The VC-Dimension of Graphs with Respect to k-Connected Subgraphs

We study the VC-dimension of the set system on the vertex set of some graph which is induced by the family of its $k$-connected subgraphs. In particular, we give tight upper and lower bounds for the VC-dimension. Moreover, we show that computing the VC-dimension is $\mathsf{NP}$-complete and that it remains $\mathsf{NP}$-complete for split graphs and for some subclasses of planar bipartite graphs in the cases $k = 1$ and $k = 2$. On the positive side, we observe it can be decided in linear time for graphs of bounded clique-width

Dimers, Tilings and Trees

Generalizing results of Temperley, Brooks, Smith, Stone and Tutte and others we describe a natural equivalence between three planar objects: weighted bipartite planar graphs; planar Markov chains; and tilings with convex polygons. This equivalence provides a measure-preserving bijection between dimer coverings of a weighted bipartite planar graph and spanning trees on the corresponding Markov chain. The tilings correspond to harmonic functions on the Markov chain and to ``discrete analytic functions'' on the bipartite graph. The equivalence is extended to infinite periodic graphs, and we classify the resulting ``almost periodic'' tilings and harmonic functions.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

On large bipartite graphs of diameter 3

We consider the bipartite version of the {\it degree/diameter problem}, namely, given natural numbers $d\ge2$ and $D\ge2$, find the maximum number $\N^b(d,D)$ of vertices in a bipartite graph of maximum degree $d$ and diameter $D$. In this context, the bipartite Moore bound \M^b(d,D) represents a general upper bound for $\N^b(d,D)$. Bipartite graphs of order \M^b(d,D) are very rare, and determining $\N^b(d,D)$ still remains an open problem for most $(d,D)$ pairs. This paper is a follow-up to our earlier paper \cite{FPV12}, where a study on bipartite $(d,D,-4)$-graphs (that is, bipartite graphs of order \M^b(d,D)-4) was carried out. Here we first present some structural properties of bipartite $(d,3,-4)$-graphs, and later prove there are no bipartite $(7,3,-4)$-graphs. This result implies that the known bipartite $(7,3,-6)$-graph is optimal, and therefore $\N^b(7,3)=80$. Our approach also bears a proof of the uniqueness of the known bipartite $(5,3,-4)$-graph, and the non-existence of bipartite $(6,3,-4)$-graphs. In addition, we discover three new largest known bipartite (and also vertex-transitive) graphs of degree 11, diameter 3 and order 190, result which improves by 4 vertices the previous lower bound for $\N^b(11,3)$