Hamilton decompositions of regular expanders: a proof of Kelly's conjecture for large tournaments

A long-standing conjecture of Kelly states that every regular tournament on n vertices can be decomposed into (n-1)/2 edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. We prove this conjecture for large n. In fact, we prove a far more general result, based on our recent concept of robust expansion and a new method for decomposing graphs. We show that every sufficiently large regular digraph G on n vertices whose degree is linear in n and which is a robust outexpander has a decomposition into edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. This enables us to obtain numerous further results, e.g. as a special case we confirm a conjecture of Erdos on packing Hamilton cycles in random tournaments. As corollaries to the main result, we also obtain several results on packing Hamilton cycles in undirected graphs, giving e.g. the best known result on a conjecture of Nash-Williams. We also apply our result to solve a problem on the domination ratio of the Asymmetric Travelling Salesman problem, which was raised e.g. by Glover and Punnen as well as Alon, Gutin and Krivelevich.Comment: new version includes a standalone version of the `robust decomposition lemma' for application in subsequent paper

Hamilton decompositions of regular tournaments

We show that every sufficiently large regular tournament can almost completely be decomposed into edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. More precisely, for each \eta>0 every regular tournament G of sufficiently large order n contains at least (1/2-\eta)n edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. This gives an approximate solution to a conjecture of Kelly from 1968. Our result also extends to almost regular tournaments.Comment: 38 pages, 2 figures. Added section sketching how we can extend our main result. To appear in the Proceedings of the LM

Hamilton decompositions of regular bipartite tournaments

A regular bipartite tournament is an orientation of a complete balanced bipartite graph $K_{2n,2n}$ where every vertex has its in- and outdegree both equal to $n$. In 1981, Jackson conjectured that any regular bipartite tournament can be decomposed into Hamilton cycles. We prove this conjecture for all sufficiently large bipartite tournaments. Along the way, we also prove several further results, including a conjecture of Liebenau and Pehova on Hamilton decompositions of dense bipartite digraphs.Comment: 119 pages, 4 figure

Path and cycle decompositions of graphs and digraphs

In this thesis, we make progress on five long standing conjectures on path and cycle decompositions of graphs and digraphs. Firstly, we confirm a conjecture of Jackson from 1981 by showing that the edges of any sufficiently large regular bipartite tournament can be decomposed into Hamilton cycles. Along the way, we also prove several further results, including a conjecture of Liebenau and Pehova on Hamilton decompositions of dense bipartite digraphs. Secondly, we determine the minimum number of paths required to decompose the edges of any sufficiently large tournament of even order, thus resolving a conjecture of Alspach, Mason, and Pullman from 1976. We also prove an asymptotically optimal result for tournaments of odd order. Finally, we give asymptotically best possible upper bounds on the minimum number of paths, cycles, and cycles and edges required to decompose the edges of any sufficiently large dense graph. This makes progress on three famous conjectures from the 1960s: Gallai's conjecture, Hajós' conjecture, and the Erdős-Gallai conjecture, respectively. This includes joint work with António Girão, Daniela Kühn, Allan Lo, and Deryk Osthus

Matrix Graph Grammars

This book objective is to develop an algebraization of graph grammars. Equivalently, we study graph dynamics. From the point of view of a computer scientist, graph grammars are a natural generalization of Chomsky grammars for which a purely algebraic approach does not exist up to now. A Chomsky (or string) grammar is, roughly speaking, a precise description of a formal language (which in essence is a set of strings). On a more discrete mathematical style, it can be said that graph grammars -- Matrix Graph Grammars in particular -- study dynamics of graphs. Ideally, this algebraization would enforce our understanding of grammars in general, providing new analysis techniques and generalizations of concepts, problems and results known so far.Comment: 321 pages, 75 figures. This book has is publisehd by VDM verlag, ISBN 978-363921255