Graphs Identified by Logics with Counting

We classify graphs and, more generally, finite relational structures that are identified by C2, that is, two-variable first-order logic with counting. Using this classification, we show that it can be decided in almost linear time whether a structure is identified by C2. Our classification implies that for every graph identified by this logic, all vertex-colored versions of it are also identified. A similar statement is true for finite relational structures. We provide constructions that solve the inversion problem for finite structures in linear time. This problem has previously been shown to be polynomial time solvable by Martin Otto. For graphs, we conclude that every C2-equivalence class contains a graph whose orbits are exactly the classes of the C2-partition of its vertex set and which has a single automorphism witnessing this fact. For general k, we show that such statements are not true by providing examples of graphs of size linear in k which are identified by C3 but for which the orbit partition is strictly finer than the Ck-partition. We also provide identified graphs which have vertex-colored versions that are not identified by Ck.Comment: 33 pages, 8 Figure

Decompositions into isomorphic rainbow spanning trees

A subgraph of an edge-coloured graph is called rainbow if all its edges have distinct colours. Our main result implies that, given any optimal colouring of a sufficiently large complete graph $K_{2n}$, there exists a decomposition of $K_{2n}$ into isomorphic rainbow spanning trees. This settles conjectures of Brualdi--Hollingsworth (from 1996) and Constantine (from 2002) for large graphs.Comment: Version accepted to appear in JCT

Hurwitz equivalence of braid monodromies and extremal elliptic surfaces

We discuss the equivalence between the categories of certain ribbon graphs and subgroups of the modular group $\Gamma$ and use it to construct exponentially large families of not Hurwitz equivalent simple braid monodromy factorizations of the same element. As an application, we also obtain exponentially large families of {\it topologically} distinct algebraic objects such as extremal elliptic surfaces, real trigonal curves, and real elliptic surfaces

Cyclotomic and simplicial matroids

Two naturally occurring matroids representable over Q are shown to be dual: the {\it cyclotomic matroid} $\mu_n$ represented by the $n^{th}$ roots of unity $1,\zeta,\zeta^2,...,\zeta^{n-1}$ inside the cyclotomic extension $Q(\zeta)$, and a direct sum of copies of a certain simplicial matroid, considered originally by Bolker in the context of transportation polytopes. A result of Adin leads to an upper bound for the number of $Q$-bases for $Q(\zeta)$ among the $n^{th}$ roots of unity, which is tight if and only if $n$ has at most two odd prime factors. In addition, we study the Tutte polynomial of $\mu_n$ in the case that $n$ has two prime factors.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

A rooted variant of Stanley's chromatic symmetric function

Richard Stanley defined the chromatic symmetric function $X_G$ of a graph $G$ and asked whether there are non-isomorphic trees $T$ and $U$ with $X_T=X_U$. We study variants of the chromatic symmetric function for rooted graphs, where we require the root vertex to either use or avoid a specified color. We present combinatorial identities and recursions satisfied by these rooted chromatic polynomials, explain their relation to pointed chromatic functions and rooted $U$-polynomials, and prove three main theorems. First, for all non-empty connected graphs $G$, Stanley's polynomial $X_G(x_1,\ldots,x_N)$ is irreducible in $\mathbb{Q}[x_1,\ldots,x_N]$ for all large enough $N$. The same result holds for our rooted variant where the root node must avoid a specified color. We prove irreducibility by a novel combinatorial application of Eisenstein's Criterion. Second, we prove the rooted version of Stanley's Conjecture: two rooted trees are isomorphic as rooted graphs if and only if their rooted chromatic polynomials are equal. In fact, we prove that a one-variable specialization of the rooted chromatic polynomial (obtained by setting $x_0=x_1=q$, $x_2=x_3=1$, and $x_n=0$ for $n>3$) already distinguishes rooted trees. Third, we answer a question of Pawlowski by providing a combinatorial interpretation of the monomial expansion of pointed chromatic functions.Comment: 21 pages; v2: added a short algebraic proof to Theorem 2 (now Theorem 15), we also answer a question of Pawlowski about monomial expansions; v3: added additional one-variable specialization results, simplified main proof

On the Relationship between Sum-Product Networks and Bayesian Networks

In this paper, we establish some theoretical connections between Sum-Product Networks (SPNs) and Bayesian Networks (BNs). We prove that every SPN can be converted into a BN in linear time and space in terms of the network size. The key insight is to use Algebraic Decision Diagrams (ADDs) to compactly represent the local conditional probability distributions at each node in the resulting BN by exploiting context-specific independence (CSI). The generated BN has a simple directed bipartite graphical structure. We show that by applying the Variable Elimination algorithm (VE) to the generated BN with ADD representations, we can recover the original SPN where the SPN can be viewed as a history record or caching of the VE inference process. To help state the proof clearly, we introduce the notion of {\em normal} SPN and present a theoretical analysis of the consistency and decomposability properties. We conclude the paper with some discussion of the implications of the proof and establish a connection between the depth of an SPN and a lower bound of the tree-width of its corresponding BN.Comment: Full version of the same paper to appear at ICML-201

Graphs and networks theory

This chapter discusses graphs and networks theory