Combinatorics (math.CO)

Abstract: Let $G=(V,E)$ be a simple connected graph with vertex set $V(G)$ and edge set $E(G)$. The third atom-bond connectivity index, $ABC_3$ index, of $G$ is defined as $ABC_3(G)=\sum\limits_{uv\in E(G)}\sqrt{\frac{e(u)+e(v)-2}{e(u)e(v)}}$, where eccentricity $e(u)$ is the largest distance between $u$ and any other vertex of $G$, namely $e(u)=\max\{d(u,v)|v\in V(G)\}$. This work determines the maximal $ABC_3$ index of unicyclic graphs with any given girth and trees with any given diameter, and characterizes the corresponding graphs.

Abstract: The boxicity of a graph is the smallest dimension $d$ allowing a representation of it as the intersection graph of a set of $d$-dimensional axis-parallel boxes. We present a simple general approach to determining the boxicity of a graph based on studying its ``interval-order subgraphs''. The power of the method is first tested on the boxicity of some popular graphs that have resisted previous attempts: the boxicity of the Petersen graph is $3$, and more generally, that of the Kneser-graphs $K(n,2)$ is $n-2$ if $n\ge 5$, confirming a conjecture of Caoduro and Lichev [Discrete Mathematics, Vol. 346, 5, 2023]. Since every line graph is an induced subgraph of the complement of $K(n,2)$, the developed tools show furthermore that line graphs have only a polynomial number of edge-maximal interval-order subgraphs. This opens the way to polynomial-time algorithms for problems that are in general $\mathcal{NP}$-hard: for the existence and optimization of interval-order subgraphs of line-graphs, or of interval-completions of their complement.

Abstract: We investigate a two player game called the $K^4$-building game: two players alternately claim edges of an infinite complete graph. Each player's aim is to claim all six edges on some vertex set of size four for themself. The first player to accomplish this goal is declared the winner of the game. We present a winning strategy which guarantees a win for the first player.

Abstract: We investigate the method of moments for $d$-regular digraphs and the limiting $d$-regular directed tree $T_d$ as the number of vertices tends to infinity, in the same spirit as McKay (Linear Algebra Appl., 1981) for the undirected setting. In particular, we provide a combinatorial derivation of the formula for the star moments (from a root vertex $o\in T_d$) $$M_d(w)\qquad:=\sum_{\substack{v_0,v_1\ldots,v_{k-1},v_k\in T_d\\v_0=v_k=o}} A^{w_1}(v_0,v_1)A^{w_2}(v_1,v_2) \cdots A^{w_k}(v_{k-1},v_k)$$ with $A$ the adjacency matrix of $T_d$, where $w:=w_1\cdots w_k$ is any word on the alphabet $\{1,{*}\}$ and $A^*$ is the adjoint matrix of $A$. Our analysis highlights a connection between the non-zero summands of $M_d(w)$ and the non-crossing partitions of $\{1,\ldots,k\}$ which are in some sense compatible with $w$.

Abstract: We give a combinatorial proof of a lattice point identity involving a lattice polygon and its dual, generalizing the formula $area(\Delta) + area(\Delta^*) = 6$ for reflexive $\Delta$. The identity is equivalent to the stringy Libgober-Wood identity for toric log del Pezzo surfaces.

Abstract: For every positive integer $d$, we show that there must exist an absolute constant $c > 0$ such that the following holds: for any integer $n \geq cd^{7}$ and any red-blue coloring of the one-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{F}_{2}^{n}$, there must exist either a $d$-dimensional subspace for which all of its one-dimensional subspaces get colored red or a $2$-dimensional subspace for which all of its one-dimensional subspaces get colored blue. This answers recent questions of Nelson and Nomoto, and confirms that for any even plane binary matroid $N$, the class of $N$-free, claw-free binary matroids is polynomially $\chi$-bounded. Our argument will proceed via a reduction to a well-studied additive combinatorics problem, originally posed by Green: given a set $A \subset \mathbb{F}_{2}^{n}$ with density $\alpha \in [0,1]$, what is the largest subspace that we can find in $A+A$? Our main contribution to the story is a new result for this problem in the regime where $1/\alpha$ is large with respect to $n$, which utilizes ideas from the recent breakthrough paper of Kelley and Meka on sets of integers without three-term arithmetic progressions.