Construction for bicritical graphs and k-extendable bipartite graphs

Our topic is an extension of the following classical result of Hall to hypergraphs: A bipartite graph G contains a perfect matching if and only if for each independent set X of vertices, at least |X| vertices of G are adjacent to some vertex of X. Berge generalized the concept of bipartite graphs to hypergraphs by defining a hypergraph G to be balanced if each odd cycle in G has an edge containing at least three vertices of the cycle. Based on this concept, Conforti, Cornuejols, Kapoor, and Vuskovic extended Hall's result by proving that a balanced hypergraph G contains a perfect matching if and only if for any disjoint sets A and B of vertices with |A| > |B|, there is an edge in G containing more vertices in A than in B (for graphs, the latter condition is equivalent to the latter one in Hall's result). Their proof is non-combinatorial and highly based on the theory of linear programming. In the present paper, we give an elementary combinatorial proof.

Is perfect matching in NC? That is, is there a deterministic fast parallel algorithm for it? This has been an outstanding open question in theoretical computer science for over three decades, ever since the discovery of RNC perfect matching algorithms. Within this question, the case of planar graphs has remained an enigma: On the one hand, counting the number of perfect matchings is far harder than finding one (the former is #P-complete and the latter is in P), and on the other, for planar graphs, counting has long been known to be in NC whereas finding one has resisted a solution. In this article, we give an NC algorithm for finding a perfect matching in a planar graph. Our algorithm uses the above-stated fact about counting perfect matchings in a crucial way. Our main new idea is an NC algorithm for finding a face of the perfect matching polytope at which a set (which could be polynomially large) of conditions, involving constraints of the polytope, are simultaneously satisfied. Several other ideas are also needed, such as finding, in NC, a point in the interior of the minimum-weight face of this polytope and finding a balanced tight odd set.

Almost color-balanced perfect matchings in color-balanced complete graphs

Matching graphs of Hypercubes and Complete Bipartite Graphs

Trees possessing no Kekul ́e structures (i.e., perfect matching) with the minimal Estrada index are considered. Let T_n be the set of the trees having no perfect matchings with n vertices. When n is odd and n ≥ 5, the trees with the smallest and the second smallest Estrada indices among T_n are obtained. When n is even and n ≥ 6, the tree with the smallest Estrada index in T_n is deduced.

Given two k-graphs H and F, a perfect F-packing in H is a collection of vertex-disjoint copies of F in H which together cover all the vertices in H. In the case when F is a single edge, a perfect F-packing is simply a perfect matching. For a given fixed F, it is often the case that the decision problem whether an n-vertex k-graph H contains a perfect F-packing is NP-complete. Indeed, if k≥3, the corresponding problem for perfect matchings is NP-complete [17,7] whilst if k=2 the problem is NP-complete in the case when F has a component consisting of at least 3 vertices [14].In this paper we give a general tool which can be used to determine classes of (hyper)graphs for which the corresponding decision problem for perfect F-packings is polynomial time solvable. We then give three applications of this tool: (i) Given 1≤ℓ≤k−1, we give a minimum ℓ-degree condition for which it is polynomial time solvable to determine whether a k-graph satisfying this condition has a perfect matching; (ii) Given any graph F we give a minimum degree condition for which it is polynomial time solvable to determine whether a graph satisfying this condition has a perfect F-packing; (iii) We also prove a similar result for perfect K-packings in k-graphs where K is a k-partite k-graph.For a range of values of ℓ,k (i) resolves a conjecture of Keevash, Knox and Mycroft [20]; (ii) answers a question of Yuster [47] in the negative; whilst (iii) generalises a result of Keevash, Knox and Mycroft [20]. In many cases our results are best possible in the sense that lowering the minimum degree condition means that the corresponding decision problem becomes NP-complete.

A subgraph H of a graph G with perfect matching is nice if G−V(H) has perfect matching. It is well-known that all fullerene graphs have perfect matchings and that all fullerene graphs contain some small connected graphs as nice subgraphs. In this contribution, we consider fullerene graphs arising from smaller fullerenes via the leapfrog transformation, and show that in such graphs, each pair of (necessarily disjoint) pentagons is nice. That answers in affirmative a question posed in a recent paper on nice pairs of odd cycles in fullerene graphs.

