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)

Compressed Sensing Using Binary Matrices of Nearly Optimal Dimensions

In this paper, we study the problem of compressed sensing using binary measurement matrices and $\ell_1$-norm minimization (basis pursuit) as the recovery algorithm. We derive new upper and lower bounds on the number of measurements to achieve robust sparse recovery with binary matrices. We establish sufficient conditions for a column-regular binary matrix to satisfy the robust null space property (RNSP) and show that the associated sufficient conditions % sparsity bounds for robust sparse recovery obtained using the RNSP are better by a factor of $(3 \sqrt{3})/2 \approx 2.6$ compared to the sufficient conditions obtained using the restricted isometry property (RIP). Next we derive universal \textit{lower} bounds on the number of measurements that any binary matrix needs to have in order to satisfy the weaker sufficient condition based on the RNSP and show that bipartite graphs of girth six are optimal. Then we display two classes of binary matrices, namely parity check matrices of array codes and Euler squares, which have girth six and are nearly optimal in the sense of almost satisfying the lower bound. In principle, randomly generated Gaussian measurement matrices are "order-optimal". So we compare the phase transition behavior of the basis pursuit formulation using binary array codes and Gaussian matrices and show that (i) there is essentially no difference between the phase transition boundaries in the two cases and (ii) the CPU time of basis pursuit with binary matrices is hundreds of times faster than with Gaussian matrices and the storage requirements are less. Therefore it is suggested that binary matrices are a viable alternative to Gaussian matrices for compressed sensing using basis pursuit. \end{abstract}Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures, 5 table

Transitivity is not a (big) restriction on homotopy types

For every simplicial complex K there exists a vertex-transitive simplicial complex homotopy equivalent to a wedge of copies of K with some copies of the circle. It follows that every simplicial complex can occur as a homotopy wedge summand in some vertex-transitive complex. One can even demand that the vertex-transitive complex is the clique complex of a Cayley graph or that it is facet-transitive

Counting independent sets in cubic graphs of given girth

We prove a tight upper bound on the independence polynomial (and total number of independent sets) of cubic graphs of girth at least 5. The bound is achieved by unions of the Heawood graph, the point/line incidence graph of the Fano plane. We also give a tight lower bound on the total number of independent sets of triangle-free cubic graphs. This bound is achieved by unions of the Petersen graph. We conjecture that in fact all Moore graphs are extremal for the scaled number of independent sets in regular graphs of a given minimum girth, maximizing this quantity if their girth is even and minimizing if odd. The Heawood and Petersen graphs are instances of this conjecture, along with complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs, and cycles.Postprint (author's final draft