irreducible fraction. We call such families "$\frac{c}{d}$-cross intersecting families". In this paper, we find a tight upper bound for the product $|\mathcal{A}||\mathcal{B}|$ and characterize the cases when this bound is achieved for $\frac{c}{d}=\frac{1}{2}$. Also, we find a tight upper bound on $|\mathcal{A}||\mathcal{B}|$ when $\mathcal{B}$ is $k$-uniform an…
László Fejes Tóth and Aladár Heppes proposed the following generalization of the kissing number problem. Given a ball in $\mathbb{R}^d$, consider a family of balls touching it, and another family of balls touching the first family. Find the maximal possible number of balls in this arrangement, provided that no two balls intersect by interiors, and all balls are congruent. They showed that the answer for disks on the plane is $19$. They also conjectured that if there are three families of disks instead of two, the answer is $37$. In this paper we confirm this conjecture.
Let $L = \{\frac{a_1}{b_1}, \ldots , \frac{a_s}{b_s}\}$, where for every $i \in [s]$, $\frac{a_i}{b_i} \in [0,1)$ is an irreducible fraction. Let $\mathcal{F} = \{A_1, \ldots , A_m\}$ be a family of subsets of $[n]$. We say $\mathcal{F}$ is a \emph{r-wise fractional $L$-intersecting family} if for every distinct $i_1,i_2, \ldots,i_r \in [m]$, there exists an $\frac{a}{b} \in L$ such that $|A_{i_1} \cap A_{i_2} \cap \ldots \cap A_{i_r}| \in \{ \frac{a}{b}|A_{i_1}|, \frac{a}{b} |A_{i_2}|,\ldots, \frac{a}{b} |A_{i_r}| \}$. In this paper, we introduce and study the notion of r-wise fractional $L$-…
Let $\mathcal{R}$ be a family of axis-parallel rectangles in the plane. The transversal number $τ(\mathcal{R})$ is the minimum number of points needed to pierce all the rectangles. The independence number $ν(\mathcal{R})$ is the maximum number of pairwise disjoint rectangles. Given a positive real number $r$, we say that $\mathcal{R}$ is an r-bounded family if, for any rectangle in $\mathcal{R}$, the aspect ratio of the longer side over the shorter side is at most $r$. Gyárfás and Lehel asked if it is possible to bound the transversal number $τ(\mathcal{R})$ with a linear function of the indep…
Fractional graph isomorphism is the linear relaxation of an integer programming formulation of graph isomorphism. It preserves some invariants of graphs, like degree sequences and equitable partitions, but it does not preserve others like connectivity, clique and independence numbers, chromatic number, vertex and edge cover numbers, matching number, domination and total domination numbers. In this work, we extend the concept of fractional graph isomorphism to hypergraphs, and give an alternative characterization, analogous to one of those that are known for graphs. With this new concept we pro…
We develop the theory of fractional revival in the quantum walk on a graph using its Laplacian matrix as the Hamiltonian. We first give a spectral characterization of Laplacian fractional revival, which leads to a polynomial time algorithm to check this phenomenon and find the earliest time when it occurs. We then apply the characterization theorem to special families of graphs. In particular, we show that no tree admits Laplacian fractional revival except for the paths on two and three vertices, and the only graphs on a prime number of vertices that admit Laplacian fractional revival are doub…
Fractional revival, known as a quantum transport phenomenon, is essential for entanglement generation in quantum spin networks. The concept of fractional revival is a generalization of perfect state transfer and periodicity on graphs. In this paper, we propose a sufficient and necessary condition for abelian Cayley graphs having fractional revival between any two distinct vertices. With this characterization, two general constructions of abelian Cayley graphs having fractional revival is presented. Meanwhile, we establish several new families of abelian Cayley graphs admitting fractional reviv…
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…
During the last years, several algorithmic meta-theorems have appeared (Bodlaender et al. [FOCS 2009], Fomin et al. [SODA 2010], Kim et al. [ICALP 2013]) guaranteeing the existence of linear kernels on sparse graphs for problems satisfying some generic conditions. The drawback of such general results is that it is usually not clear how to derive from them constructive kernels with reasonably low explicit constants. To fill this gap, we recently presented [STACS 2014] a framework to obtain explicit linear kernels for some families of problems whose solutions can be certified by a subset of vert…
We define non-commutative versions of the vertex packing polytope, the theta convex body and the fractional vertex packing polytope of a graph, and establish a quantum version of the Sandwich Theorem of Grötschel, Lovász and Schrijver. We define new non-commutative versions of the Lovász number of a graph which lead to an upper bound of the zero-error capacity of the corresponding quantum channel that can be genuinely better than the one established previously by Duan, Severini and Winter. We define non-commutative counterparts of widely used classical graph parameters and establish their inte…