Let M be a perfect matching of a graph G. The smallest number of edges whose removal to make M as the unique perfect matching in the resulting subgraph is called the anti-forcing number of M. The anti-forcing spectrum of G is the set of anti-forcing numbers of all perfect matchings in G, denoted by $$\hbox {Spec}_{af}(G)$$Specaf(G). In this paper, we show that any finite set of positive integers can be the anti-forcing spectrum of a graph. We present two classes of hexagonal systems whose anti-forcing spectra are integer intervals. Finally, we show that determining the anti-forcing number of a perfect matching of a bipartite graph with maximum degree four is a NP-complete problem.

on vertex set , , with density d>2e and all vertex degrees not too far from d, has about as many perfect matchings as a corresponding random bipartite graph, i.e. about . In this paper we utilize that result to prove that with probability quickly approaching one, a perfect matching drawn randomly from G is spread evenly, in the sense that for any large subsets of vertices and , the number of edges of the matching spanned between S and T is close to |S||T|/n (c.f. Lemma 1). As an application we give an alternative proof of the Blow-up Lemma of Komlos, Sarkozy and Szemeredi [10].

A graph G of order n is said to be k-factor-critical for integers $$1\le k < n$$ , if the removal of any k vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. 1- and 2-factor-critical graphs are the well-known factor-critical and bicritical graphs, respectively. A k-factor-critical graph G is called minimal if for any edge $$e\in E(G)$$ , $$G-e$$ is not k-factor-critical. In 1998, O. Favaron and M. Shi conjectured that every minimally k-factor-critical graph of order n has the minimum degree $$k+1$$ and confirmed it for $$k=1, n-2, n-4$$ and $$n-6$$ . In this paper, we use a simple method to reprove the above results. As a main result, the further use of this method enables us to prove the conjecture to be true for $$k=n-8$$ . We also obtain that every minimally $$(n-6)$$ -factor-critical graph of order n has at most $$n-\Delta (G)$$ vertices with the maximum degree $$\Delta (G)$$ for $$\Delta (G)\ge n-4$$ .

A graph of order $n$ is $p$-factor-critical, where $p$ is an integer of the same parity as $n$, if the removal of any set of $p$ vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. 1-factor-critical graphs and 2-factor-critical graphs are well-known factor-critical graphs and bicritical graphs, respectively. It is known that if a connected vertex-transitive graph has odd order, then it is factor-critical, otherwise it is elementary bipartite or bicritical. In this paper, we show that a connected vertex-transitive non-bipartite graph of even order at least 6 is 4-factor-critical if and only if its degree is at least 5. This result implies that each connected non-bipartite Cayley graph of even order and degree at least 5 is 2-extendable.

We generalize Hall's condition for the existence of a perfect matching in a bipartite graph, to balanced hypergraphs.

The Combinatorial Nullstellensatz can be used to solve certain problems in combinatorics. However, one of the major complications in using the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz is ensuring that there exists a nonzero monomial. This dissertation looks at applying the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz to finding perfect matchings in bipartite graphs. The first two chapters provide background material covering topics such as linear algebra, group theory, graph theory and even the discrete Fourier transform. New results start in the third chapter, showing that the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz can be used to solve the problem of finding perfect matchings in bipartite graphs. Using the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz also allows for a vice use of matroid intersection to find the nonzero monomial. By also applying the uncertainty principle, the number of perfect matchings in a bipartite graph can be bound. The fourth chapter examines properties of the polynomials created in the use of the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz to find perfect matchings in bipartite graphs. Many of the properties of the polynomials have analogous properties for the transforms of the polynomials, which are also examined. These properties often relate back to the structure of the graph which gave rise to the polynomial. The fifth chapter provides an application of the results. Since finding a nonzero monomial can be difficult and the polynomials created in this dissertation give polynomials with such a nonzero monomial the application shows how certain polynomials can be rewritten in terms of the matching polynomials. Such a rewriting may permit an easy method to find a nonzero monomial so that the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz can be applied to the polynomial. Finally, the fifth chapter concludes with some open problems that may be areas of further research.

The restricted hypercube-like graphs, variants of the hypercube, were proposed as desired interconnection networks of parallel systems. The matching preclusion number of a graph is the minimum number of edges whose deletion results in the graph with neither perfect matchings nor almost perfect matchings. The fractional perfect matching preclusion and fractional strong perfect matching preclusion are generalizations of the matching preclusion. In this paper, we obtain fractional matching preclusion number and fractional strong matching preclusion number of restricted hypercube-like graphs, which extend some known results.

Unique Maximum Matching Algorithms