Spectral strengthening of a theorem on transversal critical graphs

A transversal set of a graph G is a set of vertices incident to all edges of G. The transversal number of G, denoted by $\tau (G)$, is the minimum cardinality of a transversal set of G. A simple graph G with no isolated vertex is called τ-critical if $\tau (G?e)<\tau (G)$ for every edge $e\in E(G)$. For any τ-critical graph G with $\tau (G)=t$, it has been shown that $|V(G)|\le 2t$ by Erd?s and Gallai and that $|E(G)|\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+1\\ 2\end{array}\right)$ by Erd?s, Hajnal and Moon. Most recently, it was extended by Gyárfás and Lehel to $|V(G)|+|E(G)|\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+2\\ 2\end{array}\right)$. In this paper, we prove stronger results via spectrum. Let G be a τ-critical graph with $\tau (G)=t$ and $|V(G)|=n$, and let ${\lambda }_1$ denote the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of G. We show that $n+{\lambda }_1\le 2t+1$ with equality if and only if G is $t{K}_2$, $K_{s+1}\cup (t?s)K_2$, or $C_{2s?1}\cup (t?s)K_2$, where $2\le s\le t$; and in particular, ${\lambda }_1(G)\le t$ with equality if and only if G is $K_{t+1}$. We then apply it to show that for any nonnegative integer r, we have $n(r+\frac{{\lambda }_1}{2})\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+r+1\\ 2\end{array}\right)$ and characterize all extremal graphs. This implies a pure combinatorial result that $r|V(G)|+|E(G)|\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+r+1\\ 2\end{array}\right)$, which is stronger than Erd?s-Hajnal-Moon Theorem and Gyárfás-Lehel Theorem. We also have some other generalizations.     

On the chromatic number of some P5-free graphs

Let G be a graph. We say that G is perfectly divisible if for each induced subgraph H of G, $V(H)$ can be partitioned into A and B such that $H[A]$ is perfect and $\omega (H[B])<\omega (H)$. We use $P_t$ and $C_t$ to denote a path and a cycle on t vertices, respectively. For two disjoint graphs $F_1$ and $F_2$, we use $F_1\cup F_2$ to denote the graph with vertex set $V(F_1)\cup V(F_2)$ and edge set $E(F_1)\cup E(F_2)$, and use $F_1+F_2$ to denote the graph with vertex set $V(F_1)\cup V(F_2)$ and edge set $E(F_1)\cup E(F_2)\cup \{xy|x\in V(F_1)\text{ and }y\in V(F_2)\}$. In this paper, we prove that (i) $(P_5,C_5,K_{2,3})$-free graphs are perfectly divisible, (ii) $\chi (G)\le 2{\omega }^2(G)?\omega (G)?3$ if G is $(P_5,K_{2,3})$-free with $\omega (G)\ge 2$, (iii) $\chi (G)\le \frac{3}{2}({\omega }^2(G)?\omega (G))$ if G is $(P_5,K_1+2K_2)$-free, and (iv) $\chi (G)\le 3\omega (G)+11$ if G is $(P_5,K_1+(K_1\cup K_3))$-free.     

Path decompositions of triangle-free graphs

Let G be a graph with n vertices. A path decomposition of G is a set of edge-disjoint paths containing all the edges of G. Let $p(G)$ denote the minimum number of paths needed in a path decomposition of G. Gallai Conjecture asserts that if G is connected, then $p(G)\le ?n/2?$. If G is allowed to be disconnected, then the upper bound $?\frac{3}{4}n?$ for $p(G)$ was obtained by Donald [7], which was improved to $?\frac{2}{3}n?$ independently by Dean and Kouider [6] and Yan [14]. For graphs consisting of vertex-disjoint triangles, $?\frac{2}{3}n?$ is reached and so this bound is tight. If triangles are forbidden in G, then $p(G)\le ?\frac{g+1}{2g}n?$ can be derived from the result of Harding and McGuinness [11], where g denotes the girth of G. In this paper, we also focus on triangle-free graphs and prove that $p(G)\le ?3n/5?$, which improves the above result with $g=4$.     

GE2-rings and a graph of unimodular rows

For a commutative ring A we consider a related graph, $\mathrm{\Gamma }(A)$, whose vertices are the unimodular rows of length 2 up to multiplication by units. We prove that $\mathrm{\Gamma }(A)$ is path-connected if and only if A is a ${\mathrm{GE}}_2$-ring, in the terminology of P. M. Cohn. Furthermore, if $Y(A)$ denotes the clique complex of $\mathrm{\Gamma }(A)$, we prove that $Y(A)$ is simply connected if and only if A is universal for ${\mathrm{GE}}_2$. More precisely, our main theorem is that for any commutative ring A the fundamental group of $Y(A)$ is isomorphic to the group $K_2(2,A)$ modulo the subgroup generated by symbols.     

An improvement to the Hilton-Zhao vertex-splitting conjecture

For a simple graph G, denote by n, $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)$, and ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ its order, maximum degree, and chromatic index, respectively. A graph G is edge-chromatic critical if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }(G)+1$ and ${\chi }^{\prime }(H)<{\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ for every proper subgraph H of G. Let G be an n-vertex connected regular class 1 graph, and let $G^{?}$ be obtained from G by splitting one vertex of G into two vertices. Hilton and Zhao in 1997 conjectured that $G^{?}$ must be edge-chromatic critical if $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)>n/3$, and they verified this when $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)\ge \frac{n}{2}(\sqrt{7}?1)\approx 0.82n$. In this paper, we prove it for $\mathrm{\Delta }(G)\ge 0.75n$.     

Point partition numbers: Decomposable and indecomposable critical graphs

Graphs considered in this paper are finite, undirected and loopless, but we allow multiple edges. The point partition number ${\chi }_t(G)$ is the least integer k for which G admits a coloring with k colors such that each color class induces a $(t?1)$-degenerate subgraph of G. So ${\chi }_1$ is the chromatic number and ${\chi }_2$ is the point arboricity. The point partition number ${\chi }_t$ with $t\ge 1$ was introduced by Lick and White. A graph G is called ${\chi }_t$-critical if every proper subgraph H of G satisfies ${\chi }_t(H)<{\chi }_t(G)$. In this paper we prove that if G is a ${\chi }_t$-critical graph whose order satisfies $|G|\le 2{\chi }_t(G)?2$, then G can be obtained from two non-empty disjoint subgraphs $G_1$ and $G_2$ by adding t edges between any pair $u,v$ of vertices with $u\in V(G_1)$ and $v\in V(G_2)$. Based on this result we establish the minimum number of edges possible in a ${\chi }_t$-critical graph G of order n and with ${\chi }_t(G)=k$, provided that $n\le 2k?1$ and t is even. For $t=1$ the corresponding two results were obtained in 1963 by Tibor Gallai.     

On smallest 3-polytopes of given graph radius

The 3-polytopes are planar, 3-connected graphs. A classical question is, given $r\ge 3$, is the $2(r?1)$-gonal prism $K_2\times C_{2(r?1)}$ the unique 3-polytope of graph radius r and smallest size? Under some extra assumptions, we answer this question in the positive.