The number of maximum matchings in a tree

We determine upper and lower bounds for the number of maximum matchings (i.e., matchings of maximum cardinality) $m(T)$ of a tree $T$ of given order. While the trees that attain the lower bound are easily characterised, the trees with largest number of maximum matchings show a very subtle structure. We give a complete characterisation of these trees and derive that the number of maximum matchings in a tree of order $n$ is at most $O(1.391664^n)$ (the precise constant being an algebraic number of degree 14). As a corollary, we improve on a recent result by G\'orska and Skupie\'n on the number of maximal matchings (maximal with respect to set inclusion).Comment: 38 page

Trees with an On-Line Degree Ramsey Number of Four

On-line Ramsey theory studies a graph-building game between two players. The player called Builder builds edges one at a time, and the player called Painter paints each new edge red or blue after it is built. The graph constructed is called the background graph. Builder's goal is to cause the background graph to contain a monochromatic copy of a given goal graph, and Painter's goal is to prevent this. In the S[subscript k]-game variant of the typical game, the background graph is constrained to have maximum degree no greater than k. The on-line degree Ramsey number [˚over R][subscript Δ](G) of a graph G is the minimum k such that Builder wins an S[subscript k]-game in which G is the goal graph. Butterfield et al. previously determined all graphs G satisfying [˚ over R][subscript Δ](G)≤3. We provide a complete classification of trees T satisfying [˚ over R][subscript Δ](T)=4.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMS-0754106)United States. National Security Agency (Grant H98230-06-1-0013