Pseudo-centrosymmetric matrices, with applications to counting perfect matchings
Christopher R. H. Hanusa
备注：
v1: Preprint; 11 pages, 7 figures. v2: Preprint; 15 pages, 7 figures. Reworked so that linear algebraic results are over a field not of characteristic 2, not over the real numbers. Accepted, Linear Algebra and its Applications
We consider square matrices A that commute with a fixed square matrix K, both with entries in a field F not of characteristic 2. When K^2=I, Tao and Yasuda defined A to be generalized centrosymmetric with respect to K. When K^2=-I, we define A to be pseudo-centrosymmetric with respect to K; we show that the determinant of every even-order pseudo-centrosymmetric matrix is the sum of two squares over F, as long as -1 is not a square in F. When a pseudo-centrosymmetric matrix A contains only integral entries and is pseudo-centrosymmetric with respect to a matrix with rational entries, the determinant of A is the sum of two integral squares. This result, when specialized to when K is the even-order alternating exchange matrix, applies to enumerative combinatorics. Using solely matrix-based methods, we reprove a weak form of Jockusch's theorem for enumerating perfect matchings of 2-even symmetric graphs. As a corollary, we reprove that the number of domino tilings of regions known as Aztec diamonds and Aztec pillows is a sum of two integral squares.
We show that the problem of counting perfect matchings remains #P-complete even if we restrict the input to very dense graphs, proving the conjecture in [5]. Here "dense graphs" refer to bipartite graphs of bipartite independence number $\leq 2$, or general graphs of independence number $\leq 2$. Our proof is by reduction from counting perfect matchings in bipartite graphs, via elementary linear algebra tricks and graph constructions.
We present some exact expressions for the number of paths of a given length in a perfect $m$-ary tree. We first count the paths in perfect rooted $m$-ary trees and then use the results to determine the number of paths in perfect unrooted $m$-ary trees, extending a known result for binary trees.
Counting perfect edge dominating sets: extremal results and linear-time algorithms
Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento（圣马丁国立大学）；Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas（国家科学研究委员会）；Instituto de Cálculo and Departamento de Computación, Universidad de Buenos Aires（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学计算系与计算研究所）；Instituto de Cálculo and Departamento de Matemática, Universidad de Buenos Aires（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学数学系与计算研究所）
Lovász and Plummer conjectured, in the mid 1970's, that every cubic graph G with no cutedge has an exponential in |V(G)| number of perfect matchings. In this work we show that every cubic planar graph G whose geometric dual graph is a stack triangulation has at least 3 times the golden ratio to |V(G)|/72 distinct perfect matchings. Our work builds on a novel approach relating Lovász and Plummer's conjecture and the number of so called groundstates of the widely studied Ising model from statistical physics.
We show that the ratio of the number of near perfect matchings to the number of perfect matchings in $d$-regular strong expander (non-bipartite) graphs, with $2n$ vertices, is a polynomial in $n$, thus the Jerrum and Sinclair Markov chain [JS89] mixes in polynomial time and generates an (almost) uniformly random perfect matching. Furthermore, we prove that such graphs have at least $Ω(d)^n$ any perfect matchings, thus proving the Lovasz-Plummer conjecture [LP86] for this family of graphs.
We examine the problem of exactly or approximately counting all perfect matchings in hereditary classes of nonbipartite graphs. In particular, we consider the switch Markov chain of Diaconis, Graham and Holmes. We determine the largest hereditary class for which the chain is ergodic, and define a large new hereditary class of graphs for which it is rapidly mixing. We go on to show that the chain has exponential mixing time for a slightly larger class. We also examine the question of ergodicity of the switch chain in a arbitrary graph. Finally, we give exact counting algorithms for three classe…
A first step in investigating colour symmetries of periodic and nonperiodic patterns is determining the number of colours which allow perfect colourings of the pattern under consideration. A perfect colouring is one where each symmetry of the uncoloured pattern induces a global permutation of the colours. Two cases are distinguished: Either perfect colourings with respect to all symmetries, or with respect to orientation preserving symmetries only (no reflections). For the important class of colourings of regular tilings (and some Laves tilings) of the Euclidean or hyperbolic plane, this mainl…
A maximal $\varepsilon$-near perfect matching is a maximal matching which covers at least $(1-\varepsilon)|V(G)|$ vertices. In this paper, we study the number of maximal near perfect matchings in generalized quasirandom and dense graphs. We provide tight lower and upper bounds on the number of $\varepsilon$-near perfect matchings in generalized quasirandom graphs. Moreover, based on these results, we provide a deterministic polynomial time algorithm that for a given dense graph $G$ of order $n$ and a real number $\varepsilon>0$, returns either a conclusion that $G$ has no $\varepsilon$-near pe…
