Reconfiguration Graphs for Dominating Sets

Finding a Hamiltonian cycle in a graph G = (V, E) is a well-known problem. The challenge of finding a Hamiltonian cycle that avoids these faults when faulty vertices or edges are present has been extensively studied. When the edge set of G is partitioned into k dimensions, the problem of dimension-balanced Hamiltonian cycles arises, where the Hamiltonian cycle uses approximately the same number of edges from each dimension (differing by at most one). This paper studies whether a dimension-balanced Hamiltonian cycle (DBH) exists in toroidal mesh graphs Tm,n when a single vertex or edge is faulty, called the one-fault DBH problem. We establish that Tm,n is one-fault DBH, except in the following cases: (1) both m and n are even; (2) one of m and n is 3, while the other satisfies mod 4 = 3 and is greater than 6; (3) one of m and n is odd, while the other satisfies mod 4 = 2. Additionally, this paper resolves a conjecture from prior literature, thereby providing a complete solution to the DBP problem on Tm,n.

The coloring reconfiguration graph has as its vertex set all the proper ‐colorings of , and two vertices in are adjacent if their corresponding ‐colorings differ on a single vertex. Cereceda conjectured that if an ‐vertex graph is ‐degenerate and , then the diameter of is . Bousquet and Heinrich proved that if is planar and bipartite, then the diameter of is . (This proves Cereceda's Conjecture for every such graph with degeneracy 3.) They also highlighted the particular case of Cereceda's Conjecture when is planar and has no 3‐cycles. As a partial solution to this problem, we show that the diameter of is for every planar graph with no 3‐cycles and no 5‐cycles.

Hamiltonian cycle problems play a central role in graph theory and have wide-ranging applications in network-on-chip architectures, interconnection networks, and large-scale parallel systems. When a network contains faulty nodes or faulty links, the feasibility of certain paths becomes restricted, making the construction of Hamiltonian cycles substantially more difficult and increasingly important for ensuring reliable communication. A dimension-balanced Hamiltonian cycle is a special type of cycle that maintains an even distribution of edges across multiple dimensions of a network. Its directed counterpart extends this idea to symmetric directed networks by balancing the number of edges used in each positive and negative direction. Such cycles are desirable because they support uniform traffic distribution and reduce communication contention in practical systems. Previous research has examined the existence of directed dimension-balanced Hamiltonian cycles in directed toroidal mesh networks and has shown that some configurations permit directed dimension-balanced Hamiltonian cycles while others do not. Building on this foundation, this paper investigates the fault-tolerant properties of such networks by analyzing whether directed dimension-balanced Hamiltonian cycles still exist when a single vertex (node) or a single edge (link) is faulty. Our results extend the current understanding of Hamiltonian robustness in symmetric directed networks.

Algorithms to count paths and cycles

The dominating graph of a graph H has as its vertices all dominating sets of H, with an edge between two dominating sets if one can be obtained from the other by the addition or deletion of a single vertex of H. In this paper we prove that the dominating graph of any tree has a Hamilton path. We also show how a result about binary strings leads to a proof that the dominating graph of a cycle on n vertices has a Hamilton path if and only if n is not a multiple of 4.

The reconfiguration graph Ck(G) for the k-colourings of a graph G has a vertex for each proper k-colouring of G, and two vertices of Ck(G) are adjacent precisely when those k-colourings differ on a single vertex of G. Much work has focused on bounding the maximum value of diamCk(G) over all n-vertex graphs G. We consider the analogous problems for list colourings and for correspondence colourings. We conjecture that if L is a list-assignment for a graph G with |L(v)|≥d(v)+2 for all v∈V(G), then diamCL(G)≤n(G)+μ(G). We also conjecture that if (L,H) is a correspondence cover for a graph G with |L(v)|≥d(v)+2 for all v∈V(G), then diamC(L,H)(G)≤n(G)+τ(G). (Here μ(G) and τ(G) denote the matching number and vertex cover number of G.) For every graph G, we give constructions showing that both conjectures are best possible, which also hints towards an exact form of Cereceda’s Conjecture for regular graphs. Our first main result proves the upper bounds (for the list and correspondence versions, respectively) diamCL(G)≤n(G)+2μ(G) and diamC(L,H)(G)≤n(G)+2τ(G). Our second main result proves that both conjectured bounds hold, whenever all v satisfy |L(v)|≥2d(v)+1. We conclude by proving one or both conjectures for various classes of graphs such as complete bipartite graphs, subcubic graphs, cactuses, and graphs with bounded maximum average degree. The full paper can also be found at arxiv.org/abs/2204.07928.