Combinatorics (math.CO)

Abstract: Let $P_4$ denote the path graph on $4$ vertices. The suspension of $P_4$, denoted by $\widehat P_4$, is the graph obtained via adding an extra vertex and joining it to all four vertices of $P_4$. In this note, we demonstrate that for $n\ge 8$, the maximum number of triangles in any $n$-vertex graph not containing $\widehat P_4$ is $\left\lfloor n^2/8\right\rfloor$. Our method uses simple induction along with computer programming to prove a base case of the induction hypothesis.

Abstract: The finite topological quandles can be represented as $n\times n$ matrices, recently defined by S. Nelson and C. Wong. In this paper, we first study the finite topological quandles and we show how to use these matrices to distinguish all isomorphism classes of finite topological quandles for a given cardinality $n$. As an application, we classify finite topological quandles with up to 4 elements.

Abstract: The chromatic number of a directed graph is the minimum number of induced acyclic subdigraphs that cover its vertex set, and accordingly, the chromatic number of a tournament is the minimum number of transitive subtournaments that cover its vertex set. The neighborhood of an arc $uv$ in a tournament $T$ is the set of vertices that form a directed triangle with arc $uv$. We show that if the neighborhood of every arc in a tournament has bounded chromatic number, then the whole tournament has bounded chromatic number. We show that this holds more generally for oriented graphs with bounded independence number, which we use to prove the equivalence of a conjecture of El-Zahar and Erd\H{o}s and a recent conjecture of Nguyen, Scott and Seymour relating the structure of graphs and tournaments with high chromatic number.

Abstract: In this note we describe how Laso\'n's generalization of Alon's Combinatorial Nullstellensatz gives a framework for constructing lower bounds on the Tur\'an number $\operatorname{ex}(n, K^{(r)}_{s_1,\dots,s_r})$ of the complete $r$-partite $r$-uniform hypergraph $K^{(r)}_{s_1,\dots,s_r}$. To illustrate the potential of this method, we give a short and simple explicit construction for the Erd\H{o}s box problem, showing that $\operatorname{ex}(n, K^{(r)}_{2,\dots,2}) = \Omega(n^{r - 1/r})$, which asymptotically matches best known bounds when $r \leq 4$.

Abstract: A $d$-dimensional framework is a pair $(G,p)$, where $G=(V,E)$ is a graph and $p$ is a map from $V$ to $\mathbb{R}^d$. The length of an edge $xy\in E$ in $(G,p)$ is the distance between $p(x)$ and $p(y)$. A vertex pair $\{u,v\}$ of $G$ is said to be globally linked in $(G,p)$ if the distance between $p(u)$ and $p(v)$ is equal to the distance between $q(u)$ and $q(v)$ for every $d$-dimensional framework $(G,q)$ in which the corresponding edge lengths are the same as in $(G,p)$. We call $(G,p)$ globally rigid in $\mathbb{R}^d$ when each vertex pair of $G$ is globally linked in $(G,p)$. A pair $\{u,v\}$ of vertices of $G$ is said to be weakly globally linked in $G$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ if there exists a generic framework $(G,p)$ in which $\{u,v\}$ is globally linked. In this paper we first give a sufficient condition for the weak global linkedness of a vertex pair of a $(d+1)$-connected graph $G$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and then show that for $d=2$ it is also necessary. We use this result to obtain a complete characterization of weakly globally linked pairs in graphs in $\mathbb{R}^2$, which gives rise to an algorithm for testing weak global linkedness in the plane in $O(|V|^2)$ time. Our methods lead to a new short proof for the characterization of globally rigid graphs in $\mathbb{R}^2$, and further results on weakly globally linked pairs and globally rigid graphs in the plane and in higher dimensions.

