On the extremal properties of the average eccentricity

The eccentricity of a vertex is the maximum distance from it to another vertex and the average eccentricity $ecc (G)$ of a graph $G$ is the mean value of eccentricities of all vertices of $G$. The average eccentricity is deeply connected with a topological descriptor called the eccentric connectivity index, defined as a sum of products of vertex degrees and eccentricities. In this paper we analyze extremal properties of the average eccentricity, introducing two graph transformations that increase or decrease $ecc (G)$. Furthermore, we resolve four conjectures, obtained by the system AutoGraphiX, about the average eccentricity and other graph parameters (the clique number, the Randi\' c index and the independence number), refute one AutoGraphiX conjecture about the average eccentricity and the minimum vertex degree and correct one AutoGraphiX conjecture about the domination number.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

On the Nullity Number of Graphs

The paper discusses bounds on the nullity number of graphs. It is proved in [B. Cheng and B. Liu, On the nullity of graphs. Electron. J. Linear Algebra 16 (2007) 60--67] that $\eta \le n - D$, where $\eta$, n and D denote the nullity number, the order and the diameter of a connected graph, respectively. We first give a necessary condition on the extremal graphs corresponding to that bound, and then we strengthen the bound itself using the maximum clique number. In addition, we prove bounds on the nullity using the number of pendant neighbors in a graph. One of those bounds is an improvement of a known bound involving the domination number

Many TT copies in HH-free graphs

For two graphs $T$ and $H$ with no isolated vertices and for an integer $n$, let $ex(n,T,H)$ denote the maximum possible number of copies of $T$ in an $H$-free graph on $n$ vertices. The study of this function when $T=K_2$ is a single edge is the main subject of extremal graph theory. In the present paper we investigate the general function, focusing on the cases of triangles, complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs and trees. These cases reveal several interesting phenomena. Three representative results are: (i) $ex(n,K_3,C_5) \leq (1+o(1)) \frac{\sqrt 3}{2} n^{3/2},$ (ii) For any fixed $m$, $s \geq 2m-2$ and $t \geq (s-1)!+1$, $ex(n,K_m,K_{s,t})=\Theta(n^{m-\binom{m}{2}/s})$ and (iii) For any two trees $H$ and $T$, $ex(n,T,H) =\Theta (n^m)$ where $m=m(T,H)$ is an integer depending on $H$ and $T$ (its precise definition is given in Section 1). The first result improves (slightly) an estimate of Bollob\'as and Gy\H{o}ri. The proofs combine combinatorial and probabilistic arguments with simple spectral techniques

Positional Games

Positional games are a branch of combinatorics, researching a variety of two-player games, ranging from popular recreational games such as Tic-Tac-Toe and Hex, to purely abstract games played on graphs and hypergraphs. It is closely connected to many other combinatorial disciplines such as Ramsey theory, extremal graph and set theory, probabilistic combinatorics, and to computer science. We survey the basic notions of the field, its approaches and tools, as well as numerous recent advances, standing open problems and promising research directions.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of the ICM 201