A \emph{tree-partition} of a graph $G$ is a proper partition of its vertex set into `bags', such that identifying the vertices in each bag produces a forest. The \emph{tree-partition-width} of $G$ is the minimum number of vertices in a bag in a tree-partition of $G$. An anonymous referee of the paper by Ding and Oporowski [\emph{J. Graph Theory}, 1995] proved that every graph with tree-width $k\geq3$ and maximum degree $Δ\geq1$ has tree-partition-width at most $24kΔ$. We prove that this bound is within a constant factor of optimal. In particular, for all $k\geq3$ and for all sufficiently large $Δ$, we construct a graph with tree-width $k$, maximum degree $Δ$, and tree-partition-width at least $(\eighth-ε)kΔ$. Moreover, we slightly improve the upper bound to ${5/2}(k+1)({7/2}Δ-1)$ without the restriction that $k\geq3$.
We give a simple proof of the "tree-width duality theorem" of Seymour and Thomas that the tree-width of a finite graph is exactly one less than the largest order of its brambles.
A {\it heterochromatic tree} is an edge-colored tree in which any two edges have different colors. The {\it heterochromatic tree partition number} of an $r$-edge-colored graph $G$, denoted by $t_r(G)$, is the minimum positive integer $p$ such that whenever the edges of the graph $G$ are colored with $r$ colors, the vertices of $G$ can be covered by at most $p$ vertex-disjoint heterochromatic trees. In this paper we determine the heterochromatic tree partition number of an $r$-edge-colored complete graph.
Among other results, it is shown that 3-trees are $Δ$-edge-choosable and that graphs of tree-width 3 and maximum degree at least 7 are $Δ$-edge-choosable.
A \emph{$k$-tree} is a chordal graph with no $(k+2)$-clique. An \emph{$\ell$-tree-partition} of a graph $G$ is a vertex partition of $G$ into `bags', such that contracting each bag to a single vertex gives an $\ell$-tree (after deleting loops and replacing parallel edges by a single edge). We prove that for all $k\geq\ell\geq0$, every $k$-tree has an $\ell$-tree-partition in which every bag induces a connected $\floor{k/(\ell+1)}$-tree. An analogous result is proved for oriented $k$-trees.
We prove that every triangle-free graph of tree-width t has chromatic number at most ceil((t + 3)/2), and demonstrate that this bound is tight. The argument also establishes a connection between coloring graphs of tree-width t and on-line coloring of graphs of path-width t.
In "Square partitions and Catalan numbers" (arXiv0912.4983), Bennett et al. presented a recursive algorithm to create a family of partitions from one or several partitions. They were mainly interested in the cases when we begin with a single square partition or with several partitions with only one part. The cardinalities of those families of partitions are the Catalan and ballot numbers, respectively. In this paper we present a closed description for those families. We also present bijections between those sets of partitions and sets of trees and forests enumerated by the Catalan an ballot nu…
We prove that, for all $\ell$ and $s$, every graph of sufficiently large tree-width contains either a complete bipartite graph $K_{s,s}$ or a chordless cycle of length greater than $\ell$.
We prove that for any fixed r>=2, the tree-width of graphs not containing K_r as a topological minor (resp. as a subgraph) is bounded by a linear (resp. polynomial) function of their rank-width. We also present refinements of our bounds for other graph classes such as K_r-minor free graphs and graphs of bounded genus.
We apply a recent duality theorem for tangles in abstract separation systems to derive tangle-type duality theorems for width-parameters in graphs and matroids. We further derive a duality theorem for the existence of clusters in large data sets. Our applications to graphs include new, tangle-type, duality theorems for tree-width, path-width, and tree-decompositions of small adhesion. Conversely, we show that carving width is dual to edge-tangles. For matroids we obtain a duality theorem for tree-width. Our results can be used to derive short proofs of all the classical duality theorems for wi…
We show that all sufficiently large (2k+3)-connected graphs of bounded tree-width are k-linked. Thomassen has conjectured that all sufficiently large (2k+2)-connected graphs are k-linked.
