Vol. 15 no. 2


1. Connectivity for line-of-sight networks in higher dimensions

Luc Devroye ; Linda Farczadi.
Let T be a d-dimensional toroidal grid of n^d points. For a given range parameter ω, and a positive integer k ≤q d, we say that two points in T are mutually visible if they differ in at most k coordinates and are a distance at most ω apart, where distance is measured using the \ellₚ norm. We obtain a random d-dimensional line-of-sight graph G by placing a node at each point in T independently with some fixed probability p^* and connecting all pairs of mutually visible nodes. We prove an asymptotically tight connectivity result for this random graph.
Section: Analysis of Algorithms

2. Removable edges in near-bricks

Xiumei Wang ; Cheng He ; Yixun Lin.
For a brick apart from a few small graphs, Lovász (1987) proposed a conjecture on the existence of an edge whose deletion results in a graph with only one brick in its tight cut decomposition. Carvalho, Lucchesi, and Murty (2002) confirmed this conjecture by showing the existence of such two edges. This paper generalizes the result obtained by Carvalho et al. to the case of irreducible near-brick, where a graph is irreducible if it contains no induced odd path of length 3 or more. Meanwhile, a lower bound on the number of removable edges of matching-covered bipartite graphs is presented.
Section: Graph Theory

3. Descent variation of samples of geometric random variables

Charlotte Brennan ; Arnold Knopfmacher.
In this paper, we consider random words ω1ω2ω3⋯ωn of length n, where the letters ωi ∈ℕ are independently generated with a geometric probability such that Pωi=k=pqk-1 where p+q=1 . We have a descent at position i whenever ωi+1 < ωi. The size of such a descent is ωi-ωi+1 and the descent variation is the sum of all the descent sizes for that word. We study various types of random words over the infinite alphabet ℕ, where the letters have geometric probabilities, and find the probability generating functions for descent variation of such words.
Section: Combinatorics

4. Operations on partially ordered sets and rational identities of type A

Adrien Boussicault.
We consider the family of rational functions ψw= ∏( xwi - xwi+1 )-1 indexed by words with no repetition. We study the combinatorics of the sums ΨP of the functions ψw when w describes the linear extensions of a given poset P. In particular, we point out the connexions between some transformations on posets and elementary operations on the fraction ΨP. We prove that the denominator of ΨP has a closed expression in terms of the Hasse diagram of P, and we compute its numerator in some special cases. We show that the computation of ΨP can be reduced to the case of bipartite posets. Finally, we compute the numerators associated to some special bipartite graphs as Schubert polynomials.
Section: Combinatorics

5. On the enumeration of d-minimal permutations

Mathilde Bouvel ; Luca Ferrari.
We suggest an approach for the enumeration of minimal permutations having d descents which uses skew Young tableaux. We succeed in finding a general expression for the number of such permutations in terms of (several) sums of determinants. We then generalize the class of skew Young tableaux under consideration; this allows in particular to discover some presumably new results concerning Eulerian numbers.

6. Efficient repeat finding in sets of strings via suffix arrays

Pablo Barenbaum ; Verónica Becher ; Alejandro Deymonnaz ; Melisa Halsband ; Pablo Ariel Heiber.
We consider two repeat finding problems relative to sets of strings: (a) Find the largest substrings that occur in every string of a given set; (b) Find the maximal repeats in a given string that occur in no string of a given set. Our solutions are based on the suffix array construction, requiring O(m) memory, where m is the length of the longest input string, and O(n &log;m) time, where n is the the whole input size (the sum of the length of each string in the input). The most expensive part of our algorithms is the computation of several suffix arrays. We give an implementation and experimental results that evidence the efficiency of our algorithms in practice, even for very large inputs.
Section: Discrete Algorithms

7. Bipartite powers of k-chordal graphs

Sunil Chandran ; Rogers Mathew.
Let k be an integer and k ≥3. A graph G is k-chordal if G does not have an induced cycle of length greater than k. From the definition it is clear that 3-chordal graphs are precisely the class of chordal graphs. Duchet proved that, for every positive integer m, if Gm is chordal then so is Gm+2. Brandstädt et al. in [Andreas Brandstädt, Van Bang Le, and Thomas Szymczak. Duchet-type theorems for powers of HHD-free graphs. Discrete Mathematics, 177(1-3):9-16, 1997.] showed that if Gm is k-chordal, then so is Gm+2. Powering a bipartite graph does not preserve its bipartitedness. In order to preserve the bipartitedness of a bipartite graph while powering Chandran et al. introduced the notion of bipartite powering. This notion was introduced to aid their study of boxicity of chordal bipartite graphs. The m-th bipartite power G[m] of a bipartite graph G is the bipartite graph obtained from G by adding edges (u,v) where dG(u,v) is odd and less than or equal to m. Note that G[m] = G[m+1] for each odd m. In this paper we show that, given a bipartite graph G, if G is k-chordal then so is G[m], where k, m are positive integers with k≥4.
Section: Graph Theory

