On the odd girth and the circular chromatic number of generalized Petersen graphs

A class of simple graphs such as ${\cal G}$ is said to be {\it odd-girth-closed} if for any positive integer $g$ there exists a graph $G \in {\cal G}$ such that the odd-girth of $G$ is greater than or equal to $g$. An odd-girth-closed class of graphs ${\cal G}$ is said to be {\it odd-pentagonal} if there exists a positive integer $g^*$ depending on ${\cal G}$ such that any graph $G \in {\cal G}$ whose odd-girth is greater than $g^*$ admits a homomorphism to the five cycle (i.e. is $C_{_{5}}$-colorable). In this article, we show that finding the odd girth of generalized Petersen graphs can be transformed to an integer programming problem, and using this we explicitly compute the odd girth of such graphs, showing that the class is odd-girth-closed. Also, motivated by showing that the class of generalized Petersen graphs is odd-pentagonal, we study the circular chromatic number of such graphs

On tension-continuous mapings

Tension-continuous (shortly TT) mappings are mappings between the edge sets of graphs. They generalize graph homomorphisms. From another perspective, tension-continuous mappings are dual to the notion of flow-continuous mappings and the context of nowhere-zero flows motivates several questions considered in this paper. Extending our earlier research we define new constructions and operations for graphs (such as graphs Delta(G)) and give evidence for the complex relationship of homomorphisms and TT mappings. Particularly, solving an open problem, we display pairs of TT-comparable and homomorphism-incomparable graphs with arbitrarily high connectivity. We give a new (and more direct) proof of density of TT order and study graphs such that TT mappings and homomorphisms from them coincide; we call such graphs homotens. We show that most graphs are homotens, on the other hand every vertex of a nontrivial homotens graph is contained in a triangle. This provides a justification for our construction of homotens graphs.Comment: 31 page

Optimal induced universal graphs for bounded-degree graphs

We show that for any constant $\Delta \ge 2$, there exists a graph $G$ with $O(n^{\Delta / 2})$ vertices which contains every $n$-vertex graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ as an induced subgraph. For odd $\Delta$ this significantly improves the best-known earlier bound of Esperet et al. and is optimal up to a constant factor, as it is known that any such graph must have at least $\Omega(n^{\Delta/2})$ vertices. Our proof builds on the approach of Alon and Capalbo (SODA 2008) together with several additional ingredients. The construction of $G$ is explicit and is based on an appropriately defined composition of high-girth expander graphs. The proof also provides an efficient deterministic procedure for finding, for any given input graph $H$ on $n$ vertices with maximum degree at most $\Delta$, an induced subgraph of $G$ isomorphic to $H$

Approximability Distance in the Space of H-Colourability Problems

A graph homomorphism is a vertex map which carries edges from a source graph to edges in a target graph. We study the approximability properties of the Weighted Maximum H-Colourable Subgraph problem (MAX H-COL). The instances of this problem are edge-weighted graphs G and the objective is to find a subgraph of G that has maximal total edge weight, under the condition that the subgraph has a homomorphism to H; note that for H=K_k this problem is equivalent to MAX k-CUT. To this end, we introduce a metric structure on the space of graphs which allows us to extend previously known approximability results to larger classes of graphs. Specifically, the approximation algorithms for MAX CUT by Goemans and Williamson and MAX k-CUT by Frieze and Jerrum can be used to yield non-trivial approximation results for MAX H-COL. For a variety of graphs, we show near-optimality results under the Unique Games Conjecture. We also use our method for comparing the performance of Frieze & Jerrum's algorithm with Hastad's approximation algorithm for general MAX 2-CSP. This comparison is, in most cases, favourable to Frieze & Jerrum.Comment: 19 page

Classification on Large Networks: A Quantitative Bound via Motifs and Graphons

When each data point is a large graph, graph statistics such as densities of certain subgraphs (motifs) can be used as feature vectors for machine learning. While intuitive, motif counts are expensive to compute and difficult to work with theoretically. Via graphon theory, we give an explicit quantitative bound for the ability of motif homomorphisms to distinguish large networks under both generative and sampling noise. Furthermore, we give similar bounds for the graph spectrum and connect it to homomorphism densities of cycles. This results in an easily computable classifier on graph data with theoretical performance guarantee. Our method yields competitive results on classification tasks for the autoimmune disease Lupus Erythematosus.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Tension continuous maps--their structure and applications

We consider mappings between edge sets of graphs that lift tensions to tensions. Such mappings are called tension-continuous mappings (shortly TT mappings). Existence of a TT mapping induces a (quasi)order on the class of graphs, which seems to be an essential extension of the homomorphism order (studied extensively, see [Hell-Nesetril]). In this paper we study the relationship of the homomorphism and TT orders. We stress the similarities and the differences in both deterministic and random setting. Particularly, we prove that TT order is dense and universal and we solve a problem of M. DeVos et al.Comment: 32 page