For c in [0,1] let P_n(c) denote the set of n-vertex perfect graphs with density c and C_n(c) the set of n-vertex graphs without induced C_5 and with density c. We show that log|P_n(c)|/binom{n}{2}=log|C_n(c)|/binom{n}{2}=h(c)+o(1) with h(c)=1/2 if 1/4<c<3/4 and h(c)=H(|2c-1|)/2 otherwise, where H is the binary entropy function. Further, we use this result to deduce that almost all graphs in C_n(c) have homogenous sets of linear size. This answers a question raised by Loebl, Reed, Scott, Thomason, and Thomassé [Almost all H-free graphs have the Erdős-Hajnal property] in the case of forbidden i…
We derive improved upper bounds on the number of crossing-free straight-edge spanning cycles (also known as Hamiltonian tours and simple polygonizations) that can be embedded over any specific set of $N$ points in the plane. More specifically, we bound the ratio between the number of spanning cycles (or perfect matchings) that can be embedded over a point set and the number of triangulations that can be embedded over it. The respective bounds are $O(1.8181^N)$ for cycles and $O(1.1067^N)$ for matchings. These imply a new upper bound of $O(54.543^N)$ on the number of crossing-free straight-edge…
Here we prove that counting maximum matchings in planar, bipartite graphs is #P-complete. This is somewhat surprising in the light that the number of perfect matchings in planar graphs can be computed in polynomial time. We also prove that counting non-necessarily perfect matchings in planar graphs is already #P-complete if the problem is restricted to bipartite graphs. So far hardness was proved only for general, non-necessarily bipartite graphs.
Let $\mathrm{pm}(G)$ denote the number of perfect matchings of a graph $G$, and let $K_{r\times 2n/r}$ denote the complete $r$-partite graph where each part has size $2n/r$. Johnson, Kayll, and Palmer conjectured that for any perfect matching $M$ of $K_{r\times 2n/r}$, we have for $2n$ divisible by $r$ \[\frac{\mathrm{pm}(K_{r\times 2n/r}-M)}{\mathrm{pm}(K_{r\times 2n/r})}\sim e^{-r/(2r-2)}.\] This conjecture can be viewed as a common generalization of counting the number of derangements on $n$ letters, and of counting the number of deranged matchings of $K_{2n}$. We prove this conjecture. In …
We describe a generalization of most-perfect magic squares, called type-p most-perfect squares, and in prime-power orders we give a linear construction of these squares reminiscent of de la Loubere's classical magic square construction method. Type-p most-perfect squares can be used to construct other interesting squares (e.g., generalized Franklin squares) and our linear construction may have implications for counting type-p most-perfect squares.
Is perfect matching in NC? That is, is there a deterministic fast parallel algorithm for it? This has been an outstanding open question in theoretical computer science for over three decades, ever since the discovery of RNC matching algorithms. Within this question, the case of planar graphs has remained an enigma: On the one hand, counting the number of perfect matchings is far harder than finding one (the former is #P-complete and the latter is in P), and on the other, for planar graphs, counting has long been known to be in NC whereas finding one has resisted a solution. In this paper, we g…
Matching minors are a specialisation of minors fit for the study of graph with perfect matchings. The notion of matching minors has been used to give a structural description of bipartite graphs on which the number of perfect matchings can becomputed efficiently, based on a result of Little, by McCuaig et al. in 1999.In this paper we generalise basic ideas from the graph minor series by Robertson and Seymour to the setting of bipartite graphs with perfect matchings. We introducea version of Erdos-Posa property for matching minors and find a direct link between this property and planarity. From…
The forcing number of a perfect matching of a graph was introduced by Harary et al., which originated from Klein and Randić's ideal of innate degree of freedom of Kekulé structure in molecular graph. On the opposite side in some sense, Vukičević and Trinajstié proposed the anti-forcing number of a graph, afterwards Lei et al. generalized this idea to single perfect matching. Recently the forcing and anti-forcing polynomials of perfect matchings of a graph were proposed as counting polynomials for perfect matchings with the same forcing number and anti-forcing number respectively. In this paper…
A perfect matching M in an edge-colored complete bipartite graph K_{n,n} is rainbow if no pair of edges in M have the same color. We obtain asymptotic enumeration results for the number of rainbow matchings in terms of the maximum number of occurrences of a color. We also consider two natural models of random edge-colored K_{n,n} and show that, if the number of colors is at least n, then there is with high probability a random matching. This in particular shows that almost every square matrix of order n in which every entry appears at most n times has a Latin transversal.
