Finite reflection groups and graph norms

Given a graph $H$ on vertex set $\{1,2,\cdots, n\}$ and a function $f:[0,1]^2 \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, define \begin{align*} \|f\|_{H}:=\left\vert\int \prod_{ij\in E(H)}f(x_i,x_j)d\mu^{|V(H)|}\right\vert^{1/|E(H)|}, \end{align*} where $\mu$ is the Lebesgue measure on $[0,1]$. We say that $H$ is norming if $\|\cdot\|_H$ is a semi-norm. A similar notion $\|\cdot\|_{r(H)}$ is defined by $\|f\|_{r(H)}:=\||f|\|_{H}$ and $H$ is said to be weakly norming if $\|\cdot\|_{r(H)}$ is a norm. Classical results show that weakly norming graphs are necessarily bipartite. In the other direction, Hatami showed that even cycles, complete bipartite graphs, and hypercubes are all weakly norming. We demonstrate that any graph whose edges percolate in an appropriate way under the action of a certain natural family of automorphisms is weakly norming. This result includes all previously known examples of weakly norming graphs, but also allows us to identify a much broader class arising from finite reflection groups. We include several applications of our results. In particular, we define and compare a number of generalisations of Gowers' octahedral norms and we prove some new instances of Sidorenko's conjecture.Comment: 29 page

Invariant Percolation and Harmonic Dirichlet Functions

The main goal of this paper is to answer question 1.10 and settle conjecture 1.11 of Benjamini-Lyons-Schramm [BLS99] relating harmonic Dirichlet functions on a graph to those of the infinite clusters in the uniqueness phase of Bernoulli percolation. We extend the result to more general invariant percolations, including the Random-Cluster model. We prove the existence of the nonuniqueness phase for the Bernoulli percolation (and make some progress for Random-Cluster model) on unimodular transitive locally finite graphs admitting nonconstant harmonic Dirichlet functions. This is done by using the device of $\ell^2$ Betti numbers.Comment: to appear in Geometric And Functional Analysis (GAFA

Khovanov homology, wedges of spheres and complexity

Our main result has topological, combinatorial and computational flavor. It is motivated by a fundamental conjecture stating that computing Khovanov homology of a closed braid of fixed number of strands has polynomial time complexity. We show that the independence simplicial complex $I(w)$ associated to the 4-braid diagram $w$ (and therefore its Khovanov spectrum at extreme quantum degree) is contractible or homotopy equivalent to either a sphere, or a wedge of 2 spheres (possibly of different dimensions), or a wedge of 3 spheres (at least two of them of the same dimension), or a wedge of 4 spheres (at least three of them of the same dimension). On the algorithmic side we prove that finding the homotopy type of $I(w)$ can be done in polynomial time with respect to the number of crossings in $w$. In particular, we prove the wedge of spheres conjecture for circle graphs obtained from 4-braid diagrams. We also introduce the concept of Khovanov adequate diagram and discuss criteria for a link to have a Khovanov adequate braid diagram with at most 4 strands.Comment: 39 pages, 22 Figure

Exploiting graph structures for computational efficiency

Coping with NP-hard graph problems by doing better than simply brute force is a field of significant practical importance, and which have also sparked wide theoretical interest. One route to cope with such hard graph problems is to exploit structures which can possibly be found in the input data or in the witness for a solution. In the framework of parameterized complexity, we attempt to quantify such structures by defining numbers which describe "how structured" the graph is. We then do a fine-grained classification of its computational complexity, where not only the input size, but also the structural measure in question come in to play. There is a number of structural measures called width parameters, which includes treewidth, clique-width, and mim-width. These width parameters can be compared by how many classes of graphs that have bounded width. In general there is a tradeoff; if more graph classes have bounded width, then fewer problems can be efficiently solved with the aid of a small width; and if a width is bounded for only a few graph classes, then it is easier to design algorithms which exploit the structure described by the width parameter. For each of the mentioned width parameters, there are known meta-theorems describing algorithmic results for a wide array of graph problems. Hence, showing that decompositions with bounded width can be found for a certain graph class yields algorithmic results for the given class. In the current thesis, we show that several graph classes have bounded width measures, which thus gives algorithmic consequences. Algorithms which are FPT or XP parameterized by width parameters are exploiting structure of the input graph. However, it is also possible to exploit structures that are required of a witness to the solution. We use this perspective to give a handful of polynomial-time algorithms for NP-hard problems whenever the witness belongs to certain graph classes. It is also possible to combine structures of the input graph with structures of the solution witnesses in order to obtain parameterized algorithms, when each structure individually is provably insufficient to provide so under standard complexity assumptions. We give an example of this in the final chapter of the thesis