In response to a well-known open question ``Does every complete geometric graph on $2n\/$ vertices have a partition of its edge set into $n\/$ plane spanning trees?" we provide an affirmative answer when the complete geometry graph is in the regular wheel configuration. Also we present sufficient conditions for the complete geometric graph on $2n\/$ vertices to have a partition of its edge set into $n\/$ plane spanning trees (which are double stars, caterpillars or $ w\/$-caterpillars).
We develop some basic tools to work with representable matroids of bounded tree-width and use them to prove that, for any prime power $q$ and constant $k$, the characteristic polynomial of any loopless, $GF(q)$-representable matroid with tree-width $k$ has no real zero greater than $q^{k-1}$.
The local tree-width of a graph G=(V,E) is the function ltw^G: N -> N that associates with every natural number r the maximal tree-width of an r-neighborhood in G. Our main graph theoretic result is a decomposition theorem for graphs with excluded minors that essentially says that such graphs can be decomposed into trees of graphs of bounded local tree-width. As an application of this theorem, we show that a number of combinatorial optimization problems, such as Minimum Vertex Cover, Minimum Dominating Set, and Maximum Independent Set have a polynomial time approximation scheme when restricted…
We prove that for every $k$ and every $\varepsilon>0$, there exists $g$ such that every graph with tree-width at most $k$ and odd-girth at least $g$ has circular chromatic number at most $2+\varepsilon$.
We describe a generating tree approach to the enumeration and exhaustive generation of k-nonnesting set partitions and permutations. Unlike previous work in the literature using the connections of these objects to Young tableaux and restricted lattice walks, our approach deals directly with partition and permutation diagrams. We provide explicit functional equations for the generating functions, with k as a parameter.
We study the bounded regions in a generic slice of the hyperplane arrangement in $\mathbb{R}^n$ consisting of the hyperplanes defined by $x_i$ and $x_i+x_j$. The bounded regions are in bijection with several classes of combinatorial objects, including the ordered partitions of $[n]$ all of whose left-to-right minima occur at odd locations and the drawings of rooted plane trees with $n+1$ vertices. These are sequences of rooted plane trees such that each tree in a sequence can be obtained from the next one by removing a leaf.
Given an ordered partition $Π=\{P_1,P_2, ...,P_t\}$ of the vertex set $V$ of a connected graph $G=(V,E)$, the \emph{partition representation} of a vertex $v\in V$ with respect to the partition $Π$ is the vector $r(v|Π)=(d(v,P_1),d(v,P_2),...,d(v,P_t))$, where $d(v,P_i)$ represents the distance between the vertex $v$ and the set $P_i$. A partition $Π$ of $V$ is a \emph{resolving partition} of $G$ if different vertices of $G$ have different partition representations, i.e., for every pair of vertices $u,v\in V$, $r(u|Π)\ne r(v|Π)$. The \emph{partition dimension} of $G$ is the minimum number of se…
We give an interpretation of the coefficients of the two variable refinement $D_{\Sh_n}(q,t)$ of the distance enumerator of the Shi hyperplane arrangement $\Sh_n$ in $n$ dimensions. This two variable refinement was defined by Stanley \cite{stan-rota} for the general $r$-extended Shi hyperplane arrangements. We give an interpretation when $r=1$. We define three natural three-dimensional partitions of the number $(n+1)^{n-1}$. The first arises from parking functions of length $n$, the second from special posets on $n$ vertices defined by Athanasiadis and the third from spanning trees on $n+1$ ve…
Let A_n (n >= 1) be the set of all integers x such that there exists a connected graph on n vertices with precisely x spanning trees. In this paper, we show that |A_n| grows faster than sqrt{n}exp(2Pi*sqrt{n/log{n}/Sqrt(3)} This settles a question of Sedlacek.
