Vol. 15 no. 1


1. The b-chromatic number of powers of cycles

Anja Kohl.
A b-coloring of a graph G by k colors is a proper vertex coloring such that each color class contains a color-dominating vertex, that is, a vertex having neighbors in all other k-1 color classes. The b-chromatic number χb(G) is the maximum integer k for which G has a b-coloring by k colors. Let Cnr be the rth power of a cycle of order n. In 2003, Effantin and Kheddouci established the b-chromatic number χb(Cnr) for all values of n and r, except for 2r+3≤n≤3r. For the missing cases they presented the lower bound L:= min n-r-1,r+1+⌊ n-r-1 / 3⌋ and conjectured that χb(Cnr)=L. In this paper, we determine the exact value on χb(Cnr) for the missing cases. It turns out that χb(Cnr)>L for 2r+3≤n≤2r+3+r-6 / 4.

2. Krausz dimension and its generalizations in special graph classes

Olga Glebova ; Yury Metelsky ; Pavel Skums.
A Krausz (k,m)-partition of a graph G is a decomposition of G into cliques, such that any vertex belongs to at most k cliques and any two cliques have at most m vertices in common. The m-Krausz dimension kdimm(G) of the graph G is the minimum number k such that G has a Krausz (k,m)-partition. In particular, 1-Krausz dimension or simply Krausz dimension kdim(G) is a well-known graph-theoretical parameter. In this paper we prove that the problem "kdim(G)≤3" is polynomially solvable for chordal graphs, thus partially solving the open problem of P. Hlineny and J. Kratochvil. We solve another open problem of P. Hlineny and J. Kratochvil by proving that the problem of finding Krausz dimension is NP-hard for split graphs and complements of bipartite graphs. We show that the problem of finding m-Krausz dimension is NP-hard for every m≥1, but the problem "kdimm(G)≤k" is is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by k and m for (∞,1)-polar graphs. Moreover, the class of (∞,1)-polar graphs with kdimm(G)≤k is characterized by a finite list of forbidden induced subgraphs for every k,m≥1.

3. Automaticity of primitive words and irreducible polynomials

Anne Lacroix ; Narad Rampersad.
If L is a language, the automaticity function A_L(n) (resp. N_L(n)) of L counts the number of states of a smallest deterministic (resp. non-deterministic) finite automaton that accepts a language that agrees with L on all inputs of length at most n. We provide bounds for the automaticity of the language of primitive words and the language of unbordered words over a k-letter alphabet. We also give a bound for the automaticity of the language of base-b representations of the irreducible polynomials over a finite field. This latter result is analogous to a result of Shallit concerning the base-k representations of the set of prime numbers.

4. A bound on the number of perfect matchings in Klee-graphs

Marek Cygan ; Marcin Pilipczuk ; Riste Škrekovski.
The famous conjecture of Lovász and Plummer, very recently proven by Esperet et al. (2011), asserts that every cubic bridgeless graph has exponentially many perfect matchings. In this paper we improve the bound of Esperet et al. for a specific subclass of cubic bridgeless graphs called the Klee-graphs. We show that every Klee-graph with n ≥8 vertices has at least 3 *2(n+12)/60 perfect matchings.

5. The determining number of Kneser graphs

José Cáceres ; Delia Garijo ; Antonio González ; Alberto Márquez ; Marıa Luz Puertas.
A set of vertices S is a determining set of a graph G if every automorphism of G is uniquely determined by its action on S. The determining number of G is the minimum cardinality of a determining set of G. This paper studies the determining number of Kneser graphs. First, we compute the determining number of a wide range of Kneser graphs, concretely Kn:k with n≥k(k+1) / 2+1. In the language of group theory, these computations provide exact values for the base size of the symmetric group Sn acting on the k-subsets of 1,..., n. Then, we establish for which Kneser graphs Kn:k the determining number is equal to n-k, answering a question posed by Boutin. Finally, we find all Kneser graphs with fixed determining number 5, extending the study developed by Boutin for determining number 2, 3 or 4.

6. Sequence variations of the 1-2-3 conjecture and irregularity strength

Ben Seamone ; Brett Stevens.
Karonski, Luczak, and Thomason (2004) conjecture that, for any connected graph G on at least three vertices, there exists an edge weighting from 1, 2, 3 such that adjacent vertices receive different sums of incident edge weights. Bartnicki, Grytczuk, and Niwcyk (2009) make a stronger conjecture, that each edge's weight may be chosen from an arbitrary list of size 3 rather than 1, 2, 3. We examine a variation of these conjectures, where each vertex is coloured with a sequence of edge weights. Such a colouring relies on an ordering of E(G), and so two variations arise - one where we may choose any ordering of E(G) and one where the ordering is fixed. In the former case, we bound the list size required for any graph. In the latter, we obtain a bound on list sizes for graphs with sufficiently large minimum degree. We also extend our methods to a list variation of irregularity strength, where each vertex receives a distinct sequence of edge weights.

