On the structure of graphs without short cycles

The objective of this thesis is to study cages, constructions and properties of such families of graphs. For this, the study of graphs without short cycles plays a fundamental role in order to develop some knowledge on their structure, so we can later deal with the problems on cages. Cages were introduced by Tutte in 1947. In 1963, Erdös and Sachs proved that (k, g) -cages exist for any given values of k and g. Since then, large amount of research in cages has been devoted to their construction. In this work we study structural properties such as the connectivity, diameter, and degree regularity of graphs without short cycles. In some sense, connectivity is a measure of the reliability of a network. Two graphs with the same edge-connectivity, may be considered to have different reliabilities, as a more refined index than the edge-connectivity, edge-superconnectivity is proposed together with some other parameters called restricted connectivities. By relaxing the conditions that are imposed for the graphs to be cages, we can achieve more refined connectivity properties on these families and also we have an approach to structural properties of the family of graphs with more restrictions (i.e., the cages). Our aim, by studying such structural properties of cages is to get a deeper insight into their structure so we can attack the problem of their construction. By way of example, we studied a condition on the diameter in relation to the girth pair of a graph, and as a corollary we obtained a result guaranteeing restricted connectivity of a special family of graphs arising from geometry, such as polarity graphs. Also, we obtained a result proving the edge superconnectivity of semiregular cages. Based on these studies it was possible to develop the study of cages. Therefore obtaining a relevant result with respect to the connectivity of cages, that is, cages are k/2-connected. And also arising from the previous work on girth pairs we obtained constructions for girth pair cages that proves a bound conjectured by Harary and Kovács, relating the order of girth pair cages with the one for cages. Concerning the degree and the diameter, there is the concept of a Moore graph, it was introduced by Hoffman and Singleton after Edward F. Moore, who posed the question of describing and classifying these graphs. As well as having the maximum possible number of vertices for a given combination of degree and diameter, Moore graphs have the minimum possible number of vertices for a regular graph with given degree and girth. That is, any Moore graph is a cage. The formula for the number of vertices in a Moore graph can be generalized to allow a definition of Moore graphs with even girth (bipartite Moore graphs) as well as odd girth, and again these graphs are cages. Thus, Moore graphs give a lower bound for the order of cages, but they are known to exist only for very specific values of k, therefore it is interesting to study how far a cage is from this bound, this value is called the excess of a cage. We studied the excess of graphs and give a contribution, in the sense of the work of Biggs and Ito, relating the bipartition of girth 6 cages with their orders. Entire families of cages can be obtained from finite geometries, for example, the graphs of incidence of projective planes of order q a prime power, are (q+1, 6)-cages. Also by using other incidence structures such as the generalized quadrangles or generalized hexagons, it can be obtained families of cages of girths 8 and 12. In this thesis, we present a construction of an entire family of girth 7 cages that arises from some combinatorial properties of the incidence graphs of generalized quadrangles of order (q,q)

Generation of cubic graphs and snarks with large girth

We describe two new algorithms for the generation of all non-isomorphic cubic graphs with girth at least $k\ge 5$ which are very efficient for $5\le k \le 7$ and show how these algorithms can be efficiently restricted to generate snarks with girth at least $k$. Our implementation of these algorithms is more than 30, respectively 40 times faster than the previously fastest generator for cubic graphs with girth at least 6 and 7, respectively. Using these generators we have also generated all non-isomorphic snarks with girth at least 6 up to 38 vertices and show that there are no snarks with girth at least 7 up to 42 vertices. We present and analyse the new list of snarks with girth 6.Comment: 27 pages (including appendix

On the existence of (r,g,χ)(r,g,\chi)-cages

In this paper, we work with simple and finite graphs. We study a generalization of the \emph{Cage Problem}, which has been widely studied since cages were introduced by Tutte \cite{T47} in 1947 and after Erd\" os and Sachs \cite{ES63} proved their existence in 1963. An \emph{$(r,g)$-graph} is an $r$-regular graph in which the shortest cycle has length equal to $g$; that is, it is an $r$-regular graph with girth $g$. An \emph{$(r,g)$-cage} is an $(r,g)$-graph with the smallest possible number of vertices among all $(r,g)$-graphs; the order of an $(r,g)$-cage is denoted by $n(r,g)$. The Cage Problem consists of finding $(r,g)$-cages; it is well-known that $(r,g)$-cages have been determined only for very limited sets of parameter pairs $(r, g)$. There exists a simple lower bound for $n(r,g)$, given by Moore and denoted by $n_0(r,g)$. The cages that attain this bound are called \emph{Moore cages}.Comment: 18 page

A new bound for the connectivity of cages

AbstractAn (r,g)-cage is an r-regular graph of girth g of minimum order. We prove that all (r,g)-cages are at least ⌈r/2⌉-connected for every odd girth g≥7 by means of a matrix technique which allows us to construct graphs without short cycles. This lower bound on the vertex connectivity of cages is a new advance in proving the conjecture of Fu, Huang and Rodger which states that all (r,g)-cages are r-connected

On Mixed Cages

Mixed graphs have both directed and undirected edges. A mixed cage is a regular mixed graph of given girth with minimum possible order. In this paper mixed cages are studied. Upper bounds are obtained by general construction methods and computer searches

Further topics in connectivity

Continuing the study of connectivity, initiated in §4.1 of the Handbook, we survey here some (sufficient) conditions under which a graph or digraph has a given connectivity or edge-connectivity. First, we describe results concerning maximal (vertex- or edge-) connectivity. Next, we deal with conditions for having (usually lower) bounds for the connectivity parameters. Finally, some other general connectivity measures, such as one instance of the so-called “conditional connectivity,” are considered. For unexplained terminology concerning connectivity, see §4.1.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

On geometric constructions of (k, g)-graphs

We give new constructions for k-regular graphs of girth 6, 8 and 12 with a small number of vertices. The key idea is to start with a generalized n-gon and delete some lines and points to decrease the valency of the incidence graph