Threshold Graphs Maximize Homomorphism Densities

Given a fixed graph $H$ and a constant $c \in [0,1]$, we can ask what graphs $G$ with edge density $c$ asymptotically maximize the homomorphism density of $H$ in $G$. For all $H$ for which this problem has been solved, the maximum is always asymptotically attained on one of two kinds of graphs: the quasi-star or the quasi-clique. We show that for any $H$ the maximizing $G$ is asymptotically a threshold graph, while the quasi-clique and the quasi-star are the simplest threshold graphs having only two parts. This result gives us a unified framework to derive a number of results on graph homomorphism maximization, some of which were also found quite recently and independently using several different approaches. We show that there exist graphs $H$ and densities $c$ such that the optimizing graph $G$ is neither the quasi-star nor the quasi-clique, reproving a result of Day and Sarkar. We rederive a result of Janson et al. on maximizing homomorphism numbers, which was originally found using entropy methods. We also show that for $c$ large enough all graphs $H$ maximize on the quasi-clique, which was also recently proven by Gerbner et al., and in analogy with Kopparty and Rossman we define the homomorphism density domination exponent of two graphs, and find it for any $H$ and an edge

On the Sandpile group of the cone of a graph

In this article, we give a partial description of the sandpile group of the cone of the cartesian product of graphs in function of the sandpile group of the cone of their factors. Also, we introduce the concept of uniform homomorphism of graphs and prove that every surjective uniform homomorphism of graphs induces an injective homomorphism between their sandpile groups. As an application of these result we obtain an explicit description of a set of generators of the sandpile group of the cone of the hypercube of dimension d.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. The title was changed, other impruvements were made throughout the article. To appear in Linear Algebra and Its Application

Embedding into bipartite graphs

The conjecture of Bollob\'as and Koml\'os, recently proved by B\"ottcher, Schacht, and Taraz [Math. Ann. 343(1), 175--205, 2009], implies that for any $\gamma>0$, every balanced bipartite graph on $2n$ vertices with bounded degree and sublinear bandwidth appears as a subgraph of any $2n$-vertex graph $G$ with minimum degree $(1+\gamma)n$, provided that $n$ is sufficiently large. We show that this threshold can be cut in half to an essentially best-possible minimum degree of $(\frac12+\gamma)n$ when we have the additional structural information of the host graph $G$ being balanced bipartite. This complements results of Zhao [to appear in SIAM J. Discrete Math.], as well as Hladk\'y and Schacht [to appear in SIAM J. Discrete Math.], who determined a corresponding minimum degree threshold for $K_{r,s}$-factors, with $r$ and $s$ fixed. Moreover, it implies that the set of Hamilton cycles of $G$ is a generating system for its cycle space.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

On the decomposition threshold of a given graph

We study the $F$-decomposition threshold $\delta_F$ for a given graph $F$. Here an $F$-decomposition of a graph $G$ is a collection of edge-disjoint copies of $F$ in $G$ which together cover every edge of $G$. (Such an $F$-decomposition can only exist if $G$ is $F$-divisible, i.e. if $e(F)\mid e(G)$ and each vertex degree of $G$ can be expressed as a linear combination of the vertex degrees of $F$.) The $F$-decomposition threshold $\delta_F$ is the smallest value ensuring that an $F$-divisible graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with $\delta(G)\ge(\delta_F+o(1))n$ has an $F$-decomposition. Our main results imply the following for a given graph $F$, where $\delta_F^\ast$ is the fractional version of $\delta_F$ and $\chi:=\chi(F)$: (i) $\delta_F\le \max\{\delta_F^\ast,1-1/(\chi+1)\}$; (ii) if $\chi\ge 5$, then $\delta_F\in\{\delta_F^{\ast},1-1/\chi,1-1/(\chi+1)\}$; (iii) we determine $\delta_F$ if $F$ is bipartite. In particular, (i) implies that $\delta_{K_r}=\delta^\ast_{K_r}$. Our proof involves further developments of the recent `iterative' absorbing approach.Comment: Final version, to appear in the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series

On retracts, absolute retracts, and folds in cographs

Let G and H be two cographs. We show that the problem to determine whether H is a retract of G is NP-complete. We show that this problem is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by the size of H. When restricted to the class of threshold graphs or to the class of trivially perfect graphs, the problem becomes tractable in polynomial time. The problem is also soluble when one cograph is given as an induced subgraph of the other. We characterize absolute retracts of cographs.Comment: 15 page

H-colorings of large degree graphs

We consider the H-coloring problem on graphs with vertices of large degree. We prove that for H an odd cycle, the problem belongs to P. We also study the phase transition of the problem, for an infinite family of graphs of a given chromatic number, i.e. the threshold density value for which the problem changes from P to NP-complete. We extend the result for the case that the input graph has a logarithmic size of small degree vertices.As a corollary, we get a new result on the chromatic number; a new family of graphs, for which computing the chromatic number can be done in polynomial time.Postprint (published version

From the Ising and Potts models to the general graph homomorphism polynomial

In this note we study some of the properties of the generating polynomial for homomorphisms from a graph to at complete weighted graph on $q$ vertices. We discuss how this polynomial relates to a long list of other well known graph polynomials and the partition functions for different spin models, many of which are specialisations of the homomorphism polynomial. We also identify the smallest graphs which are not determined by their homomorphism polynomials for $q=2$ and $q=3$ and compare this with the corresponding minimal examples for the $U$-polynomial, which generalizes the well known Tutte-polynomal.Comment: V2. Extended versio

A note on "Folding wheels and fans."

In S.Gervacio, R.Guerrero and H.Rara, Folding wheels and fans, Graphs and Combinatorics 18 (2002) 731-737, the authors obtain formulas for the clique numbers onto which wheels and fans fold. We present an interpolation theorem which generalizes their theorems 4.2 and 5.2. We show that their formula for wheels is wrong. We show that for threshold graphs, the achromatic number and folding number coincides with the chromatic number