By the Grid Minor Theorem of Robertson and Seymour, every graph of sufficiently large tree-width contains a large grid as a minor. Tree-width may therefore be regarded as a measure of 'grid-likeness' of a graph. The grid contains a long cycle on the perimeter, which is the $\mathbb{F}_2$-sum of the rectangles inside. Moreover, the grid distorts the metric of the cycle only by a factor of two. We prove that every graph that resembles the grid in this algebraic sense has large tree-width: Let $k, p$ be integers, $γ$ a real number and $G$ a graph. Suppose that $G$ contains a cycle of length at le…
Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez introduced the notion of first order convergence as an attempt to unify the notions of convergence for sparse and dense graphs. It is known that there exist first order convergent sequences of graphs with no limit modeling (an analytic representation of the limit). On the positive side, every first order convergent sequence of trees or graphs with no long path (graphs with bounded tree-depth) has a limit modeling. We strengthen these results by showing that every first order convergent sequence of plane trees (trees with embeddings in the plane) and every first or…
Inspired by the works of Dewar, Murty and Kotěšovec, we establish some useful theorems for asymptotic formulas. As an application, we obtain asymptotic formulas for the numbers of skew plane partitions and cylindric partitions. We prove that the order of the asymptotic formula for the skew plane partitions of fixed width depends only on the width of the region, not on the profile (the skew zone) itself, while this is not true for cylindric partitions.
The monochromatic tree partition number of an $r$-edge-colored graph $G$, denoted by $t_r(G)$, is the minimum integer $k$ such that whenever the edges of $G$ are colored with $r$ colors, the vertices of $G$ can be covered by at most $k$ vertex-disjoint monochromatic trees. In general, to determine this number is very difficult. For 2-edge-colored complete multipartite graph, Kaneko, Kano, and Suzuki gave the exact value of $t_2(K(n_1,n_2,...,n_k))$. In this paper, we prove that if $n\geq 3$, and K(n,n) is 3-edge-colored such that every vertex has color degree 3, then $t_3(K(n,n))=3.$
The connected tree-width of a graph is the minimum width of a tree-decomposition whose parts induce connected subgraphs. Long cycles are examples of graphs that have small tree-width but large connected tree-width. We show that a graph has small connected tree-width if and only if it has small tree-width and contains no long geodesic cycle. We further prove a connected analogue of the duality theorem for tree-width: a finite graph has small connected tree-width if and only if it has no bramble whose connected covers are all large. Both these results are qualitative: the bounds are good but not…
P.L. Erdos and L.A. Szekely [Adv. Appl. Math. 10(1989), 488-496] gave a bijection between rooted semilabeled trees and set partitions. L.H. Harper's results [Ann. Math. Stat. 38(1967), 410-414] on the asymptotic normality of the Stirling numbers of the second kind translates into asymptotic normality of rooted semilabeled trees with given number of vertices, when the number of internal vertices varies. The Erdos-Szekely bijection specializes to a bijection between phylogenetic trees and set partitions with classes of size \geq 2. We consider modified Stirling numbers of the second kind that en…
To each link $L$ in $S^3$ we associate a collection of certain labelled directed trees, called width trees. We interpret some classical and new topological link invariants in terms of these width trees and show how the geometric structure of the width trees can bound the values of these invariants from below. We also show that each width tree is associated with a knot in $S^3$ and that if it also meets a high enough "distance threshold" it is, up to a certain equivalence, the unique width tree realizing the invariants.
Diestel and Müller showed that the connected tree-width of a graph $G$, i.e., the minimum width of any tree-decomposition with connected parts, can be bounded in terms of the tree-width of $G$ and the largest length of a geodesic cycle in $G$. We improve their bound to one that is of correct order of magnitude. Finally, we construct a graph whose connected tree-width exceeds the connected order of any of its brambles. This disproves a conjecture by Diestel and Müller asserting an analogue of tree-width duality.
Tree-width is an invaluable tool for computational problems on graphs. But often one would like to compute on other kinds of objects (e.g. decorated graphs or even algebraic structures) where there is no known tree-width analogue. Here we define an abstract analogue of tree-width which provides a uniform definition of various tree-width-like invariants including graph tree-width, hypergraph tree-width, complemented tree-width and even new constructions such as the tree-width of modular quotients. We obtain this generalization by developing a general theory of categories that admit abstract ana…
We prove that every graph of rank-width $k$ is a pivot-minor of a graph of tree-width at most $2k$. We also prove that graphs of rank-width at most 1, equivalently distance-hereditary graphs, are exactly vertex-minors of trees, and graphs of linear rank-width at most 1 are precisely vertex-minors of paths. In addition, we show that bipartite graphs of rank-width at most 1 are exactly pivot-minors of trees and bipartite graphs of linear rank-width at most 1 are precisely pivot-minors of paths.
