Precise Partitions Of Large Graphs

First by using an easy application of the Regularity Lemma, we extend some known results about cycles of many lengths to include a specified edge on the cycles. The results in this chapter will help us in rest of this thesis. In 2000, Enomoto and Ota posed a conjecture on the existence of path decomposition of graphs with fixed start vertices and fixed lengths. We prove this conjecture when |G| is large. Our proof uses the Regularity Lemma along with several extremal lemmas, concluding with an absorbing argument to retrieve misbehaving vertices. Furthermore, sharp minimum degree and degree sum conditions are proven for the existance of a Hamiltonian cycle passing through specified vertices with prescribed distances between them in large graphs. Finally, we prove a sharp connectivity and degree sum condition for the existence of a subdivision of a multigraph in which some of the vertices are specified and the distance between each pair of vertices in the subdivision is prescribed (within one)

Subdivisions with Distance Constraints in Large Graphs

In this dissertation we are concerned with sharp degree conditions that guarantee the existence of certain types of subdivisions in large graphs. Of particular interest are subdivisions with a certain number of arbitrarily specified vertices and with prescribed path lengths. Our non-standard approach makes heavy use of the Regularity Lemma (Szemerédi, 1978), the Blow-Up Lemma (Komlós, Sárkózy, and Szemerédi, 1994), and the minimum degree panconnectivity criterion (Williamson, 1977).Sharp minimum degree criteria for a graph G to be H-linked have recently been discovered. We define (H,w,d)-linkage, a condition stronger than H-linkage, by including a weighting function w consisting of required lengths for each edge-path of a desired H-subdivision. We establish sharp minimum degree criteria for a large graph G to be (H,w,d)-linked for all nonnegative d. We similarly define the weaker condition (H,S,w,d)-semi-linkage, where S denotes the set of vertices of H whose corresponding vertices in an H-subdivision are arbitrarily specified. We prove similar sharp minimum degree criteria for a large graph G to be (H,S,w,d)-semi-linked for all nonnegativeWe also examine path coverings in large graphs, which could be seen as a special case of (H,S,w)-semi-linkage. In 2000, Enomoto and Ota conjectured that a graph G of order n with degree sum σ2(G) satisfying σ2(G) \u3e n + k - 2 may be partitioned into k paths, each of prescribed order and with a specified starting vertex. We prove the Enomoto-Ota Conjecture for graphs of sufficiently large order

Choosability of Graphs with Bounded Order: Ohba's Conjecture and Beyond

The \emph{choice number} of a graph $G$, denoted $\ch(G)$, is the minimum integer $k$ such that for any assignment of lists of size $k$ to the vertices of $G$, there is a proper colouring of $G$ such that every vertex is mapped to a colour in its list. For general graphs, the choice number is not bounded above by a function of the chromatic number. In this thesis, we prove a conjecture of Ohba which asserts that $\ch(G)=\chi(G)$ whenever $|V(G)|\leq 2\chi(G)+1$. We also prove a strengthening of Ohba's Conjecture which is best possible for graphs on at most $3\chi(G)$ vertices, and pose several conjectures related to our work.Comment: Master's Thesis, McGill Universit

Ohba’s conjecture and beyond for generalized colorings

Let $G$ be a graph. Ohba's conjecture states that if $|V(G)|\leq 2\chi(G) +1$, then $\chi(G)=\chi^L(G)$. Noel, West, Wu and Zhu extended this result and proved that for any graph, $\chi^L(G)\leq\max\{\chi(G),\left\lceil(|V(G)+\chi(G)-1)/3\right\rceil\}$. Ohba, Kierstead and Noel proved that this bound is sharp for the ordinary chromatic number. In this work we prove that both results hold for generalized colorings as well, and find examples that prove the sharpness of the second one for the acyclic and star chromatic numbers

Coloring problems in combinatorics and descriptive set theory

In this dissertation we study problems related to colorings of combinatorial structures both in the “classical” finite context and in the framework of descriptive set theory, with applications to topological dynamics and ergodic theory. This work consists of two parts, each of which is in turn split into a number of chapters. Although the individual chapters are largely independent from each other (with the exception of Chapters 4 and 6, which partially rely on some of the results obtained in Chapter 3), certain common themes feature throughout—most prominently, the use of probabilistic techniques. In Chapter 1, we establish a generalization of the Lovász Local Lemma (a powerful tool in probabilistic combinatorics), which we call the Local Cut Lemma, and apply it to a variety of problems in graph coloring. In Chapter 2, we study DP-coloring (also known as correspondence coloring)—an extension of list coloring that was recently introduced by Dvorák and Postle. The goal of that chapter is to gain some understanding of the similarities and the differences between DP-coloring and list coloring, and we find many instances of both. In Chapter 3, we adapt the Lovász Local Lemma for the needs of descriptive set theory and use it to establish new bounds on measurable chromatic numbers of graphs induced by group actions. In Chapter 4, we study shift actions of countable groups on spaces of the form A, where A is a finite set, and apply the Lovász Local Lemma to find “large” closed shift-invariant subsets X A on which the induced action of is free. In Chapter 5, we establish precise connections between certain problems in graph theory and in descriptive set theory. As a corollary of our general result, we obtain new upper bounds on Baire measurable chromatic numbers from known results in finite combinatorics. Finally, in Chapter 6, we consider the notions of weak containment and weak equivalence of probability measure-preserving actions of a countable group—relations introduced by Kechris that are combinatorial in spirit and involve the way the action interacts with finite colorings of the underlying probability space. This work is based on the following papers and preprints: [Ber16a; Ber16b; Ber16c; Ber17a; Ber17b; Ber17c; Ber18a; Ber18b], [BK16; BK17a] (with Alexandr Kostochka), [BKP17] (with Alexandr Kostochka and Sergei Pron), and [BKZ17; BKZ18] (with Alexandr Kostochka and Xuding Zhu)

Mathematical models of tissue development

How tissues develop and regulate their growth is a key question in biology. Studies of developing tissue have identified possible regulators of growth such, as chemical signalling and mechanical forces. This thesis aims to understand the influence of mechanical feedback on the development of the imaginal of Drosophila. In particular, we focus on understanding the mechanisms by which an organ knows when it has reached its adult size and shape and stops growing. As mechanical forces can influence the development at different scales, going from the compression of a single cell to the whole tissue stretching, this thesis is separated in two part. In the first part, the influence of the structure of the imaginal disc of Drosophila on growth regulation is studied. This study leads to the development of continuous two-populations models with segregation constraints. The asymptotic limits of the partial differential equation (PDE) models, related to the two populations model, into a Hele-Shaw free boundary model are shown. The new models developed are used to study the impact of local stresses on the development of the imaginal disc of Drosophila. The second part considers the influence of crowding in the imaginal disc of Drosophila and the effect of nuclear movement on growth regulation in dense tissue. We develop an individual-based model for the interkinetic nuclear movement in pseudostratified epithelia, founded upon a minimisation framework. The new model is tuned to study the influence of crowding in the specific case of the imaginal disc of Drosophila through biological data. In particular, we consider the effect of the crowding on the cell cycle and propose a mechanism to explain some of its phase transition.Open Acces