THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF COMBINATORICS (2014), DS1.14 References

and Computing 11. The results of 143 references depend on computer algorithms. The references are ordered alphabetically by the last name of the first author, and where multiple papers have the same first author they are ordered by the last name of the second author, etc. We preferred that all work by the same author be in consecutive positions. Unfortunately, this causes that some of the abbreviations are not in alphabetical order. For example, [BaRT] is earlier on the list than [BaLS]. We also wish to explain a possible confusion with respect to the order of parts and spelling of Chinese names. We put them without any abbreviations, often with the last name written first as is customary in original. Sometimes this is different from the citations in other sources. One can obtain all variations of writing any specific name by consulting the authors database of Mathematical Reviews a

An exploration in Ramsey theory

We present several introductory results in the realm of Ramsey Theory, a subfield of Combinatorics and Graph Theory. The proofs in this thesis revolve around identifying substructure amidst chaos. After showing the existence of Ramsey numbers of two types, we exhibit how these two numbers are related. Shifting our focus to one of the Ramsey number types, we provide an argument that establishes the exact Ramsey number for h(k, 3) for k ≥ 3; this result is the highlight of this thesis. We conclude with facts that begin to establish lower bounds on these types of Ramsey numbers for graphs requiring more substructure

Solving Hard Graph Problems with Combinatorial Computing and Optimization

Many problems arising in graph theory are difficult by nature, and finding solutions to large or complex instances of them often require the use of computers. As some such problems are $NP$-hard or lie even higher in the polynomial hierarchy, it is unlikely that efficient, exact algorithms will solve them. Therefore, alternative computational methods are used. Combinatorial computing is a branch of mathematics and computer science concerned with these methods, where algorithms are developed to generate and search through combinatorial structures in order to determine certain properties of them. In this thesis, we explore a number of such techniques, in the hopes of solving specific problem instances of interest. Three separate problems are considered, each of which is attacked with different methods of combinatorial computing and optimization. The first, originally proposed by ErdH{o}s and Hajnal in 1967, asks to find the Folkman number $F_e(3,3;4)$, defined as the smallest order of a $K_4$-free graph that is not the union of two triangle-free graphs. A notoriously difficult problem associated with Ramsey theory, the best known bounds on it prior to this work were $19 leq F_e(3,3;4) leq 941$. We improve the upper bound to $F_e(3,3;4) leq 786$ using a combination of known methods and the Goemans-Williamson semi-definite programming relaxation of MAX-CUT. The second problem of interest is the Ramsey number $R(C_4,K_m)$, which is the smallest $n$ such that any $n$-vertex graph contains a cycle of length four or an independent set of order $m$. With the help of combinatorial algorithms, we determine $R(C_4,K_9)=30$ and $R(C_4,K_{10})=36$ using large-scale computations on the Open Science Grid. Finally, we explore applications of the well-known Lenstra-Lenstra-Lov\u27{a}sz (LLL) algorithm, a polynomial-time algorithm that, when given a basis of a lattice, returns a basis for the same lattice with relatively short vectors. The main result of this work is an application to graph domination, where certain hard instances are solved using this algorithm as a heuristic

The history of degenerate (bipartite) extremal graph problems

This paper is a survey on Extremal Graph Theory, primarily focusing on the case when one of the excluded graphs is bipartite. On one hand we give an introduction to this field and also describe many important results, methods, problems, and constructions.Comment: 97 pages, 11 figures, many problems. This is the preliminary version of our survey presented in Erdos 100. In this version 2 only a citation was complete