Abstract: Let $G$ be a graph of even order, and consider $K_G$ as the complete graph on the same vertex set as $G$. A perfect matching of $K_G$ is called a pairing of $G$. If for every pairing $M$ of $G$ it is possible to find a perfect matching $N$ of $G$ such that $M \cup N$ is a Hamiltonian cycle of $K_G$, then $G$ is said to have the Pairing-Hamiltonian property, or PH-property, for short. In 2007, Fink [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 97] proved that for every $d\geq 2$, the $d$-dimensional hypercube $\mathcal{Q}_d$ has the PH-property, thus proving a conjecture posed by Kreweras in 1996. In this paper we extend Fink's result by proving that given a graph $G$ having the PH-property, the prism graph $\mathcal{P}(G)$ of $G$ has the PH-property as well. Moreover, if $G$ is a connected graph, we show that there exists a positive integer $k_0$ such that the $k^{\textrm{th}}$-prism of a graph $\mathcal{P}^k(G)$ has the PH-property for all $k \ge k_0$.

Abstract: Sidorenko's conjecture states that, for all bipartite graphs $H$, quasirandom graphs contain asymptotically the minimum number of copies of $H$ taken over all graphs with the same order and edge density. While still open for graphs, the analogous statement is known to be false for hypergraphs. We show that there is some advantage in this, in that if Sidorenko's conjecture does not hold for a particular $r$-partite $r$-uniform hypergraph $H$, then it is possible to improve the standard lower bound, coming from the probabilistic deletion method, for its extremal number $\mathrm{ex}(n,H)$, the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $H$-free $r$-uniform hypergraph. With this application in mind, we find a range of new counterexamples to the conjecture for hypergraphs, including all linear hypergraphs containing a loose triangle and all $3$-partite $3$-uniform tight cycles.

Abstract: The boolean elements of a Coxeter group have been characterized and shown to possess many interesting properties and applications. Here we introduce "boolean prisms," a generalization of those elements, characterizing them equivalently in terms of their reduced words and in terms of pattern containment. As part of this work, we introduce the notion of "calibration" to permutation patterns.

Abstract: Concerning the recent notion of circular chromatic number of signed graphs, for each given integer $k$ we introduce two signed bipartite graphs, each on $2k^2-k+1$ vertices, having shortest negative cycle of length $2k$, and the circular chromatic number 4. Each of the construction can be viewed as a bipartite analogue of the generalized Mycielski graphs on odd cycles, $M_{\ell}(C_{2k+1})$. In the course of proving our result, we also obtain a simple proof of the fact that $M_{\ell}(C_{2k+1})$ and some similar quadrangulations of the projective plane have circular chromatic number 4. These proofs have the advantage that they illuminate, in an elementary manner, the strong relation between algebraic topology and graph coloring problems.

Abstract: For a given connected graph $G$, the edge Mostar index $Mo_e(G)$ is defined as $Mo_e(G)=\sum_{e=uv \in E(G)}|m_u(e|G) - m_v(e|G)|$, where $m_u(e|G)$ and $m_v(e|G)$ are respectively, the number of edges of $G$ lying closer to vertex $u$ than to vertex $v$ and the number of edges of $G$ lying closer to vertex $v$ than to vertex $u$. In this paper, we determine the sharp upper bound for the edge Mostar index on tricyclic graphs with a fixed number of edges, and the graphs that attain the bound are completely characterized.

Abstract: Let $G=(V,E)$ be a finite, simple, connected, combinatorial graph on $n$ vertices and let $D \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times n}$ be its graph distance matrix $D_{ij} = d(v_i, v_j)$. Steinerberger (J. Graph Theory, 2023) empirically observed that the linear system of equations $Dx =\mathbf{1}$, where $\mathbf{1} = (1,1,\dots, 1)^{T}$, very frequently has a solution (even in cases where $D$ is not invertible). The smallest nontrivial example of a graph where the linear system is not solvable are two graphs on 7 vertices. We prove that, in fact, counterexamples exists for all $n\geq 7$. The construction is somewhat delicate and further suggests that such examples are perhaps rare. We also prove that for Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graphs the graph distance matrix $D$ is invertible with high probability. We conclude with some structural results on the Perron-Frobenius eigenvector for a distance matrix.