Metric Embedding via Shortest Path Decompositions

We study the problem of embedding shortest-path metrics of weighted graphs into $\ell_p$ spaces. We introduce a new embedding technique based on low-depth decompositions of a graph via shortest paths. The notion of Shortest Path Decomposition depth is inductively defined: A (weighed) path graph has shortest path decomposition (SPD) depth $1$. General graph has an SPD of depth $k$ if it contains a shortest path whose deletion leads to a graph, each of whose components has SPD depth at most $k-1$. In this paper we give an $O(k^{\min\{\frac{1}{p},\frac{1}{2}\}})$-distortion embedding for graphs of SPD depth at most $k$. This result is asymptotically tight for any fixed $p>1$, while for $p=1$ it is tight up to second order terms. As a corollary of this result, we show that graphs having pathwidth $k$ embed into $\ell_p$ with distortion $O(k^{\min\{\frac{1}{p},\frac{1}{2}\}})$. For $p=1$, this improves over the best previous bound of Lee and Sidiropoulos that was exponential in $k$; moreover, for other values of $p$ it gives the first embeddings whose distortion is independent of the graph size $n$. Furthermore, we use the fact that planar graphs have SPD depth $O(\log n)$ to give a new proof that any planar graph embeds into $\ell_1$ with distortion $O(\sqrt{\log n})$. Our approach also gives new results for graphs with bounded treewidth, and for graphs excluding a fixed minor

Chromatic Numbers of Simplicial Manifolds

Higher chromatic numbers $\chi_s$ of simplicial complexes naturally generalize the chromatic number $\chi_1$ of a graph. In any fixed dimension $d$, the $s$-chromatic number $\chi_s$ of $d$-complexes can become arbitrarily large for $s\leq\lceil d/2\rceil$ [6,18]. In contrast, $\chi_{d+1}=1$, and only little is known on $\chi_s$ for $\lceil d/2\rceil<s\leq d$. A particular class of $d$-complexes are triangulations of $d$-manifolds. As a consequence of the Map Color Theorem for surfaces [29], the 2-chromatic number of any fixed surface is finite. However, by combining results from the literature, we will see that $\chi_2$ for surfaces becomes arbitrarily large with growing genus. The proof for this is via Steiner triple systems and is non-constructive. In particular, up to now, no explicit triangulations of surfaces with high $\chi_2$ were known. We show that orientable surfaces of genus at least 20 and non-orientable surfaces of genus at least 26 have a 2-chromatic number of at least 4. Via a projective Steiner triple systems, we construct an explicit triangulation of a non-orientable surface of genus 2542 and with face vector $f=(127,8001,5334)$ that has 2-chromatic number 5 or 6. We also give orientable examples with 2-chromatic numbers 5 and 6. For 3-dimensional manifolds, an iterated moment curve construction [18] along with embedding results [6] can be used to produce triangulations with arbitrarily large 2-chromatic number, but of tremendous size. Via a topological version of the geometric construction of [18], we obtain a rather small triangulation of the 3-dimensional sphere $S^3$ with face vector $f=(167,1579,2824,1412)$ and 2-chromatic number 5.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, revised presentatio

Ramsey expansions of metrically homogeneous graphs

We discuss the Ramsey property, the existence of a stationary independence relation and the coherent extension property for partial isometries (coherent EPPA) for all classes of metrically homogeneous graphs from Cherlin's catalogue, which is conjectured to include all such structures. We show that, with the exception of tree-like graphs, all metric spaces in the catalogue have precompact Ramsey expansions (or lifts) with the expansion property. With two exceptions we can also characterise the existence of a stationary independence relation and the coherent EPPA. Our results can be seen as a new contribution to Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il's classification programme of Ramsey classes and as empirical evidence of the recent convergence in techniques employed to establish the Ramsey property, the expansion (or lift or ordering) property, EPPA and the existence of a stationary independence relation. At the heart of our proof is a canonical way of completing edge-labelled graphs to metric spaces in Cherlin's classes. The existence of such a "completion algorithm" then allows us to apply several strong results in the areas that imply EPPA and respectively the Ramsey property. The main results have numerous corollaries on the automorphism groups of the Fra\"iss\'e limits of the classes, such as amenability, unique ergodicity, existence of universal minimal flows, ample generics, small index property, 21-Bergman property and Serre's property (FA).Comment: 57 pages, 14 figures. Extends results of arXiv:1706.00295. Minor revisio

On cycle systems with specified weak chromatic number

AbstractA weak k-colouring of an m-cycle system is a colouring of the vertices of the system with k colours in such a way that no cycle of the system has all of its vertices receive the same colour. An m-cycle system is said to be weakly k-chromatic if it has a weak k-colouring but no weak (k−1)-colouring. In this paper we show that for all k⩾2 and m⩾3 with (k,m)≠(2,3) there is a weakly k-chromatic m-cycle system of order v for all sufficiently large admissible v