1,481 research outputs found
Hamilton cycles in graphs and hypergraphs: an extremal perspective
As one of the most fundamental and well-known NP-complete problems, the
Hamilton cycle problem has been the subject of intensive research. Recent
developments in the area have highlighted the crucial role played by the
notions of expansion and quasi-randomness. These concepts and other recent
techniques have led to the solution of several long-standing problems in the
area. New aspects have also emerged, such as resilience, robustness and the
study of Hamilton cycles in hypergraphs. We survey these developments and
highlight open problems, with an emphasis on extremal and probabilistic
approaches.Comment: to appear in the Proceedings of the ICM 2014; due to given page
limits, this final version is slightly shorter than the previous arxiv
versio
Fullerenes with the maximum Clar number
The Clar number of a fullerene is the maximum number of independent resonant
hexagons in the fullerene. It is known that the Clar number of a fullerene with
n vertices is bounded above by [n/6]-2. We find that there are no fullerenes
whose order n is congruent to 2 modulo 6 attaining this bound. In other words,
the Clar number for a fullerene whose order n is congruent to 2 modulo 6 is
bounded above by [n/6]-3. Moreover, we show that two experimentally produced
fullerenes C80:1 (D5d) and C80:2 (D2) attain this bound. Finally, we present a
graph-theoretical characterization for fullerenes, whose order n is congruent
to 2 (respectively, 4) modulo 6, achieving the maximum Clar number [n/6]-3
(respectively, [n/6]-2)
Connectivity and tree structure in finite graphs
Considering systems of separations in a graph that separate every pair of a
given set of vertex sets that are themselves not separated by these
separations, we determine conditions under which such a separation system
contains a nested subsystem that still separates those sets and is invariant
under the automorphisms of the graph.
As an application, we show that the -blocks -- the maximal vertex sets
that cannot be separated by at most vertices -- of a graph live in
distinct parts of a suitable tree-decomposition of of adhesion at most ,
whose decomposition tree is invariant under the automorphisms of . This
extends recent work of Dunwoody and Kr\"on and, like theirs, generalizes a
similar theorem of Tutte for .
Under mild additional assumptions, which are necessary, our decompositions
can be combined into one overall tree-decomposition that distinguishes, for all
simultaneously, all the -blocks of a finite graph.Comment: 31 page
Estimating the Number of Stable Configurations for the Generalized Thomson Problem
Given a natural number N, one may ask what configuration of N points on the
two-sphere minimizes the discrete generalized Coulomb energy. If one applies a
gradient-based numerical optimization to this problem, one encounters many
configurations that are stable but not globally minimal. This led the authors
of this manuscript to the question, how many stable configurations are there?
In this manuscript we report methods for identifying and counting observed
stable configurations, and estimating the actual number of stable
configurations. These estimates indicate that for N approaching two hundred,
there are at least tens of thousands of stable configurations.Comment: The final publication is available at Springer via
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10955-015-1245-
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