We study the maximum out forests of a (weighted) digraph and the matrix of maximum out forests. A maximum out forest of a digraph G is a spanning subgraph of G that consists of disjoint diverging trees and has the maximum possible number of arcs. If a digraph contains any out arborescences, then maximum out forests coincide with them. We provide a new proof to the Markov chain tree theorem saying that the matrix of Ces`aro limiting probabilities of an arbitrary stationary finite Markov chain coincides with the normalized matrix of maximum out forests of the weighted digraph that corresponds to the Markov chain. We discuss the applications of the matrix of maximum out forests and its transposition, the matrix of limiting accessibilities of a digraph, to the problems of preference aggregation, measuring the vertex proximity, and uncovering the structure of a digraph.
We study spanning diverging forests of a digraph and related matrices. It is shown that the normalized matrix of out forests of a digraph coincides with the transition matrix in a specific observation model for Markov chains related to the digraph. Expression are given for the Moore-Penrose generalized inverse and the group inverse of the Kirchhoff (Laplacian) matrix. These expressions involve the matrix of maximum out forest of the digraph. Every matrix of out forests with a fixed number of arcs and the normalized matrix of out forests are represented as polynomials in the Kirchhoff matrix; w…
In this paper, we study the complexity of two types of digraph packing problems: perfect out-forests problem and Steiner cycle packing problem. For the perfect out-forest problem, we prove that it is NP-hard to decide whether a given strong digraph contains a 1-perfect out-forest. However, when restricted to a semicomplete digraph $D$, the problem of deciding whether $D$ contains an $i$-perfect out-forest becomes polynomial-time solvable, where $i\in \{0,1\}$. We also prove that it is NP-hard to find a 0-perfect out-forest of maximum size in a connected acyclic digraph, and it is NP-hard to fi…
The matrices of spanning rooted forests are studied as a tool for analysing the structure of digraphs and measuring their characteristics. The problems of revealing the basis bicomponents, measuring vertex proximity, and ranking from preference relations / sports competitions are considered. It is shown that the vertex accessibility measure based on spanning forests has a number of desirable properties. An interpretation for the normalized matrix of out-forests in terms of information dissemination is given. Keywords: Laplacian matrix, spanning forest, matrix-forest theorem, proximity measure,…
Let $\overrightarrow{P_k}$ and $\overrightarrow{C_k}$ denote the directed path and the directed cycle of order $k$, respectively. In this paper, we determine the precise maximum size of $\overrightarrow{P_k}$-free digraphs of order $n$ as well as the extremal digraphs attaining the maximum size for large $n$. For all $n$, we also determine the precise maximum size of $\overrightarrow{C_k}$-free digraphs of order $n$ as well as the extremal digraphs attaining the maximum size. In addition, Huang and Lyu [\textit{Discrete Math. 343(5) 2020}] characterized the extremal digraphs avoiding an orient…
Given a digraph $G = (VG,AG)$, an \emph{even factor} $M \subseteq AG$ is a subset of arcs that decomposes into a collection of node-disjoint paths and even cycles. Even factors in digraphs were introduced by Geleen and Cunningham and generalize path matchings in undirected graphs. Finding an even factor of maximum cardinality in a general digraph is known to be NP-hard but for the class of \emph{odd-cycle symmetric} digraphs the problem is polynomially solvable. So far, the only combinatorial algorithm known for this task is due to Pap; it has the running time of $O(n^4)$ (hereinafter $n$ stan…
We study the matrices Q_k of in-forests of a weighted digraph G and their connections with the Laplacian matrix L of G. The (i,j) entry of Q_k is the total weight of spanning converging forests (in-forests) with k arcs such that i belongs to a tree rooted at j. The forest matrices, Q_k, can be calculated recursively and expressed by polynomials in the Laplacian matrix; they provide representations for the generalized inverses, the powers, and some eigenvectors of L. The normalized in-forest matrices are row stochastic; the normalized matrix of maximum in-forests is the eigenprojection of the L…
We prove a sharp Ore-type criterion for hamiltonicity of balanced bipartite digraphs: A bipartite digraph D, with colour classes of cardinality N, is hamiltonian if, for every pair of vertices u and v from opposite colour classes of D such that the arc uv is not in D, the sum of the outdegree of u and the indegree of v is greater than or equal to N+2.
