skip to main content


Title: Triangle-degrees in graphs and tetrahedron coverings in 3-graphs
Abstract We investigate a covering problem in 3-uniform hypergraphs (3-graphs): Given a 3-graph F , what is c 1 ( n , F ), the least integer d such that if G is an n -vertex 3-graph with minimum vertex-degree $\delta_1(G)>d$ then every vertex of G is contained in a copy of F in G ? We asymptotically determine c 1 ( n , F ) when F is the generalized triangle $K_4^{(3)-}$ , and we give close to optimal bounds in the case where F is the tetrahedron $K_4^{(3)}$ (the complete 3-graph on 4 vertices). This latter problem turns out to be a special instance of the following problem for graphs: Given an n -vertex graph G with $m> n^2/4$ edges, what is the largest t such that some vertex in G must be contained in t triangles? We give upper bound constructions for this problem that we conjecture are asymptotically tight. We prove our conjecture for tripartite graphs, and use flag algebra computations to give some evidence of its truth in the general case.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1700622
NSF-PAR ID:
10287722
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing
Volume:
30
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0963-5483
Page Range / eLocation ID:
175 to 199
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. For a graph G on n vertices, naively sampling the position of a random walk of at time t requires work Ω(t). We desire local access algorithms supporting positionG(t) queries, which return the position of a random walk from some fixed start vertex s at time t, where the joint distribution of returned positions is 1/ poly(n) close to those of a uniformly random walk in ℓ1 distance. We first give an algorithm for local access to random walks on a given undirected d-regular graph with eO( 1 1−λ √ n) runtime per query, where λ is the second-largest eigenvalue of the random walk matrix of the graph in absolute value. Since random d-regular graphs G(n, d) are expanders with high probability, this gives an eO(√ n) algorithm for a graph drawn from G(n, d) whp, which improves on the naive method for small numbers of queries. We then prove that no algorithm with subconstant error given probe access to an input d-regular graph can have runtime better than Ω(√ n/ log(n)) per query in expectation when the input graph is drawn from G(n, d), obtaining a nearly matching lower bound. We further show an Ω(n1/4) runtime per query lower bound even with an oblivious adversary (i.e. when the query sequence is fixed in advance). We then show that for families of graphs with additional group theoretic structure, dramatically better results can be achieved. We give local access to walks on small-degree abelian Cayley graphs, including cycles and hypercubes, with runtime polylog(n) per query. This also allows for efficient local access to walks on polylog degree expanders. We show that our techniques apply to graphs with high degree by extending or results to graphs constructed using the tensor product (giving fast local access to walks on degree nϵ graphs for any ϵ ∈ (0, 1]) and Cartesian product. 
    more » « less
  2. In recent years several compressed indexes based on variants of the Burrows-Wheeler transformation have been introduced. Some of these are used to index structures far more complex than a single string, as was originally done with the FM-index [Ferragina and Manzini, J. ACM 2005]. As such, there has been an increasing effort to better understand under which conditions such an indexing scheme is possible. This has led to the introduction of Wheeler graphs [Gagie et al., Theor. Comput. Sci., 2017]. Gagie et al. showed that de Bruijn graphs, generalized compressed suffix arrays, and several other BWT related structures can be represented as Wheeler graphs and that Wheeler graphs can be indexed in a way which is space-efficient. Hence, being able to recognize whether a given graph is a Wheeler graph, or being able to approximate a given graph by a Wheeler graph, could have numerous applications in indexing. Here we resolve the open question of whether there exists an efficient algorithm for recognizing if a given graph is a Wheeler graph. We present - The problem of recognizing whether a given graph G=(V,E) is a Wheeler graph is NP-complete for any edge label alphabet of size sigma >= 2, even when G is a DAG. This holds even on a restricted, subset of graphs called d-NFA's for d >= 5. This is in contrast to recent results demonstrating the problem can be solved in polynomial time for d-NFA's where d <= 2. We