25,867 research outputs found
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
QPTAS and Subexponential Algorithm for Maximum Clique on Disk Graphs
A (unit) disk graph is the intersection graph of closed (unit) disks in the plane. Almost three decades ago, an elegant polynomial-time algorithm was found for Maximum Clique on unit disk graphs [Clark, Colbourn, Johnson; Discrete Mathematics '90]. Since then, it has been an intriguing open question whether or not tractability can be extended to general disk graphs. We show the rather surprising structural result that a disjoint union of cycles is the complement of a disk graph if and only if at most one of those cycles is of odd length. From that, we derive the first QPTAS and subexponential algorithm running in time 2^{O~(n^{2/3})} for Maximum Clique on disk graphs. In stark contrast, Maximum Clique on intersection graphs of filled ellipses or filled triangles is unlikely to have such algorithms, even when the ellipses are close to unit disks. Indeed, we show that there is a constant ratio of approximation which cannot be attained even in time 2^{n^{1-epsilon}}, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis fails
Topological obstructions for vertex numbers of Minkowski sums
We show that for polytopes P_1, P_2, ..., P_r \subset \R^d, each having n_i
\ge d+1 vertices, the Minkowski sum P_1 + P_2 + ... + P_r cannot achieve the
maximum of \prod_i n_i vertices if r \ge d. This complements a recent result of
Fukuda & Weibel (2006), who show that this is possible for up to d-1 summands.
The result is obtained by combining methods from discrete geometry (Gale
transforms) and topological combinatorics (van Kampen--type obstructions) as
developed in R\"{o}rig, Sanyal, and Ziegler (2007).Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; Improved exposition and less typos.
Construction/example and remarks adde
Erdos-Hajnal-type theorems in hypergraphs
The Erdos-Hajnal conjecture states that if a graph on n vertices is H-free,
that is, it does not contain an induced copy of a given graph H, then it must
contain either a clique or an independent set of size n^{d(H)}, where d(H) > 0
depends only on the graph H. Except for a few special cases, this conjecture
remains wide open. However, it is known that a H-free graph must contain a
complete or empty bipartite graph with parts of polynomial size. We prove an
analogue of this result for 3-uniform hypergraphs, showing that if a 3-uniform
hypergraph on n vertices is H-free, for any given H, then it must contain a
complete or empty tripartite subgraph with parts of order c(log n)^{1/2 +
d(H)}, where d(H) > 0 depends only on H. This improves on the bound of c(log
n)^{1/2}, which holds in all 3-uniform hypergraphs, and, up to the value of the
constant d(H), is best possible. We also prove that, for k > 3, no analogue of
the standard Erdos-Hajnal conjecture can hold in k-uniform hypergraphs. That
is, there are k-uniform hypergraphs H and sequences of H-free hypergraphs which
do not contain cliques or independent sets of size appreciably larger than one
would normally expect.Comment: 15 page
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