A pair of forbidden subgraphs and perfect matchings

AbstractIn this paper, we study the relationship between forbidden subgraphs and the existence of a matching. Let H be a set of connected graphs, each of which has three or more vertices. A graph G is said to be H-free if no graph in H is an induced subgraph of G. We completely characterize the set H such that every connected H-free graph of sufficiently large even order has a perfect matching in the following cases.(1)Every graph in H is triangle-free.(2)H consists of two graphs (i.e. a pair of forbidden subgraphs).A matching M in a graph of odd order is said to be a near-perfect matching if every vertex of G but one is incident with an edge of M. We also characterize H such that every H-free graph of sufficiently large odd order has a near-perfect matching in the above cases

Pairs of disjoint matchings and related classes of graphs

For a finite graph $G$, we study the maximum $2$-edge colorable subgraph problem and a related ratio $\frac{\mu(G)}{\nu(G)}$, where $\nu(G)$ is the matching number of $G$, and $\mu(G)$ is the size of the largest matching in any pair $(H,H')$ of disjoint matchings maximizing $|H| + |H'|$ (equivalently, forming a maximum $2$-edge colorable subgraph). Previously, it was shown that $\frac{4}{5} \le \frac{\mu(G)}{\nu(G)} \le 1$, and the class of graphs achieving $\frac{4}{5}$ was completely characterized. We show here that any rational number between $\frac{4}{5}$ and $1$ can be achieved by a connected graph. Furthermore, we prove that every graph with ratio less than $1$ must admit special subgraphs

Spanning trees of 3-uniform hypergraphs

Masbaum and Vaintrob's "Pfaffian matrix tree theorem" implies that counting spanning trees of a 3-uniform hypergraph (abbreviated to 3-graph) can be done in polynomial time for a class of "3-Pfaffian" 3-graphs, comparable to and related to the class of Pfaffian graphs. We prove a complexity result for recognizing a 3-Pfaffian 3-graph and describe two large classes of 3-Pfaffian 3-graphs -- one of these is given by a forbidden subgraph characterization analogous to Little's for bipartite Pfaffian graphs, and the other consists of a class of partial Steiner triple systems for which the property of being 3-Pfaffian can be reduced to the property of an associated graph being Pfaffian. We exhibit an infinite set of partial Steiner triple systems that are not 3-Pfaffian, none of which can be reduced to any other by deletion or contraction of triples. We also find some necessary or sufficient conditions for the existence of a spanning tree of a 3-graph (much more succinct than can be obtained by the currently fastest polynomial-time algorithm of Gabow and Stallmann for finding a spanning tree) and a superexponential lower bound on the number of spanning trees of a Steiner triple system.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figure

Edge-Stable Equimatchable Graphs

A graph $G$ is \emph{equimatchable} if every maximal matching of $G$ has the same cardinality. We are interested in equimatchable graphs such that the removal of any edge from the graph preserves the equimatchability. We call an equimatchable graph $G$ \emph{edge-stable} if $G\setminus {e}$, that is the graph obtained by the removal of edge $e$ from $G$, is also equimatchable for any $e \in E(G)$. After noticing that edge-stable equimatchable graphs are either 2-connected factor-critical or bipartite, we characterize edge-stable equimatchable graphs. This characterization yields an $O(\min(n^{3.376}, n^{1.5}m))$ time recognition algorithm. Lastly, we introduce and shortly discuss the related notions of edge-critical, vertex-stable and vertex-critical equimatchable graphs. In particular, we emphasize the links between our work and the well-studied notion of shedding vertices, and point out some open questions

Assessing the Computational Complexity of Multi-Layer Subgraph Detection

Multi-layer graphs consist of several graphs (layers) over the same vertex set. They are motivated by real-world problems where entities (vertices) are associated via multiple types of relationships (edges in different layers). We chart the border of computational (in)tractability for the class of subgraph detection problems on multi-layer graphs, including fundamental problems such as maximum matching, finding certain clique relaxations (motivated by community detection), or path problems. Mostly encountering hardness results, sometimes even for two or three layers, we can also spot some islands of tractability