5,954 research outputs found

    Approximating acyclicity parameters of sparse hypergraphs

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    The notions of hypertree width and generalized hypertree width were introduced by Gottlob, Leone, and Scarcello in order to extend the concept of hypergraph acyclicity. These notions were further generalized by Grohe and Marx, who introduced the fractional hypertree width of a hypergraph. All these width parameters on hypergraphs are useful for extending tractability of many problems in database theory and artificial intelligence. In this paper, we study the approximability of (generalized, fractional) hyper treewidth of sparse hypergraphs where the criterion of sparsity reflects the sparsity of their incidence graphs. Our first step is to prove that the (generalized, fractional) hypertree width of a hypergraph H is constant-factor sandwiched by the treewidth of its incidence graph, when the incidence graph belongs to some apex-minor-free graph class. This determines the combinatorial borderline above which the notion of (generalized, fractional) hypertree width becomes essentially more general than treewidth, justifying that way its functionality as a hypergraph acyclicity measure. While for more general sparse families of hypergraphs treewidth of incidence graphs and all hypertree width parameters may differ arbitrarily, there are sparse families where a constant factor approximation algorithm is possible. In particular, we give a constant factor approximation polynomial time algorithm for (generalized, fractional) hypertree width on hypergraphs whose incidence graphs belong to some H-minor-free graph class

    Counterexample to an extension of the Hanani-Tutte theorem on the surface of genus 4

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    We find a graph of genus 55 and its drawing on the orientable surface of genus 44 with every pair of independent edges crossing an even number of times. This shows that the strong Hanani-Tutte theorem cannot be extended to the orientable surface of genus 44. As a base step in the construction we use a counterexample to an extension of the unified Hanani-Tutte theorem on the torus.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; minor revision, new section on open problem

    Logical limit laws for minor-closed classes of graphs

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    Let G\mathcal G be an addable, minor-closed class of graphs. We prove that the zero-one law holds in monadic second-order logic (MSO) for the random graph drawn uniformly at random from all {\em connected} graphs in G\mathcal G on nn vertices, and the convergence law in MSO holds if we draw uniformly at random from all graphs in G\mathcal G on nn vertices. We also prove analogues of these results for the class of graphs embeddable on a fixed surface, provided we restrict attention to first order logic (FO). Moreover, the limiting probability that a given FO sentence is satisfied is independent of the surface SS. We also prove that the closure of the set of limiting probabilities is always the finite union of at least two disjoint intervals, and that it is the same for FO and MSO. For the classes of forests and planar graphs we are able to determine the closure of the set of limiting probabilities precisely. For planar graphs it consists of exactly 108 intervals, each of length ≈5⋅10−6\approx 5\cdot 10^{-6}. Finally, we analyse examples of non-addable classes where the behaviour is quite different. For instance, the zero-one law does not hold for the random caterpillar on nn vertices, even in FO.Comment: minor changes; accepted for publication by JCT

    Nested cycles in large triangulations and crossing-critical graphs

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    We show that every sufficiently large plane triangulation has a large collection of nested cycles that either are pairwise disjoint, or pairwise intersect in exactly one vertex, or pairwise intersect in exactly two vertices. We apply this result to show that for each fixed positive integer kk, there are only finitely many kk-crossing-critical simple graphs of average degree at least six. Combined with the recent constructions of crossing-critical graphs given by Bokal, this settles the question of for which numbers q>0q>0 there is an infinite family of kk-crossing-critical simple graphs of average degree qq

    Defective and Clustered Graph Colouring

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    Consider the following two ways to colour the vertices of a graph where the requirement that adjacent vertices get distinct colours is relaxed. A colouring has "defect" dd if each monochromatic component has maximum degree at most dd. A colouring has "clustering" cc if each monochromatic component has at most cc vertices. This paper surveys research on these types of colourings, where the first priority is to minimise the number of colours, with small defect or small clustering as a secondary goal. List colouring variants are also considered. The following graph classes are studied: outerplanar graphs, planar graphs, graphs embeddable in surfaces, graphs with given maximum degree, graphs with given maximum average degree, graphs excluding a given subgraph, graphs with linear crossing number, linklessly or knotlessly embeddable graphs, graphs with given Colin de Verdi\`ere parameter, graphs with given circumference, graphs excluding a fixed graph as an immersion, graphs with given thickness, graphs with given stack- or queue-number, graphs excluding KtK_t as a minor, graphs excluding Ks,tK_{s,t} as a minor, and graphs excluding an arbitrary graph HH as a minor. Several open problems are discussed.Comment: This is a preliminary version of a dynamic survey to be published in the Electronic Journal of Combinatoric
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