Given non-negative weights w_S on the k-subsets S of a km-element set V, we consider the sum of the products w_{S_1} ... w_{S_m} for all partitions V = S_1 cup ... cup S_m into pairwise disjoint k-subsets S_i. When the weights w_S are positive and within a constant factor, fixed in advance, of each other, we present a simple polynomial time algorithm to approximate the sum within a polynomial in m factor. In the process, we obtain higher-dimensional versions of the van der Waerden and Bregman-Minc bounds for permanents. We also discuss applications to counting of perfect and nearly perfect mat…
We develop a theory of graph algebras over general fields. This is modeled after the theory developed by Freedman, Lovász and Schrijver in [22] for connection matrices, in the study of graph homomorphism functions over real edge weight and positive vertex weight. We introduce connection tensors for graph properties. This notion naturally generalizes the concept of connection matrices. It is shown that counting perfect matchings, and a host of other graph properties naturally defined as Holant problems (edge models), cannot be expressed by graph homomorphism functions with both complex vertex a…
A well-known conjecture by Lovász and Plummer from the 1970s asserted that a bridgeless cubic graph has exponentially many perfect matchings. It was solved in the affirmative by Esperet et al. (Adv. Math. 2011). On the other hand, Chudnovsky and Seymour (Combinatorica 2012) proved the conjecture in the special case of cubic planar graphs. In our work we consider random bridgeless cubic planar graphs with the uniform distribution on graphs with $n$ vertices. Under this model we show that the expected number of perfect matchings in labeled bridgeless cubic planar graphs is asymptotically $cγ^n$,…
The notion of the capacity of a polynomial was introduced by Gurvits around 2005, originally to give drastically simplified proofs of the Van der Waerden lower bound for permanents of doubly stochastic matrices and Schrijver's inequality for perfect matchings of regular bipartite graphs. Since this seminal work, the notion of capacity has been utilized to bound various combinatorial quantities and to give polynomial-time algorithms to approximate such quantities (e.g., the number of bases of a matroid). These types of results are often proven by giving bounds on how much a particular different…
For a graph $G$ and a not necessarily proper $k$-edge coloring $c:E(G)\to \{ 1,\ldots,k\}$, let $m_i(G)$ be the number of edges of $G$ of color $i$, and call $G$ {\it color-balanced} if $m_i(G)=m_j(G)$ for every two colors $i$ and $j$. Several famous open problems relate to this notion; Ryser's conjecture on transversals in latin squares, for instance, is equivalent to the statement that every properly $n$-edge colored complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$ has a color-balanced perfect matching. We contribute some results on the question posed by Kittipassorn and Sinsap (arXiv:2011.00862v1) whethe…
We study the problem HomsTo$H$ of counting, modulo 2, the homomorphisms from an input graph to a fixed undirected graph $H$. A characteristic feature of modular counting is that cancellations make wider classes of instances tractable than is the case for exact (non-modular) counting, so subtle dichotomy theorems can arise. We show the following dichotomy: for any $H$ that contains no 4-cycles, HomsTo$H$ is either in polynomial time or is $\oplus P$-complete. This confirms a conjecture of Faben and Jerrum that was previously only known to hold for trees and for a restricted class of treewidth-2…
We introduce, and partially resolve, a conjecture that brings a three-centuries-old derangements phenomenon and its much younger two-decades-old analogue under the same umbrella. Through a graph-theoretic lens, a derangement is a perfect matching in the complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$ with a disjoint perfect matching $M$ removed. Likewise, a deranged matching is a perfect matching in the complete graph $K_{2n}$ minus a perfect matching $M'$. With $\mathrm{pm}(\cdot)$ counting perfect matchings, the elder phenomenon takes the form $\mathrm{pm}(K_{n,n}-M)/\mathrm{pm}(K_{n,n})\to 1/e$ as $n\to…
Let $m_G$ denote the number of perfect matchings of the graph $G$. We introduce a number of combinatorial tools for determining the parity of $m_G$ and giving a lower bound on the power of 2 dividing $m_G$. In particular, we introduce certain vertex sets called channels, which correspond to elements in the kernel of the adjacency matrix of $G$ modulo $2$. A result of Lovász states that the existence of a nontrivial channel is equivalent to $m_G$ being even. We give a new combinatorial proof of this result and strengthen it by showing that the number of channels gives a lower bound on the power…
For even $k$, the matchings connectivity matrix $\mathbf{M}_k$ encodes which pairs of perfect matchings on $k$ vertices form a single cycle. Cygan et al. (STOC 2013) showed that the rank of $\mathbf{M}_k$ over $\mathbb{Z}_2$ is $Θ(\sqrt 2^k)$ and used this to give an $O^*((2+\sqrt{2})^{\mathsf{pw}})$ time algorithm for counting Hamiltonian cycles modulo $2$ on graphs of pathwidth $\mathsf{pw}$. The same authors complemented their algorithm by an essentially tight lower bound under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH). This bound crucially relied on a large permutation submatrix within…