8. Improved bounds on the crossing number of butterfly network

Paul D. Manuel ; Bharati Rajan ; Indra Rajasingh ; P. Vasanthi Beulah.
We draw the r-dimensional butterfly network with 1 / 44r+O(r2r) crossings which improves the previous estimate given by Cimikowski (1996). We also give a lower bound which matches the upper bound obtained in this paper.
Section: Graph Theory

9. The complexity of 2-coloring and strong coloring in uniform hypergraphs of high minimum degree

Edyta Szymańska.
In this paper we consider the problem of deciding whether a given r-uniform hypergraph H with minimum vertex degree at least c\binom|V(H)|-1r-1, or minimum degree of a pair of vertices at least c\binom|V(H)|-2r-2, has a vertex 2-coloring. Motivated by an old result of Edwards for graphs, we obtain first optimal dichotomy results for 2-colorings of r-uniform hypergraphs. For each problem, for every r≥q 3 we determine a threshold value depending on r such that the problem is NP-complete for c below the threshold, while for c strictly above the threshold it is polynomial. We provide an algorithm constructing the coloring with time complexity O(n^\lfloor 4/ε\rfloor+2\log n) with some ε>0. This algorithm becomes more efficient in the case of r=3,4,5 due to known Turán numbers of the triangle and the Fano plane. In addition, we determine the computational complexity of strong k-coloring of 3-uniform hypergraphs H with minimum vertex degree at least c\binom|V(H)|-12, for some c, leaving a gap for k≥q 5 which vanishes as k→ ∞.
Section: Discrete Algorithms

10. Derivatives of approximate regular expressions

Jean-Marc Champarnaud ; Hadrien Jeanne ; Ludovic Mignot.
Our aim is to construct a finite automaton recognizing the set of words that are at a bounded distance from some word of a given regular language. We define new regular operators, the similarity operators, based on a generalization of the notion of distance and we introduce the family of regular expressions extended to similarity operators, that we call AREs (Approximate Regular Expressions). We set formulae to compute the Brzozowski derivatives and the Antimirov derivatives of an ARE, which allows us to give a solution to the ARE membership problem and to provide the construction of two recognizers for the language denoted by an ARE. As far as we know, the family of approximative regular expressions is introduced for the first time in this paper. Classical approximate regular expression matching algorithms are approximate matching algorithms on regular expressions. Our approach is rather to process an exact matching on approximate regular expressions.
Section: Automata, Logic and Semantics

11. A stronger recognizability condition for two-dimensional languages

Marcella Anselmo ; Maria Madonia.
The paper presents a condition necessarily satisfied by (tiling system) recognizable two-dimensional languages. The new recognizability condition is compared with all the other ones known in the literature (namely three conditions), once they are put in a uniform setting: they are stated as bounds on the growth of some complexity functions defined for two-dimensional languages. The gaps between such functions are analyzed and examples are shown that asymptotically separate them. Finally the new recognizability condition results to be the strongest one, while the remaining ones are its particular cases. The problem of deciding whether a two-dimensional language is recognizable is here related to the one of estimating the minimal size of finite automata recognizing a sequence of (one-dimensional) string languages.
Section: Automata, Logic and Semantics

12. Topological structuring of the digital plane

Josef Šlapal.
We discuss an Alexandroff topology on ℤ2 having the property that its quotient topologies include the Khalimsky and Marcus-Wyse topologies. We introduce a further quotient topology and prove a Jordan curve theorem for it.
Section: Combinatorics

13. Probe interval graphs and probe unit interval graphs on superclasses of cographs

Flavia Bonomo ; Guillermo Durán ; Luciano N. Grippo ; Martın D. Safe.
A graph is probe (unit) interval if its vertices can be partitioned into two sets: a set of probe vertices and a set of nonprobe vertices, so that the set of nonprobe vertices is a stable set and it is possible to obtain a (unit) interval graph by adding edges with both endpoints in the set of nonprobe vertices. Probe (unit) interval graphs form a superclass of (unit) interval graphs. Probe interval graphs were introduced by Zhang for an application concerning the physical mapping of DNA in the human genome project. The main results of this article are minimal forbidden induced subgraphs characterizations of probe interval and probe unit interval graphs within two superclasses of cographs: P4-tidy graphs and tree-cographs. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of graphs class with a companion which allows to describe all the minimally non-(probe G) graphs with disconnected complement for every graph class G with a companion.
Section: Graph Theory

