669 research outputs found
Topologically Trivial Closed Walks in Directed Surface Graphs
Let G be a directed graph with n vertices and m edges, embedded on a surface S, possibly with boundary, with first Betti number beta. We consider the complexity of finding closed directed walks in G that are either contractible (trivial in homotopy) or bounding (trivial in integer homology) in S. Specifically, we describe algorithms to determine whether G contains a simple contractible cycle in O(n+m) time, or a contractible closed walk in O(n+m) time, or a bounding closed walk in O(beta (n+m)) time. Our algorithms rely on subtle relationships between strong connectivity in G and in the dual graph G^*; our contractible-closed-walk algorithm also relies on a seminal topological result of Hass and Scott. We also prove that detecting simple bounding cycles is NP-hard.
We also describe three polynomial-time algorithms to compute shortest contractible closed walks, depending on whether the fundamental group of the surface is free, abelian, or hyperbolic. A key step in our algorithm for hyperbolic surfaces is the construction of a context-free grammar with O(g^2L^2) non-terminals that generates all contractible closed walks of length at most L, and only contractible closed walks, in a system of quads of genus g >= 2. Finally, we show that computing shortest simple contractible cycles, shortest simple bounding cycles, and shortest bounding closed walks are all NP-hard
Topologically Trivial Closed Walks in Directed Surface Graphs
Let be a directed graph with vertices and edges, embedded on a
surface , possibly with boundary, with first Betti number . We
consider the complexity of finding closed directed walks in that are either
contractible (trivial in homotopy) or bounding (trivial in integer homology) in
. Specifically, we describe algorithms to determine whether contains a
simple contractible cycle in time, or a contractible closed walk in
time, or a bounding closed walk in time. Our
algorithms rely on subtle relationships between strong connectivity in and
in the dual graph ; our contractible-closed-walk algorithm also relies on
a seminal topological result of Hass and Scott. We also prove that detecting
simple bounding cycles is NP-hard.
We also describe three polynomial-time algorithms to compute shortest
contractible closed walks, depending on whether the fundamental group of the
surface is free, abelian, or hyperbolic. A key step in our algorithm for
hyperbolic surfaces is the construction of a context-free grammar with
non-terminals that generates all contractible closed walks of
length at most L, and only contractible closed walks, in a system of quads of
genus . Finally, we show that computing shortest simple contractible
cycles, shortest simple bounding cycles, and shortest bounding closed walks are
all NP-hard.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures; fixed several minor bugs and added one figure.
An extended abstraction of this paper will appear at SOCG 201
Spanning trees of graphs on surfaces and the intensity of loop-erased random walk on planar graphs
We show how to compute the probabilities of various connection topologies for
uniformly random spanning trees on graphs embedded in surfaces. As an
application, we show how to compute the "intensity" of the loop-erased random
walk in , that is, the probability that the walk from (0,0) to
infinity passes through a given vertex or edge. For example, the probability
that it passes through (1,0) is 5/16; this confirms a conjecture from 1994
about the stationary sandpile density on . We do the analogous
computation for the triangular lattice, honeycomb lattice and , for which the probabilities are 5/18, 13/36, and
respectively.Comment: 45 pages, many figures. v2 has an expanded introduction, a revised
section on the LERW intensity, and an expanded appendix on the annular matri
Self-avoiding walks and connective constants
The connective constant of a quasi-transitive graph is the
asymptotic growth rate of the number of self-avoiding walks (SAWs) on from
a given starting vertex. We survey several aspects of the relationship between
the connective constant and the underlying graph .
We present upper and lower bounds for in terms of the
vertex-degree and girth of a transitive graph.
We discuss the question of whether for transitive
cubic graphs (where denotes the golden mean), and we introduce the
Fisher transformation for SAWs (that is, the replacement of vertices by
triangles).
We present strict inequalities for the connective constants
of transitive graphs , as varies.
As a consequence of the last, the connective constant of a Cayley
graph of a finitely generated group decreases strictly when a new relator is
added, and increases strictly when a non-trivial group element is declared to
be a further generator.
We describe so-called graph height functions within an account of
"bridges" for quasi-transitive graphs, and indicate that the bridge constant
equals the connective constant when the graph has a unimodular graph height
function.
A partial answer is given to the question of the locality of
connective constants, based around the existence of unimodular graph height
functions.
Examples are presented of Cayley graphs of finitely presented
groups that possess graph height functions (that are, in addition, harmonic and
unimodular), and that do not.
The review closes with a brief account of the "speed" of SAW.Comment: Accepted version. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1304.721
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