Non-crossing shortest paths in planar graphs with applications to max flow, and path graphs

This thesis is concerned with non-crossing shortest paths in planar graphs with applications to st-max flow vitality and path graphs. In the first part we deal with non-crossing shortest paths in a plane graph G, i.e., a planar graph with a fixed planar embedding, whose extremal vertices lie on the same face of G. The first two results are the computation of the lengths of the non-crossing shortest paths knowing their union, and the computation of the union in the unweighted case. Both results require linear time and we use them to describe an efficient algorithm able to give an additive guaranteed approximation of edge and vertex vitalities with respect to the st-max flow in undirected planar graphs, that is the max flow decrease when the edge/vertex is removed from the graph. Indeed, it is well-known that the st-max flow in an undirected planar graph can be reduced to a problem of non-crossing shortest paths in the dual graph. We conclude this part by showing that the union of non-crossing shortest paths in a plane graph can be covered with four forests so that each path is contained in at least one forest. In the second part of the thesis we deal with path graphs and directed path graphs, where a (directed) path graph is the intersection graph of paths in a (directed) tree. We introduce a new characterization of path graphs that simplifies the existing ones in the literature. This characterization leads to a new list of local forbidden subgraphs of path graphs and to a new algorithm able to recognize path graphs and directed path graphs. This algorithm is more intuitive than the existing ones and does not require sophisticated data structures

Crossing Patterns in Nonplanar Road Networks

We define the crossing graph of a given embedded graph (such as a road network) to be a graph with a vertex for each edge of the embedding, with two crossing graph vertices adjacent when the corresponding two edges of the embedding cross each other. In this paper, we study the sparsity properties of crossing graphs of real-world road networks. We show that, in large road networks (the Urban Road Network Dataset), the crossing graphs have connected components that are primarily trees, and that the remaining non-tree components are typically sparse (technically, that they have bounded degeneracy). We prove theoretically that when an embedded graph has a sparse crossing graph, it has other desirable properties that lead to fast algorithms for shortest paths and other algorithms important in geographic information systems. Notably, these graphs have polynomial expansion, meaning that they and all their subgraphs have small separators.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. To appear at the 25th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems(ACM SIGSPATIAL 2017

Chord Diagrams and Gauss Codes for Graphs

Chord diagrams on circles and their intersection graphs (also known as circle graphs) have been intensively studied, and have many applications to the study of knots and knot invariants, among others. However, chord diagrams on more general graphs have not been studied, and are potentially equally valuable in the study of spatial graphs. We will define chord diagrams for planar embeddings of planar graphs and their intersection graphs, and prove some basic results. Then, as an application, we will introduce Gauss codes for immersions of graphs in the plane and give algorithms to determine whether a particular crossing sequence is realizable as the Gauss code of an immersed graph.Comment: 20 pages, many figures. This version has been substantially rewritten, and the results are stronge

Dimers and cluster integrable systems

We show that the dimer model on a bipartite graph on a torus gives rise to a quantum integrable system of special type - a cluster integrable system. The phase space of the classical system contains, as an open dense subset, the moduli space of line bundles with connections on the graph. The sum of Hamiltonians is essentially the partition function of the dimer model. Any graph on a torus gives rise to a bipartite graph on the torus. We show that the phase space of the latter has a Lagrangian subvariety. We identify it with the space parametrizing resistor networks on the original graph.We construct several discrete quantum integrable systems.Comment: This is an updated version, 75 pages, which will appear in Ann. Sci. EN