In $1967$, Vizing determined the maximum size of a graph with given order and radius. In $1973$, Fridman answered the same question for digraphs with given order and outradius. We investigate that question when restricting to biconnected digraphs. Biconnected digraphs are the digraphs with a finite total distance and hence the interesting ones, as we want to note a connection between minimizing the total distance and maximizing the size under the same constraints. We characterize the extremal digraphs maximizing the size among all biconnected digraphs of order $n$ and outradius $3$, as well as…
Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University（查普曼大学施密德科学与技术学院）；Institute of Quantum Studies, Chapman University（查普曼大学量子研究学院）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University（克莱姆森大学物理与天文学系）
Let $n \ge 5$ and $k\ge 4$ be positive integers. We determine the maximum size of digraphs of order n that avoid distinct walks of length k with the same endpoints. We also characterize the extremal digraphs attaining this maximum number when $k \ge 5$.
Let $P_{2,2}$ be the orientation of $C_4$ which consists of two 2-paths with the same initial and terminal vertices. In this paper, we determine the maximum size of $P_{2,2}$-free digraphs of order $n$ as well as the extremal digraphs attaining the maximum size when $n\ge 13$.
This paper presents a sharp upper bound for the spectral radius of simple digraphs with described number of arcs. Further, the extremal graphs which attain the maximum spectral radius among all simple digraphs with fixed arcs are investigated. In particular, we characterize all extremal simple digraphs with the maximum spectral radius among all simple digraphs with arcs number $e=2{k\choose 2}+t$ and $k>4t^4+4$.
In this paper, we determine the maximum size of digraphs on $n$ vertices in which there are no two distinct walks of length $3$ with the same initial vertex and the same terminal vertex. The digraphs attaining this maximum size are also characterized. Combining this with previous results, we obtain a full solution to a problem proposed by X. Zhan in 2007.
Let $n,k,t$ be positive integers. What is the maximum number of arcs in a digraph on $n$ vertices in which there are at most $t$ distinct walks of length $k$ with the same endpoints? In this paper, we prove that the maximum number is equal to $n(n-1)/2$ and the extremal digraph are the transitive tournaments when $k\ge n-1\ge \max\{2t+1,2\left\lceil \sqrt{2t+9/4}+1/2\right\rceil+3\}$. Based on this result, we may determine the maximum numbers and the extremal digraphs for $k\ge \max\{2t+1,2\left\lceil \sqrt{2t+9/4}+1/2\right\rceil+3\}$ and $n$ is sufficiently large, which generalises the exist…
A weakly distance-regular digraph is quasi-thin if the maximum value of its intersection numbers is 2. In this paper, we focus on commutative quasi-thin weakly distance-regular digraphs, and classify such digraphs with valency more than 3. As a result, this family of digraphs are completely determined.
Let $k$ be a fixed integer. We determine the complexity of finding a $p$-partition $(V_1, \dots, V_p)$ of the vertex set of a given digraph such that the maximum out-degree of each of the digraphs induced by $V_i$, ($1\leq i\leq p$) is at least $k$ smaller than the maximum out-degree of $D$. We show that this problem is polynomial-time solvable when $p\geq 2k$ and ${\cal NP}$-complete otherwise. The result for $k=1$ and $p=2$ answers a question posed in \cite{bangTCS636}. We also determine, for all fixed non-negative integers $k_1,k_2,p$, the complexity of deciding whether a given digraph of m…
A weakly distance-regular digraph is quasi-thin if the maximum value of its intersection numbers is 2. In this paper, we show that the valency of any commutative quasi-thin weakly distance-regular digraph is at most 6.