also show the recognition problem can be solved in linear time for sigma =1; - There exists an 2^{e log sigma + O(n + e)} time exact algorithm where n = |V| and e = |E|. This algorithm relies on graph isomorphism being computable in strictly sub-exponential time; - We define an optimization variant of the problem called Wheeler Graph Violation, abbreviated WGV, where the aim is to remove the minimum number of edges in order to obtain a Wheeler graph. We show WGV is APX-hard, even when G is a DAG, implying there exists a constant C >= 1 for which there is no C-approximation algorithm (unless P = NP). Also, conditioned on the Unique Games Conjecture, for all C >= 1, it is NP-hard to find a C-approximation; - We define the Wheeler Subgraph problem, abbreviated WS, where the aim is to find the largest subgraph which is a Wheeler Graph (the dual of the WGV). In contrast to WGV, we prove that the WS problem is in APX for sigma=O(1); The above findings suggest that most problems under this theme are computationally difficult. However, we identify a class of graphs for which the recognition problem is polynomial-time solvable, raising the open question of which parameters determine this problem's difficulty. 
    more » « less
  3. Given any graph G G , the spread of G G is the maximum difference between any two eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of G G . In this paper, we resolve a pair of 20-year-old conjectures of Gregory, Hershkowitz, and Kirkland regarding the spread of graphs. The first states that for all positive integers n n , the n n -vertex graph G G that maximizes spread is the join of a clique and an independent set, with ⌊ 2 n / 3 ⌋ \lfloor 2n/3 \rfloor and ⌈ n / 3 ⌉ \lceil n/3 \rceil vertices, respectively. Using techniques from the theory of graph limits and numerical analysis, we prove this claim for all n n sufficiently large. As an intermediate step, we prove an analogous result for a family of operators in the Hilbert space over L 2 [ 0 , 1 ] \mathscr {L}^2[0,1] . The second conjecture claims that for any fixed m ≤ n 2 / 4 m \leq n^2/4 , if G G maximizes spread over all n n -vertex graphs with m m edges, then G G is bipartite. We prove an asymptotic version of this conjecture. Furthermore, we construct an infinite family of counterexamples, which shows that our asymptotic solution is tight up to lower-order error terms. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Given two k -graphs ( k -uniform hypergraphs) F and H , a perfect F -tiling (or F -factor) in H is a set of vertex-disjoint copies of F that together cover the vertex set of H . For all complete k -partite k -graphs K , Mycroft proved a minimum codegree condition that guarantees a K -factor in an n -vertex k -graph, which is tight up to an error term o ( n ). In this paper we improve the error term in Mycroft’s result to a sublinear term that relates to the Turán number of K when the differences of the sizes of the vertex classes of K are co-prime. Furthermore, we find a construction which shows that our improved codegree condition is asymptotically tight in infinitely many cases, thus disproving a conjecture of Mycroft. Finally, we determine exact minimum codegree conditions for tiling K (k) (1, … , 1, 2) and tiling loose cycles, thus generalizing the results of Czygrinow, DeBiasio and Nagle, and of Czygrinow, respectively. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    For a subgraph$G$of the blow-up of a graph$F$, we let$\delta ^*(G)$be the smallest minimum degree over all of the bipartite subgraphs of$G$induced by pairs of parts that correspond to edges of$F$. Johansson proved that if$G$is a spanning subgraph of the blow-up of$C_3$with parts of size$n$and$\delta ^*(G) \ge \frac{2}{3}n + \sqrt{n}$, then$G$contains$n$vertex disjoint triangles, and presented the following conjecture of Häggkvist. If$G$is a spanning subgraph of the blow-up of$C_k$with parts of size$n$and$\delta ^*(G) \ge \left(1 + \frac 1k\right)\frac n2 + 1$, then$G$contains$n$vertex disjoint copies of$C_k$such that each$C_k$intersects each of the$k$parts exactly once. A similar conjecture was also made by Fischer and the case$k=3$was proved for large$n$by Magyar and Martin.

    In this paper, we prove the conjecture of Häggkvist asymptotically. We also pose a conjecture which generalises this result by allowing the minimum degree conditions in each bipartite subgraph induced by pairs of parts of$G$to vary. We support this new conjecture by proving the triangle case. This result generalises Johannson’s result asymptotically.

     
    more » « less