Mim-Width III. Graph powers and generalized distance domination problems

We generalize the family of (σ,ρ) problems and locally checkable vertex partition problems to their distance versions, which naturally captures well-known problems such as Distance-r Dominating Set and Distance-r Independent Set. We show that these distance problems are in XP parameterized by the structural parameter mim-width, and hence polynomial-time solvable on graph classes where mim-width is bounded and quickly computable, such as k-trapezoid graphs, Dilworth k-graphs, (circular) permutation graphs, interval graphs and their complements, convex graphs and their complements, k-polygon graphs, circular arc graphs, complements of d-degenerate graphs, and H-graphs if given an H-representation. We obtain these results by showing that taking any power of a graph never increases its mim-width by more than a factor of two. To supplement these findings, we show that many classes of (σ,ρ) problems are W[1]-hard parameterized by mimwidth + solution size. We show that powers of graphs of tree-width w − 1 or path-width w and powers of graphs of clique-width w have mim-width at most w. These results provide new classes of bounded mim-width. We prove a slight strengthening of the first statement which implies that, surprisingly, Leaf Power graphs which are of importance in the field of phylogenetic studies have mim-width at most 1.publishedVersio

Finite reflection groups and graph norms

Given a graph H on vertex set {1, 2, · · · , n} and a function f : [0, 1]2 → R, define kfkH := Z Y ij∈E(H) f(xi , xj )dµ|V (H)| 1/|E(H)| , where µ is the Lebesgue measure on [0, 1]. We say that H is norming if k·kH is a semi-norm. A similar notion k·kr(H) is defined by kfkr(H) := k|f|kH and H is said to be weakly norming if k·kr(H) is a norm. Classical results show that weakly norming graphs are necessarily bipartite. In the other direction, Hatami showed that even cycles, complete bipartite graphs, and hypercubes are all weakly norming. We demonstrate that any graph whose edges percolate in an appropriate way under the action of a certain natural family of automorphisms is weakly norming. This result includes all previously known examples of weakly norming graphs, but also allows us to identify a much broader class arising from finite reflection groups. We include several applications of our results. In particular, we define and compare a number of generalisations of Gowers’ octahedral norms and we prove some new instances of Sidorenko’s conjectur

Comparing Width Parameters on Graph Classes

We study how the relationship between non-equivalent width parameters changes once we restrict to some special graph class. As width parameters, we consider treewidth, clique-width, twin-width, mim-width, sim-width and tree-independence number, whereas as graph classes we consider $K_{t,t}$-subgraph-free graphs, line graphs and their common superclass, for $t \geq 3$, of $K_{t,t}$-free graphs. We first provide a complete comparison when restricted to $K_{t,t}$-subgraph-free graphs, showing in particular that treewidth, clique-width, mim-width, sim-width and tree-independence number are all equivalent. This extends a result of Gurski and Wanke (2000) stating that treewidth and clique-width are equivalent for the class of $K_{t,t}$-subgraph-free graphs. Next, we provide a complete comparison when restricted to line graphs, showing in particular that, on any class of line graphs, clique-width, mim-width, sim-width and tree-independence number are all equivalent, and bounded if and only if the class of root graphs has bounded treewidth. This extends a result of Gurski and Wanke (2007) stating that a class of graphs ${\cal G}$ has bounded treewidth if and only if the class of line graphs of graphs in ${\cal G}$ has bounded clique-width. We then provide an almost-complete comparison for $K_{t,t}$-free graphs, leaving one missing case. Our main result is that $K_{t,t}$-free graphs of bounded mim-width have bounded tree-independence number. This result has structural and algorithmic consequences. In particular, it proves a special case of a conjecture of Dallard, Milani\v{c} and \v{S}torgel. Finally, we consider the question of whether boundedness of a certain width parameter is preserved under graph powers. We show that the question has a positive answer for sim-width precisely in the case of odd powers.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, abstract shortened due to arXiv requirement

A Complete Characterization of Near Outer-Planar Graphs

A graph is outer-planar (OP) if it has a plane embedding in which all of the vertices lie on the boundary of the outer face. A graph is near outer-planar (NOP) if it is edgeless or has an edge whose deletion results in an outer-planar graph. An edge of a non outer-planar graph whose removal results in an outer-planar graph is a vulnerable edge. This dissertation focuses on near outer-planar (NOP) graphs. We describe the class of all such graphs in terms of a finite list of excluded graphs, in a manner similar to the well-known Kuratowski Theorem for planar graphs. The class of NOP graphs is not closed by the minor relation, and the list of minimal excluded NOP graphs is not finite by the topological minor relation. Instead, we use the domination relation to define minimal excluded near outer-planar graphs, or XNOP graphs. To complete the list of 58 XNOP graphs, we give a description of those members of this list that dominate W3 or W4, wheels with three and four spokes, respectively. To do this, we introduce the concepts of skeletons, joints and limbs. We find an infinite list of possible skeletons of XNOP graphs, as well as a finite list of possible limbs. With the list of skeletons, we permute the edges of a skeleton with the finite list of limbs to find the complete list of XNOP graphs. In this process, we also develop algorithms in SageMath to prove the list of full-K4 XNOP graphs and prove that the list of skeletons of XNOP graphs is finite