Let $D$ be a digraph, let $p \geq 1$ be an integer, and let $f: V(D) \to \mathbb{N}_0^p$ be a vector function with $f=(f_1,f_2,\ldots,f_p)$. We say that $D$ has an $f$-partition if there is a partition $(D_1,D_2,\ldots,D_p)$ into induced subdigraphs of $D$ such that for all $i \in [1,p]$, the digraph $D_i$ is weakly $f_i$-degenerate, that is, in every non-empty subdigraph $D'$ of $D_i$ there is a vertex $v$ such that $\min\{d_{D'}^+(v), d_{D'}^-(v)\} < f_i(v)$. In this paper, we prove that the condition $f_1(v) + f_2(v) + \ldots + f_p(v) \geq \max \{d_D^+(v),d_D^-(v)\}$ for all $v \in V(D)$ is…
A majority coloring of a directed graph is a vertex-coloring in which every vertex has the same color as at most half of its out-neighbors. Kreutzer, Oum, Seymour, van der Zypen and Wood proved that every digraph has a majority 4-coloring and conjectured that every digraph admits a majority 3-coloring. We verify this conjecture for digraphs with chromatic number at most 6 or dichromatic number at most 3. We obtain analogous results for list coloring: We show that every digraph with list chromatic number at most 6 or list dichromatic number at most 3 is majority 3-choosable. We deduce that digr…
Brooks' Theorem states that a connected graph $G$ of maximum degree $Δ$ has chromatic number at most $Δ$, unless $G$ is an odd cycle or a complete graph. A result of Johansson (1996) shows that if $G$ is triangle-free, then the chromatic number drops to $O(Δ/ \log Δ)$. In this paper, we derive a weak analog for the chromatic number of digraphs. We show that every (loopless) digraph $D$ without directed cycles of length two has chromatic number $χ(D) \leq (1-e^{-13}) \tildeΔ$, where $\tildeΔ$ is the maximum geometric mean of the out-degree and in-degree of a vertex in $D$, when $\tildeΔ$ is suf…
Let D be a strongly connected digraph and A(D) be the adjacency matrix of D. Let diag(D) be the diagonal matrix with outdegrees of the vertices of D and Q(D) = diag(D) + A(D) be the signless Laplacian matrix of D. The spectral radius of Q(D) is called the signless Laplacian spectral radius of D, denoted by q(D). In this paper, we give sharp bound on q(D) with outdegree sequence and compare the bound with some known bounds, establish some sharp upper or lower bound on q(D) with some given parameter such as clique number, girth or vertex connectivity, and characterize the corresponding extremal …
A Laplacian matrix is a square real matrix with nonpositive off-diagonal entries and zero row sums. As a matrix associated with a weighted directed graph, it generalizes the Laplacian matrix of an ordinary graph. A standardized Laplacian matrix is a Laplacian matrix with the absolute values of the off-diagonal entries not exceeding 1/n, where n is the order of the matrix. We study the spectra of Laplacian matrices and relations between Laplacian matrices and stochastic matrices. We prove that the standardized Laplacian matrices are semiconvergent. The multiplicities of 0 and 1 as the eigenvalu…
Let $\mathscr{H}$ be a family of digraphs. A digraph $D$ is \emph{$\mathscr{H}$-free} if it contains no isomorphic copy of any member of $\mathscr{H}$. For $k\geq2$, we set $C_{\leq k}=\{C_{2}, C_{3},\ldots,C_{k}\}$, where $C_{\ell}$ is a directed cycle of length $\ell\in\{2,3,\ldots,k\}$. Let $D_{n}^{k}(ξ,ζ)$ denote the family of \emph{${C}_{\le k}$-free} strong digraphs on $n$ vertices with every vertex having out-degree at least $ξ$ and in-degree at least $ζ$, where both $ξ$ and $ζ$ are positive integers. Let $φ_{n}^{k}(ξ,ζ)=\max\{|A(D)|:\;D\in D_{n}^{k}(ξ,ζ)\}$ and $Φ_{n}^{k}(ξ,ζ)=\{D\in D…
Let $D=(V,A)$ be a digraphs without isolated vertices. The first Zagreb index of a digraph $D$ defined as a summation over all arcs, $M_1(D)=\frac{1}{2}\sum\limits_{uv\in A}(d^{+}_{u}+d^{-}_v)$, where $d^{+}_u$(resp. $d^{-}_u$) denotes the out-degree (resp. in-degree) of the vertex $u$. In this paper, we give the maximal values and maximal digraphs of first Zagreb index over the set of all orientations of unicyclic graphs with $n$ vertices and matching number $m$ $(2\leq m\leq \lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor)$.