In this paper we consider the directed path-width and directed tree-width of recursively defined digraphs. As an important combinatorial tool, we show how the directed path-width and the directed tree-width can be computed for the disjoint union, order composition, directed union, and series composition of two directed graphs. These results imply the equality of directed path-width and directed tree-width for all digraphs which can be defined by these four operations. This allows us to show a linear-time solution for computing the directed path-width and directed tree-width of all these digrap…
Over the last 30 years, researchers have investigated connections between dimension for posets and planarity for graphs. Here we extend this line of research to the structural graph theory parameter tree-width by proving that the dimension of a finite poset is bounded in terms of its height and the tree-width of its cover graph.
We prove that the tree-width of graphs in a hereditary class defined by a finite set $F$ of forbidden induced subgraphs is bounded if and only if $F$ includes a complete graph, a complete bipartite graph, a tripod (a forest in which every connected component has at most 3 leaves) and the line graph of a tripod.
The question whether a partition $\mathcal{P}$ and a hierarchy $\mathcal{H}$ or a tree-like split system $\mathfrak{S}$ are compatible naturally arises in a wide range of classification problems. In the setting of phylogenetic trees, one asks whether the sets of $\mathcal{P}$coincide with leaf sets of connected components obtained by deleting some edges from the tree $T$ that represents $\mathcal{H}$ or $\mathfrak{S}$, respectively. More generally, we ask whether a refinement $T^*$ of $T$ exists such that $T^*$ and $\mathcal{P}$ are compatible in this sense. The latter is closely related to th…
In this paper, we disprove the long-standing conjecture that any complete geometric graph on $2n$ vertices can be partitioned into $n$ plane spanning trees. Our construction is based on so-called bumpy wheel sets. We fully characterize which bumpy wheels can and in particular which \emph{cannot} be partitioned into plane spanning trees (or even into arbitrary plane \emph{subgraphs}), including a complete description of all possible partitions (into plane spanning trees). Furthermore, we show a sufficient condition for \emph{generalized wheels} to not admit a partition into plane spanning trees…
Suppose $G$ is a tree. Graham's "Tree Reconstruction Conjecture" states that $G$ is uniquely determined by the integer sequence $|G|$, $|L(G)|$, $|L(L(G))|$, $|L(L(L(G)))|$, $\ldots$, where $L(H)$ denotes the line graph of the graph $H$. Little is known about this question apart from a few simple observations. We show that the number of trees on $n$ vertices which can be distinguished by their associated integer sequences is $e^{Ω((\log n)^{3/2})}$. The proof strategy involves constructing a large collection of caterpillar graphs using partitions arising from the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem.
In 1990, Thomas proved that every graph admits a tree decomposition of minimum width that additionally satisfies a certain vertex-connectivity condition called leanness [A Menger-like property of tree-width: The finite case. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, 48(1):67-76, 1990]. This result had many uses and has been extended to several other decompositions. In this paper, we consider tree-cut decompositions, that have been introduced by Wollan as a possible edge-version of tree decompositions [The structure of graphs not admitting a fixed immersion. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Se…
We prove that every sufficiently big 6-connected graph of bounded tree-width either has a K_6 minor, or has a vertex whose deletion makes the graph planar. This is a step toward proving that the same conclusion holds for all sufficiently big 6-connected graphs. Jorgensen conjectured that it holds for all 6-connected graphs.
For their famous algorithm for the disjoint paths problem, Robertson and Seymour proved that there is a function $f$ such that if the tree-width of a graph $G$ with $k$ pairs of terminals is at least $f(k)$, then $G$ contains a solution-irrelevant vertex (Graph Minors. XXII., JCTB 2012). We give a single-exponential lower bound on $f$. This bound even holds for planar graphs.
Minimum $k$-Section denotes the NP-hard problem to partition the vertex set of a graph into $k$ sets of sizes as equal as possible while minimizing the cut width, which is the number of edges between these sets. When $k$ is an input parameter and $n$ denotes the number of vertices, it is NP-hard to approximate the width of a minimum $k$-section within a factor of $n^c$ for any $c<1$, even when restricted to trees with constant diameter. Here, we show that every tree $T$ allows a $k$-section of width at most $(k-1) (2 + 16n / diam(T) ) Δ(T)$. This implies a polynomial-time constant-factor appro…