On the Impact of Dimension Reduction on Graphical Structures

Statisticians and quantitative neuroscientists have actively promoted the use of independence relationships for investigating brain networks, genomic networks, and other measurement technologies. Estimation of these graphs depends on two steps. First is a feature extraction by summarizing measurements within a parcellation, regional or set definition to create nodes. Secondly, these summaries are then used to create a graph representing relationships of interest. In this manuscript we study the impact of dimension reduction on graphs that describe different notions of relations among a set of random variables. We are particularly interested in undirected graphs that capture the random variables' independence and conditional independence relations. A dimension reduction procedure can be any mapping from high dimensional spaces to low dimensional spaces. We exploit a general framework for modeling the raw data and advocate that in estimating the undirected graphs, any acceptable dimension reduction procedure should be a graph-homotopic mapping, i.e., the graphical structure of the data after dimension reduction should inherit the main characteristics of the graphical structure of the raw data. We show that, in terms of inferring undirected graphs that characterize the conditional independence relations among random variables, many dimension reduction procedures, such as the mean, median, or principal components, cannot be theoretically guaranteed to be a graph-homotopic mapping. The implications of this work are broad. In the most charitable setting for researchers, where the correct node definition is known, graphical relationships can be contaminated merely via the dimension reduction. The manuscript ends with a concrete example, characterizing a subset of graphical structures such that the dimension reduction procedure using the principal components can be a graph-homotopic mapping.Comment: 19 page

Homomorphism counts in robustly sparse graphs

For a fixed graph $H$ and for arbitrarily large host graphs $G$, the number of homomorphisms from $H$ to $G$ and the number of subgraphs isomorphic to $H$ contained in $G$ have been extensively studied in extremal graph theory and graph limits theory when the host graphs are allowed to be dense. This paper addresses the case when the host graphs are robustly sparse and proves a general theorem that solves a number of open questions proposed since 1990s and strengthens a number of results in the literature. We prove that for any graph $H$ and any set ${\mathcal H}$ of homomorphisms from $H$ to members of a hereditary class ${\mathcal G}$ of graphs, if ${\mathcal H}$ satisfies a natural and mild condition, and contracting disjoint subgraphs of radius $O(\lvert V(H) \rvert)$ in members of ${\mathcal G}$ cannot create a graph with large edge-density, then an obvious lower bound for the size of ${\mathcal H}$ gives a good estimation for the size of ${\mathcal H}$. This result determines the maximum number of $H$-homomorphisms, the maximum number of $H$-subgraphs, and the maximum number $H$-induced subgraphs in graphs in any hereditary class with bounded expansion up to a constant factor; it also determines the exact value of the asymptotic logarithmic density for $H$-homomorphisms, $H$-subgraphs and $H$-induced subgraphs in graphs in any hereditary nowhere dense class. Hereditary classes with bounded expansion include (topological) minor-closed families and many classes of graphs with certain geometric properties; nowhere dense classes are the most general sparse classes in sparsity theory. Our machinery also allows us to determine the maximum number of $H$-subgraphs in the class of all $d$-degenerate graphs with any fixed $d$

Coloring dense graphs via VC-dimension

The Vapnik-\v{C}ervonenkis dimension is a complexity measure of set-systems, or hypergraphs. Its application to graphs is usually done by considering the sets of neighborhoods of the vertices (cf. Alon et al. (2006) and Chepoi, Estellon, and Vaxes (2007)), hence providing a set-system. But the graph structure is lost in the process. The aim of this paper is to introduce the notion of paired VC-dimension, a generalization of VC-dimension to set-systems endowed with a graph structure, hence a collection of pairs of subsets. The classical VC-theory is generally used in combinatorics to bound the transversality of a hypergraph in terms of its fractional transversality and its VC-dimension. Similarly, we bound the chromatic number in terms of fractional transversality and paired VC-dimension. This approach turns out to be very useful for a class of problems raised by Erd\H{o}s and Simonovits (1973) asking for H-free graphs with minimum degree at least cn and arbitrarily high chromatic number, where H is a fixed graph and c a positive constant. We show how the usual VC-dimension gives a short proof of the fact that triangle-free graphs with minimum degree at least n/3 have bounded chromatic number, where $n$ is the number of vertices. Using paired VC-dimension, we prove that if the chromatic number of $H$-free graphs with minimum degree at least cn is unbounded for some positive c, then it is unbounded for all c<1/3. In other words, one can find H-free graphs with unbounded chromatic number and minimum degree arbitrarily close to n/3. These H-free graphs are derived from a construction of Hajnal. The large chromatic number follows from the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem

Circular Flows in Planar Graphs

For integers $a\ge 2b>0$, a \emph{circular $a/b$-flow} is a flow that takes values from $\{\pm b, \pm(b+1), \dots, \pm(a-b)\}$. The Planar Circular Flow Conjecture states that every $2k$-edge-connected planar graph admits a circular $(2+\frac{2}{k})$-flow. The cases $k=1$ and $k=2$ are equivalent to the Four Color Theorem and Gr\"otzsch's 3-Color Theorem. For $k\ge 3$, the conjecture remains open. Here we make progress when $k=4$ and $k=6$. We prove that (i) {\em every 10-edge-connected planar graph admits a circular 5/2-flow} and (ii) {\em every 16-edge-connected planar graph admits a circular 7/3-flow.} The dual version of statement (i) on circular coloring was previously proved by Dvo\v{r}\'ak and Postle (Combinatorica 2017), but our proof has the advantages of being much shorter and avoiding the use of computers for case-checking. Further, it has new implications for antisymmetric flows. Statement (ii) is especially interesting because the counterexamples to Jaeger's original Circular Flow Conjecture are 12-edge-connected nonplanar graphs that admit no circular 7/3-flow. Thus, the planarity hypothesis of (ii) is essential.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, plus 2.5 page appendix with 2 figures, comments welcom