The spectral radius ρ(G) of a digraph G is the maximum modulus of the eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. We present bounds on ρ(G) that are often tighter and are applicable to a larger class of digraphs than previously reported bounds. Calculating the final bound pair is particularly suited to sparse digraphs. For strongly connected digraphs, we derive equality conditions for the bounds, relating to the outdegree regularity of the digraph. We also prove that the bounds hold with equality only if ρ(G) is the r-th root of an integer, where r divides the index of imprimitivity of G.
Let $G$ be a digraph and $A(G)$ be the adjacency matrix of $G$. Let $D(G)$ be the diagonal matrix with outdegrees of vertices of $G$. For any real $α\in[0,1]$, Liu et al. \cite{LWCL} defined the matrix $A_α(G)$ as $$A_α(G)=αD(G)+(1-α)A(G).$$ The largest modulus of the eigenvalues of $A_α(G)$ is called the $A_α$ spectral radius of $G$. In this paper, we determine the digraphs which attain the maximum (or minimum) $A_α$ spectral radius among all strongly connected digraphs with given parameters such as girth, clique number, vertex connectivity or arc connectivity. We also discuss a number of ope…
In this paper we study irreducible representations and symbolic Rees algebras of monomial ideals. Then we examine edge ideals associated to vertex-weighted oriented graphs. These are digraphs having no oriented cycles of length two with weights on the vertices. For a monomial ideal with no embedded primes we classify the normality of its symbolic Rees algebra in terms of its primary components. If the primary components of a monomial ideal are normal, we present a simple procedure to compute its symbolic Rees algebra using Hilbert bases, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for the equ…
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.
Let $G$ be a digraph with adjacency matrix $A(G)$ and outdegrees diagonal matrix $D(G)$. For any real $α\in[0,1]$, the $A_α$ matrix $A_α(G)$ of a digraph $G$ is defined as $A_α(G)=αD(G)+(1-α)A(G)$. The eigenvalue of $A_α(G)$ with the largest modulus is called the $A_α$ spectral radius of $G$. In this paper, we first give some upper bounds for the $A_α$ spectral radius of a digraph and we also characterize the extremal digraphs attaining these bounds. Moreover, we define the $A_α$ energy of a digraph $G$ as $E^{A_α}(G)=\sum\limits_{i=1}^n(λ^α_i(G))^2$, where $n$ is the number of vertices and $λ…
Let $G$ be a digraph with adjacency matrix $A(G)$. Let $D(G)$ be the diagonal matrix with outdegrees of vertices of $G$. Nikiforov \cite{Niki} proposed to study the convex combinations of the adjacency matrix and diagonal matrix of the degrees of undirected graphs. Liu et al. \cite{LWCL} extended the definition to digraphs. For any real $α\in[0,1]$, the matrix $A_α(G)$ of a digraph $G$ is defined as $$A_α(G)=αD(G)+(1-α)A(G).$$ The largest modulus of the eigenvalues of $A_α(G)$ is called the $A_α$ spectral radius of $G$, denoted by $λ_α(G)$. This paper proves some extremal results about the spe…
Let $D(G)$ and $D^Q(G)= Diag(Tr) + D(G)$ be the distance matrix and distance signless Laplacian matrix of a simple strongly connected digraph $G$, respectively, where $Diag(Tr)=\textrm{diag}(D_1,D_2,$ $\ldots,D_n)$ be the diagonal matrix with vertex transmissions of the digraph $G$. To track the gradual change of $D(G)$ into $D^Q(G)$, in this paper, we propose to study the convex combinations of $D(G)$ and $Diag(Tr)$ defined by $$D_α(G)=αDiag(Tr)+(1-α)D(G), \ \ 0\leq α\leq1.$$ This study reduces to merging the distance spectral and distance signless Laplacian spectral theories. The eigenvalue …
A maximum stable set in a graph G is a stable set of maximum cardinality. S is a local maximum stable set if it is a maximum stable set of the subgraph of G spanned by the union of S and N(S), where N(S) is the neighborhood of S. One theorem of Nemhauser and Trotter Jr., working as a useful sufficient local optimality condition for the weighted maximum stable set problem, ensures that any local maximum stable set of G can be enlarged to a maximum stable set of G. In this paper we demonstrate that an inverse assertion is true for forests. Namely, we show that for any non-empty local maximum sta…
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…
