Relaxed two-coloring of cubic graphs

We show that any graph of maximum degree at most $3$ has a two-coloring, such that one color-class is an independent set while the other color induces monochromatic components of order at most $189$. On the other hand for any constant $C$ we exhibit a $4$-regular graph, such that the deletion of any independent set leaves at least one component of order greater than $C$. Similar results are obtained for coloring graphs of given maximum degree with $k+ \ell$ colors such that $k$ parts form an independent set and $\ell$ parts span components of order bounded by a constant. A lot of interesting questions remain open.

In a seminal paper [12], Weitz gave a deterministic fully polynomial approximation scheme for counting exponentially weighted independent sets (equivalently, approximating the partition function of the hard-core model from statistical physics) on graphs of degree at most d, up to the critical activity for the uniqueness of the Gibbs measure on the infinite d-regular tree. More recently Sly [10] showed that this is optimal in the sense that if there is an FPRAS for the hard-core partition function on graphs of maximum degree d for activities larger than the critical activity on the infinite d-regular tree then NP = RP. In this paper, we extend Weitz's approach to derive a deterministic fully polynomial approximation scheme for the partition function of the anti-ferromagnetic Ising model with arbitrary field on graphs of maximum degree d, up to the corresponding critical point on the d-regular tree. The main ingredient of our result is a proof that for two-state anti-ferromagnetic spin systems on the d-regular tree, weak spatial mixing implies strong spatial mixing. This in turn uses a message-decay argument which extends a similar approach proposed recently for the hard-core model by Restrepo et al [9] to the case of the anti-ferromagnetic Ising model with arbitrary field. By a standard correspondence, these results translate to arbitrary two-state anti-ferromagnetic spin systems with soft constraints.

We study the problem of approximating the value of the matching polynomial on graphs with edge parameter γ, where γ takes arbitrary values in the complex plane. When γ is a positive real, Jerrum and Sinclair showed that the problem admits an FPRAS on general graphs. For general complex values of γ, Patel and Regts, building on methods developed by Barvinok, showed that the problem admits an FPTAS on graphs of maximum degree Δ as long as γ is not a negative real number less than or equal to −1/(4(Δ −1)). Our first main result completes the picture for the approximability of the matching polynomial on bounded degree graphs. We show that for all Δ ≥ 3 and all real γ less than −1/(4(Δ −1)), the problem of approximating the value of the matching polynomial on graphs of maximum degree Δ with edge parameter γ is #P-hard. We then explore whether the maximum degree parameter can be replaced by the connective constant. Sinclair et al. showed that for positive real γ, it is possible to approximate the value of the matching polynomial using a correlation decay algorithm on graphs with bounded connective constant (and potentially unbounded maximum degree). We first show that this result does not extend in general in the complex plane; in particular, the problem is #P-hard on graphs with bounded connective constant for a dense set of γ values on the negative real axis. Nevertheless, we show that the result does extend for any complex value γ that does not lie on the negative real axis. Our analysis accounts for complex values of γ using geodesic distances in the complex plane in the metric defined by an appropriate density function.

We show that every graph of maximum degree three can be drawn in three\ndimensions with at most two bends per edge, and with 120-degree angles between\nany two edge segments meeting at a vertex or a bend. We show that every graph\nof maximum degree four can be drawn in three dimensions with at most three\nbends per edge, and with 109.5-degree angles, i.e., the angular resolution of\nthe diamond lattice, between any two edge segments meeting at a vertex or bend.\n

Finding a Δ-regular supergraph of minimum order

For general antiferromagnetic 2-spin systems, including the hardcore model on weighted independent sets and the antiferromagnetic Ising model, there is an for the partition function on graphs of maximum degree when the infinite regular tree lies in the uniqueness region by Li, Lu, and Yin [Correlation Decay up to Uniqueness in Spin Systems, preprint, https://arxiv.org/abs/1111.7064, 2021]. Moreover, in the tree nonuniqueness region, Sly in [Computational transition at the uniqueness threshold, in Proceedings of the 51st Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 2010, pp. 287–296] showed that there is no to estimate the partition function unless . The algorithmic results follow from the correlation decay approach due to Weitz [Counting independent sets up to the tree threshold, in Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 2006, pp. 140–149] or the polynomial interpolation approach developed by Barvinok [Combinatorics and Complexity of Partition Functions, Springer, 2016]. However, the running time is only polynomial for constant . For the hardcore model, recent work of Anari, Liu, and Oveis Gharan [Spectral independence in high-dimensional expanders and applications to the hardcore model, in Proceedings of the 61st Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 2020, pp. 1319–1330] establishes rapid mixing of the simple single-site Markov chain, known as the Glauber dynamics, in the tree uniqueness region. Our work simplifies their analysis of the Glauber dynamics by considering the total pairwise influence of a fixed vertex on other vertices, as opposed to the total influence of other vertices on , thereby extending their work to all 2-spin models and improving the mixing time. More important, our proof ties together the three disparate algorithmic approaches: we show that contraction of the so-called tree recursions with a suitable potential function, which is the primary technique for establishing efficiency of Weitz’s correlation decay approach and Barvinok’s polynomial interpolation approach, also establishes rapid mixing of the Glauber dynamics. We emphasize that this connection holds for all 2-spin models (both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic), and existing proofs for the correlation decay and polynomial interpolation approaches immediately imply rapid mixing of the Glauber dynamics. Our proof utilizes the fact that the graph partition function is a divisor of the partition function for Weitz’s self-avoiding walk tree. This fact leads to new tools for the analysis of the influence of vertices and may be of independent interest for the study of complex zeros.