7. Hereditary biclique-Helly graphs: recognition and maximal biclique enumeration

Martiniano Eguia ; Francisco Juan Soulignac.
A biclique is a set of vertices that induce a complete bipartite graph. A graph G is biclique-Helly when its family of maximal bicliques satisfies the Helly property. If every induced subgraph of G is also biclique-Helly, then G is hereditary biclique-Helly. A graph is C4-dominated when every cycle of length 4 contains a vertex that is dominated by the vertex of the cycle that is not adjacent to it. In this paper we show that the class of hereditary biclique-Helly graphs is formed precisely by those C4-dominated graphs that contain no triangles and no induced cycles of length either 5 or 6. Using this characterization, we develop an algorithm for recognizing hereditary biclique-Helly graphs in O(n2+αm) time and O(n+m) space. (Here n, m, and α= O(m1/2) are the number of vertices and edges, and the arboricity of the graph, respectively.) As a subprocedure, we show how to recognize those C4-dominated graphs that contain no triangles in O(αm) time and O(n+m) space. Finally, we show how to enumerate all the maximal bicliques of a C4-dominated graph with no triangles in O(n2 + αm) time and O(αm) space.

8. Further results on maximal nontraceable graphs of smallest size

Alewyn Petrus Burger ; Joy Elizabeth Singleton.
Let g(n) denote the minimum number of edges of a maximal nontraceable (MNT) graph of order n. In 2005 Frick and Singleton (Lower bound for the size of maximal nontraceable graphs, Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 12(1) R32, 2005) proved that g(n) = ⌈3n-22 ⌉ for n ≥54 as well as for n ∈I, where I= 12,13,22,23,30,31,38,39, 40,41,42,43,46,47,48,49,50,51 and they determined g(n) for n ≤9. We determine g(n) for 18 of the remaining 26 values of n, showing that g(n) = ⌈ 3n-22 ⌉ for n ≥54 as well as for n ∈I ∪18,19,20,21,24,25,26,27,28, 29,32,33 and g(n) = ⌈ 3n2 ⌉ for n ∈ 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17. We give results based on ''analytic'' proofs as well as computer searches.

9. The Erdős-Sós conjecture for geometric graphs

Luis Barba ; Ruy Fabila-Monroy ; Dolores Lara ; Jesús Leaños ; Cynthia Rodrıguez ; Gelasio Salazar ; Francisco Zaragoza.
Let f(n,k) be the minimum number of edges that must be removed from some complete geometric graph G on n points, so that there exists a tree on k vertices that is no longer a planar subgraph of G. In this paper we show that ( 1 / 2 )n2 / k-1-n / 2≤f(n,k) ≤2 n(n-2) / k-2. For the case when k=n, we show that 2 ≤f(n,n) ≤3. For the case when k=n and G is a geometric graph on a set of points in convex position, we completely solve the problem and prove that at least three edges must be removed.

10. List edge and list total colorings of planar graphs without non-induced 7-cycles

Aijun Dong ; Guizhen Liu ; Guojun Li.
Giving a planar graph G, let χ'l(G) and χ''l(G) denote the list edge chromatic number and list total chromatic number of G respectively. It is proved that if G is a planar graph without non-induced 7-cycles, then χ'l(G)≤Δ(G)+1 and χ''l(G)≤Δ(G)+2 where Δ(G)≥7.

11. A chip-firing variation and a new proof of Cayley's formula

Peter Mark Kayll ; Dave Perkins.
We introduce a variation of chip-firing games on connected graphs. These 'burn-off' games incorporate the loss of energy that may occur in the physical processes that classical chip-firing games have been used to model. For a graph G=(V,E), a configuration of 'chips' on its nodes is a mapping C:V→ℕ. We study the configurations that can arise in the course of iterating a burn-off game. After characterizing the 'relaxed legal' configurations for general graphs, we enumerate the 'legal' ones for complete graphs Kn. The number of relaxed legal configurations on Kn coincides with the number tn+1 of spanning trees of Kn+1. Since our algorithmic, bijective proof of this fact does not invoke Cayley's Formula for tn, our main results yield secondarily a new proof of this formula.

12. All totally symmetric colored graphs

Mariusz Grech ; Andrzej Kisielewicz.
In this paper we describe all edge-colored graphs that are fully symmetric with respect to colors and transitive on every set of edges of the same color. They correspond to fully symmetric homogeneous factorizations of complete graphs. Our description completes the work done in our previous paper, where we have shown, in particular, that there are no such graphs with more than 5 colors. Using some recent results, with a help of computer, we settle all the cases that was left open in the previous paper.

13. Isomorphism of graph classes related to the circular-ones property

Andrew R. Curtis ; Min Chih Lin ; Ross M. Mcconnell ; Yahav Nussbaum ; Francisco Juan Soulignac ; Jeremy P. Spinrad ; Jayme Luiz Szwarcfiter.
We give a linear-time algorithm that checks for isomorphism between two 0-1 matrices that obey the circular-ones property. Our algorithm is similar to the isomorphism algorithm for interval graphs of Lueker and Booth, but works on PC trees, which are unrooted and have a cyclic nature, rather than with PQ trees, which are rooted. This algorithm leads to linear-time isomorphism algorithms for related graph classes, including Helly circular-arc graphs, Γ circular-arc graphs, proper circular-arc graphs and convex-round graphs.

14. A generic method for the enumeration of various classes of directed polycubes

Jean-Marc Champarnaud ; Jean-Philippe Dubernard ; Hadrien Jeanne.
Following the track of polyominoes, in particular the column-by-column construction of Temperley and its interpretation in terms of functional equations due to Bousquet-Mélou, we introduce a generic method for the enumeration of classes of directed polycubes the strata of which satisfy some property P. This method is applied to the enumeration of two new families of polycubes, the s-directed polycubes and the vertically-convex s-directed polycubes, with respect to width and volume. The case of non-directed polycubes is also studied and it is shown that the generic method can be applied in this case too. Finally the general case of d-dimensional polycubes, with d≥4, is investigated, and the generic method is extended in order to handle the enumeration of classes of directed d-polycubes.