14. On-line ranking of split graphs

Piotr Borowiecki ; Dariusz Dereniowski.
A vertex ranking of a graph G is an assignment of positive integers (colors) to the vertices of G such that each path connecting two vertices of the same color contains a vertex of a higher color. Our main goal is to find a vertex ranking using as few colors as possible. Considering on-line algorithms for vertex ranking of split graphs, we prove that the worst case ratio of the number of colors used by any on-line ranking algorithm and the number of colors used in an optimal off-line solution may be arbitrarily large. This negative result motivates us to investigate semi on-line algorithms, where a split graph is presented on-line but its clique number is given in advance. We prove that there does not exist a (2-ɛ)-competitive semi on-line algorithm of this type. Finally, a 2-competitive semi on-line algorithm is given.
Section: Graph and Algorithms

15. Cyclic partitions of complete nonuniform hypergraphs and complete multipartite hypergraphs

Shonda Gosselin ; Andrzej Szymański ; Adam Pawel Wojda.
A \em cyclic q-partition of a hypergraph (V,E) is a partition of the edge set E of the form \F,F^θ,F^θ², \ldots, F^θ^q-1\ for some permutation θ of the vertex set V. Let Vₙ = \ 1,2,\ldots,n\. For a positive integer k, Vₙ\choose k denotes the set of all k-subsets of Vₙ. For a nonempty subset K of V_n-1, we let \mathcalKₙ^(K) denote the hypergraph ≤ft(Vₙ, \bigcup_k∈ K Vₙ\choose k\right). In this paper, we find a necessary and sufficient condition on n, q and k for the existence of a cyclic q-partition of \mathcalKₙ^(V_k). In particular, we prove that if p is prime then there is a cyclic p^α-partition of \mathcalK^(Vₖ)ₙ if and only if p^α + β divides n, where β = \lfloor \logₚ k\rfloor. As an application of this result, we obtain two sufficient conditions on n₁,n₂,\ldots,n_t, k, α and a prime p for the existence of a cyclic p^α-partition of the complete t-partite k-uniform hypergraph \mathcal K^(k)_n₁,n₂,\ldots,n_t.
Section: Combinatorics

16. A note on contracting claw-free graphs

Jiří Fiala ; Marcin Kamiński ; Daniël Paulusma.
A graph containment problem is to decide whether one graph called the host graph can be modified into some other graph called the target graph by using a number of specified graph operations. We consider edge deletions, edge contractions, vertex deletions and vertex dissolutions as possible graph operations permitted. By allowing any combination of these four operations we capture the following problems: testing on (induced) minors, (induced) topological minors, (induced) subgraphs, (induced) spanning subgraphs, dissolutions and contractions. We show that these problems stay NP-complete even when the host and target belong to the class of line graphs, which form a subclass of the class of claw-free graphs, i.e., graphs with no induced 4-vertex star. A natural question is to study the computational complexity of these problems if the target graph is assumed to be fixed. We show that these problems may become computationally easier when the host graphs are restricted to be claw-free. In particular we consider the problems that are to test whether a given host graph contains a fixed target graph as a contraction.
Section: Discrete Algorithms

17. A note on the NP-hardness of two matching problems in induced subgrids

Marc Demange ; Tınaz Ekim.
Given a graph, finding the maximal matching of minimum size (MMM) and the induced matching of maximum size (MIM) have been very popular research topics during the last decades. In this paper, we give new complexity results, namely the NP-hardness of MMM and MIM in induced subgrids and we point out some promising research directions. We also sketch the general framework of a unified approach to show the NP-hardness of some problems in subgrids.
Section: Graph Theory

18. Maximal independent sets in bipartite graphs with at least one cycle

Shuchao Li ; Huihui Zhang ; Xiaoyan Zhang.
A maximal independent set is an independent set that is not a proper subset of any other independent set. Liu [J.Q. Liu, Maximal independent sets of bipartite graphs, J. Graph Theory, 17 (4) (1993) 495-507] determined the largest number of maximal independent sets among all n-vertex bipartite graphs. The corresponding extremal graphs are forests. It is natural and interesting for us to consider this problem on bipartite graphs with cycles. Let \mathscrBₙ (resp. \mathscrBₙ') be the set of all n-vertex bipartite graphs with at least one cycle for even (resp. odd) n. In this paper, the largest number of maximal independent sets of graphs in \mathscrBₙ (resp. \mathscrBₙ') is considered. Among \mathscrBₙ the disconnected graphs with the first-, second-, \ldots, \fracn-22-th largest number of maximal independent sets are characterized, while the connected graphs in \mathscrBₙ having the largest, the second largest number of maximal independent sets are determined. Among \mathscrBₙ' graphs have the largest number of maximal independent sets are identified.
Section: Graph Theory

19. Coupon collecting and transversals of hypergraphs

Marcel Wild ; Svante Janson ; Stephan Wagner ; Dirk Laurie.
The classic Coupon-Collector Problem (CCP) is generalized. Only basic probability theory is used. Centerpiece rather is an algorithm that efficiently counts all k-element transversals of a set system.
Section: Analysis of Algorithms