Approximate Hamilton decompositions of robustly expanding regular digraphs

We show that every sufficiently large r-regular digraph G which has linear degree and is a robust outexpander has an approximate decomposition into edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, i.e. G contains a set of r-o(r) edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. Here G is a robust outexpander if for every set S which is not too small and not too large, the `robust' outneighbourhood of S is a little larger than S. This generalises a result of K\"uhn, Osthus and Treglown on approximate Hamilton decompositions of dense regular oriented graphs. It also generalises a result of Frieze and Krivelevich on approximate Hamilton decompositions of quasirandom (di)graphs. In turn, our result is used as a tool by K\"uhn and Osthus to prove that any sufficiently large r-regular digraph G which has linear degree and is a robust outexpander even has a Hamilton decomposition.Comment: Final version, published in SIAM Journal Discrete Mathematics. 44 pages, 2 figure

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

A domination algorithm for {0,1}\{0,1\}-instances of the travelling salesman problem

We present an approximation algorithm for $\{0,1\}$-instances of the travelling salesman problem which performs well with respect to combinatorial dominance. More precisely, we give a polynomial-time algorithm which has domination ratio $1-n^{-1/29}$. In other words, given a $\{0,1\}$-edge-weighting of the complete graph $K_n$ on $n$ vertices, our algorithm outputs a Hamilton cycle $H^*$ of $K_n$ with the following property: the proportion of Hamilton cycles of $K_n$ whose weight is smaller than that of $H^*$ is at most $n^{-1/29}$. Our analysis is based on a martingale approach. Previously, the best result in this direction was a polynomial-time algorithm with domination ratio $1/2-o(1)$ for arbitrary edge-weights. We also prove a hardness result showing that, if the Exponential Time Hypothesis holds, there exists a constant $C$ such that $n^{-1/29}$ cannot be replaced by $\exp(-(\log n)^C)$ in the result above.Comment: 29 pages (final version to appear in Random Structures and Algorithms

Hamilton decompositions of regular expanders: applications

In a recent paper, we showed 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. The main consequence of this theorem is that every regular tournament on n vertices can be decomposed into (n-1)/2 edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, whenever n is sufficiently large. This verified a conjecture of Kelly from 1968. In this paper, we derive a number of further consequences of our result on robust outexpanders, the main ones are the following: (i) an undirected analogue of our result on robust outexpanders; (ii) best possible bounds on the size of an optimal packing of edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles in a graph of minimum degree d for a large range of values for d. (iii) a similar result for digraphs of given minimum semidegree; (iv) an approximate version of a conjecture of Nash-Williams on Hamilton decompositions of dense regular graphs; (v) the observation that dense quasi-random graphs are robust outexpanders; (vi) a verification of the `very dense' case of a conjecture of Frieze and Krivelevich on packing edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles in random graphs; (vii) a proof of a conjecture of Erdos on the size of an optimal packing of edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles in a random tournament.Comment: final version, to appear in J. Combinatorial Theory

Robust expansion and hamiltonicity

This thesis contains four results in extremal graph theory relating to the recent notion of robust expansion, and the classical notion of Hamiltonicity. In Chapter 2 we prove that every sufficiently large ‘robustly expanding’ digraph which is dense and regular has an approximate Hamilton decomposition. This provides a common generalisation of several previous results and in turn was a crucial tool in Kühn and Osthus’s proof that in fact these conditions guarantee a Hamilton decomposition, thereby proving a conjecture of Kelly from 1968 on regular tournaments. In Chapters 3 and 4, we prove that every sufficiently large 3-connected $D$-regular graph on $n$ vertices with $D$ ≥ n/4 contains a Hamilton cycle. This answers a problem of Bollobás and Häggkvist from the 1970s. Along the way, we prove a general result about the structure of dense regular graphs, and consider other applications of this. Chapter 5 is devoted to a degree sequence analogue of the famous Pósa conjecture. Our main result is the following: if the $i$$^{th}$ largest degree in a sufficiently large graph $G$ on n vertices is at least a little larger than $n$/3 + $i$ for $i$ ≤ $n$/3, then $G$ contains the square of a Hamilton cycle

The frequency assignment problem

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis examines a wide collection of frequency assignment problems. One of the largest topics in this thesis is that of L(2,1)-labellings of outerplanar graphs. The main result in this topic is the fact that there exists a polynomial time algorithm to determine the minimum L(2,1)-span for an outerplanar graph. This result generalises the analogous result for trees, solves a stated open problem and complements the fact that the problem is NP-complete for planar graphs. We furthermore give best possible bounds on the minimum L(2,1)-span and the cyclic-L(2,1)-span in outerplanar graphs, when the maximum degree is at least eight. We also give polynomial time algorithms for solving the standard constraint matrix problem for several classes of graphs, such as chains of triangles, the wheel and a larger class of graphs containing the wheel. We furthermore introduce the concept of one-close-neighbour problems, which have some practical applications. We prove optimal results for bipartite graphs, odd cycles and complete multipartite graphs. Finally we evaluate different algorithms for the frequency assignment problem, using domination analysis. We compute bounds for the domination number of some heuristics for both the fixed spectrum version of the frequency assignment problem and the minimum span frequency assignment problem. Our results show that the standard greedy algorithm does not perform well, compared to some slightly more advanced algorithms, which is what we would expect. In this thesis we furthermore give some background and motivation for the topics being investigated, as well as mentioning several open problems.EPSR

The frequency assignment problem

This thesis examines a wide collection of frequency assignment problems. One of the largest topics in this thesis is that of L(2,1)-labellings of outerplanar graphs. The main result in this topic is the fact that there exists a polynomial time algorithm to determine the minimum L(2,1)-span for an outerplanar graph. This result generalises the analogous result for trees, solves a stated open problem and complements the fact that the problem is NP-complete for planar graphs. We furthermore give best possible bounds on the minimum L(2,1)-span and the cyclic-L(2,1)-span in outerplanar graphs, when the maximum degree is at least eight. We also give polynomial time algorithms for solving the standard constraint matrix problem for several classes of graphs, such as chains of triangles, the wheel and a larger class of graphs containing the wheel. We furthermore introduce the concept of one-close-neighbour problems, which have some practical applications. We prove optimal results for bipartite graphs, odd cycles and complete multipartite graphs. Finally we evaluate different algorithms for the frequency assignment problem, using domination analysis. We compute bounds for the domination number of some heuristics for both the fixed spectrum version of the frequency assignment problem and the minimum span frequency assignment problem. Our results show that the standard greedy algorithm does not perform well, compared to some slightly more advanced algorithms, which is what we would expect. In this thesis we furthermore give some background and motivation for the topics being investigated, as well as mentioning several open problems.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEPSRCGBUnited Kingdo