Normal hypergraphs and the perfect graph conjecture

AbstractA hypergraph is called normal if the chromatic index of any partial hypergraph H′ of it coincides with the maximum valency in H′. It is proved that a hypergraph is normal iff the maximum number of disjoint hyperedges coincides with the minimum number of vertices representing the hyperedges in each partial hypergraph of it. This theorem implies the following conjecture of Berge: The complement of a perfect graph is perfect. A new proof is given for a related theorem of Berge and Las Vergnas. Finally, the results are applied on a problem of integer valued linear programming, slightly sharpening some results of Fulkerson

Odd-Cycle-Free Facet Complexes and the K\"onig property

We use the definition of a simplicial cycle to define an odd-cycle-free facet complex (hypergraph). These are facet complexes that do not contain any cycles of odd length. We show that besides one class of such facet complexes, all of them satisfy the K\"onig property. This new family of complexes includes the family of balanced hypergraphs, which are known to satisfy the K\"onig property. These facet complexes are, however, not Mengerian; we give an example to demonstrate this fact.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Ehrhart clutters: Regularity and Max-Flow Min-Cut

If C is a clutter with n vertices and q edges whose clutter matrix has column vectors V={v1,...,vq}, we call C an Ehrhart clutter if {(v1,1),...,(vq,1)} is a Hilbert basis. Letting A(P) be the Ehrhart ring of P=conv(V), we are able to show that if A is the clutter matrix of a uniform, unmixed MFMC clutter C, then C is an Ehrhart clutter and in this case we provide sharp bounds on the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of A(P). Motivated by the Conforti-Cornuejols conjecture on packing problems, we conjecture that if C is both ideal and the clique clutter of a perfect graph, then C has the MFMC property. We prove this conjecture for Meyniel graphs, by showing that the clique clutters of Meyniel graphs are Ehrhart clutters. In much the same spirit, we provide a simple proof of our conjecture when C is a uniform clique clutter of a perfect graph. We close with a generalization of Ehrhart clutters as it relates to total dual integrality.Comment: Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, to appea

Polynomial-time perfect matchings in dense hypergraphs

Let $H$ be a $k$-graph on $n$ vertices, with minimum codegree at least $n/k + cn$ for some fixed $c > 0$. In this paper we construct a polynomial-time algorithm which finds either a perfect matching in $H$ or a certificate that none exists. This essentially solves a problem of Karpi\'nski, Ruci\'nski and Szyma\'nska; Szyma\'nska previously showed that this problem is NP-hard for a minimum codegree of $n/k - cn$. Our algorithm relies on a theoretical result of independent interest, in which we characterise any such hypergraph with no perfect matching using a family of lattice-based constructions.Comment: 64 pages. Update includes minor revisions. To appear in Advances in Mathematic

Hamilton cycles in hypergraphs below the Dirac threshold

We establish a precise characterisation of $4$-uniform hypergraphs with minimum codegree close to $n/2$ which contain a Hamilton $2$-cycle. As an immediate corollary we identify the exact Dirac threshold for Hamilton $2$-cycles in $4$-uniform hypergraphs. Moreover, by derandomising the proof of our characterisation we provide a polynomial-time algorithm which, given a $4$-uniform hypergraph $H$ with minimum codegree close to $n/2$, either finds a Hamilton $2$-cycle in $H$ or provides a certificate that no such cycle exists. This surprising result stands in contrast to the graph setting, in which below the Dirac threshold it is NP-hard to determine if a graph is Hamiltonian. We also consider tight Hamilton cycles in $k$-uniform hypergraphs $H$ for $k \geq 3$, giving a series of reductions to show that it is NP-hard to determine whether a $k$-uniform hypergraph $H$ with minimum degree $\delta(H) \geq \frac{1}{2}|V(H)| - O(1)$ contains a tight Hamilton cycle. It is therefore unlikely that a similar characterisation can be obtained for tight Hamilton cycles.Comment: v2: minor revisions in response to reviewer comments, most pseudocode and details of the polynomial time reduction moved to the appendix which will not appear in the printed version of the paper. To appear in Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series