The chromatic numbers of double coverings of a graph

If we fix a spanning subgraph $H$ of a graph $G$, we can define a chromatic number of $H$ with respect to $G$ and we show that it coincides with the chromatic number of a double covering of $G$ with co-support $H$. We also find a few estimations for the chromatic numbers of $H$ with respect to $G$.Comment: 10 page

Decompositions into subgraphs of small diameter

We investigate decompositions of a graph into a small number of low diameter subgraphs. Let P(n,\epsilon,d) be the smallest k such that every graph G=(V,E) on n vertices has an edge partition E=E_0 \cup E_1 \cup ... \cup E_k such that |E_0| \leq \epsilon n^2 and for all 1 \leq i \leq k the diameter of the subgraph spanned by E_i is at most d. Using Szemer\'edi's regularity lemma, Polcyn and Ruci\'nski showed that P(n,\epsilon,4) is bounded above by a constant depending only \epsilon. This shows that every dense graph can be partitioned into a small number of ``small worlds'' provided that few edges can be ignored. Improving on their result, we determine P(n,\epsilon,d) within an absolute constant factor, showing that P(n,\epsilon,2) = \Theta(n) is unbounded for \epsilon n^{-1/2} and P(n,\epsilon,4) = \Theta(1/\epsilon) for \epsilon > n^{-1}. We also prove that if G has large minimum degree, all the edges of G can be covered by a small number of low diameter subgraphs. Finally, we extend some of these results to hypergraphs, improving earlier work of Polcyn, R\"odl, Ruci\'nski, and Szemer\'edi.Comment: 18 page

Covering line graphs with equivalence relations

An equivalence graph is a disjoint union of cliques, and the equivalence number $\mathit{eq}(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of equivalence subgraphs needed to cover the edges of $G$. We consider the equivalence number of a line graph, giving improved upper and lower bounds: $\frac 13 \log_2\log_2 \chi(G) < \mathit{eq}(L(G)) \leq 2\log_2\log_2 \chi(G) + 2$. This disproves a recent conjecture that $\mathit{eq}(L(G))$ is at most three for triangle-free $G$; indeed it can be arbitrarily large. To bound $\mathit{eq}(L(G))$ we bound the closely-related invariant $\sigma(G)$, which is the minimum number of orientations of $G$ such that for any two edges $e,f$ incident to some vertex $v$, both $e$ and $f$ are oriented out of $v$ in some orientation. When $G$ is triangle-free, $\sigma(G)=\mathit{eq}(L(G))$. We prove that even when $G$ is triangle-free, it is NP-complete to decide whether or not $\sigma(G)\leq 3$.Comment: 10 pages, submitted in July 200

Matchings, coverings, and Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity

We show that the co-chordal cover number of a graph G gives an upper bound for the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of the associated edge ideal. Several known combinatorial upper bounds of regularity for edge ideals are then easy consequences of covering results from graph theory, and we derive new upper bounds by looking at additional covering results.Comment: 12 pages; v4 has minor changes for publicatio

Problems and memories

I state some open problems coming from joint work with Paul Erd\H{o}sComment: This is a paper form of the talk I gave on July 5, 2013 at the centennial conference in Budapest to honor Paul Erd\H{o}

Linear-Time Algorithms for Maximum-Weight Induced Matchings and Minimum Chain Covers in Convex Bipartite Graphs

A bipartite graph $G=(U,V,E)$ is convex if the vertices in $V$ can be linearly ordered such that for each vertex $u\in U$, the neighbors of $u$ are consecutive in the ordering of $V$. An induced matching $H$ of $G$ is a matching such that no edge of $E$ connects endpoints of two different edges of $H$. We show that in a convex bipartite graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ weighted edges, an induced matching of maximum total weight can be computed in $O(n+m)$ time. An unweighted convex bipartite graph has a representation of size $O(n)$ that records for each vertex $u\in U$ the first and last neighbor in the ordering of $V$. Given such a compact representation, we compute an induced matching of maximum cardinality in $O(n)$ time. In convex bipartite graphs, maximum-cardinality induced matchings are dual to minimum chain covers. A chain cover is a covering of the edge set by chain subgraphs, that is, subgraphs that do not contain induced matchings of more than one edge. Given a compact representation, we compute a representation of a minimum chain cover in $O(n)$ time. If no compact representation is given, the cover can be computed in $O(n+m)$ time. All of our algorithms achieve optimal running time for the respective problem and model. Previous algorithms considered only the unweighted case, and the best algorithm for computing a maximum-cardinality induced matching or a minimum chain cover in a convex bipartite graph had a running time of $O(n^2)$