The independence number in graphs of maximum degree three

We investigate the structural and algorithmic properties of 2-community structures in graphs introduced recently by Olsen (Math Soc Sci 66(3):331–336, 2013). A 2-community structure is a partition of a vertex set into two parts such that for each vertex the numbers of neighbours in/outside its own part and the sizes of the parts are correlated. We show that some well studied graph classes as graphs of maximum degree 3, minimum degree at least |V|-3, trees and also others, have always a 2-community structure. Furthermore, a 2-community structure can be found in polynomial time in all these classes, even with additional request of connectivity in both parts. We introduce a concept of a weak 2-community and prove that in general graphs it is NP-complete to find a balanced weak 2-community structure with or without request for connectivity in both parts. On the other hand, we present a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem (without the condition for connectivity of parts) in graphs of degree at most 3.

Acyclic improper colourings of graphs with bounded maximum degree

An L(2, 1)-labelling of a graph is a function f from the vertex set to the positive integers such that |f(x) - f(y)| ≥ 2 if dist(x, y) = 1 and |f(x) - f(y)| ≥ 1 if dist(x, y) = 2, where dist(x, y) is the distance between the two vertices x and y in the graph G. The span of an L(2, 1)-labelling f is the difference between the largest and the smallest labels used by f plus 1. In 1992, Griggs and Yeh conjectured that every graph with maximum degree Δ ≥ 2 has an L(2, 1)-labelling with span at most Δ2 + 1. By settling this conjecture for Δ sufficiently large, we prove the existence of a constant C such that the span of any graph of maximum degree Δ is at most Δ 2 + C.

We consider distance colourings in graphs of maximum degree at most d and how excluding one fixed cycle of length ℓ affects the number of colours required as d → ∞. For vertex-colouring and t ⩾ 1, if any two distinct vertices connected by a path of at most t edges are required to be coloured differently, then a reduction by a logarithmic (in d) factor against the trivial bound O(dt) can be obtained by excluding an odd cycle length ℓ ⩾ 3t if t is odd or by excluding an even cycle length ℓ ⩾ 2t + 2. For edge-colouring and t ⩾ 2, if any two distinct edges connected by a path of fewer than t edges are required to be coloured differently, then excluding an even cycle length ℓ ⩾ 2t is sufficient for a logarithmic factor reduction. For t ⩾ 2, neither of the above statements are possible for other parity combinations of ℓ and t. These results can be considered extensions of results due to Johansson (1996) and Mahdian (2000), and are related to open problems of Alon and Mohar (2002) and Kaiser and Kang (2014).

Let G be a graph of maximum degree Δ. A proper vertex coloring of G is acyclic if there is no bichromatic cycle. It was proved by Alon et al. [Acyclic coloring of graphs. Random Structures Algorithms, 1991, 2(3): 277–288] that G admits an acyclic coloring with O(Δ4/3) colors and a proper coloring with O(Δ(k-1)/(k-2)) colors such that no path with k vertices is bichromatic for a fixed integer k ≥ 5. In this paper, we combine above two colorings and show that if k ≥ 5 and G does not contain cycles of length 4, then G admits an acyclic coloring with O(Δ(k-1)/(k-2)) colors such that no path with k vertices is bichromatic.

We consider the power of single level circuits in the context of graph complexity. We first prove that the single level conjecture fails for fanin-$2$ circuits over the basis ${oplus,land,1}$. This shows that the (surpisingly tight) phenomenon, established by Mirwald and Schnorr (1992) for quadratic functions, has no analogon for graphs. We then show that the single level conjecture fails for unbounded fanin circuits over ${lor,land,1}$. This partially answers the question of Pudl'ak, R"odl and Savick'y (1986). We also prove that $Sigma_2 eq Pi_2$ in a restricted version of the hierarhy of communication complexity classes introduced by Babai, Frankl and Simon (1986). Further, we show that even depth-$2$ circuits are surprisingly powerful: every bipartite $n imes n$ graph of maximum degree $Delta$ can be represented by a monotone CNF with $O(Deltalog n)$ clauses. We also discuss a relation between graphs and $ACC$-circuits.

A bond incident degree (BID) index of a graph G is defined as ∑ u v ∈ E G f d G u , d G v , where d G w denotes the degree of a vertex w of G , E G is the edge set of G , and f is a real-valued symmetric function. The choice f d G u , d G v = a d G u + a d G v in the aforementioned formula gives the variable sum exdeg index SEI a , where a ≠ 1 is any positive real number. A cut vertex of a graph G is a vertex whose removal results in a graph with more components than G has. A graph of maximum degree at most 4 is known as a molecular graph. Denote by V n , k the class of all n -vertex graphs with k ≥ 1 cut vertices and containing at least one cycle. Recently, Du and Sun [AIMS Mathematics, vol. 6, pp. 607–622, 2021] characterized the graphs having the maximum value of SEI a from the set V n k for a > 1 . In the present paper, we not only characterize the graphs with the minimum value of SEI a from the set V n k for a > 1 , but we also solve a more general problem concerning a special type of BID indices. As the obtained extremal graphs are molecular graphs, they remain extremal if one considers the class of all n -vertex molecular graphs with k ≥ 1 cut vertices and containing at least one cycle.

Let G be a graph of maximum degree at most four. By using the overlap matrix method which is introduced by B. Mohar, we show that the average genus of G is not less than 1/3 of its maximum genus, and the bound is best possible. Also, a new lower bound of average genus in terms of girth is derived.