Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv · 2609.32403

Acyclic orientations of mixed graphs

Abstract

A mixed graph $M=(V,E\cup A)$ is acyclic if its directed part $(V,A)$ is an acyclic digraph. In this note we study the so-called orientation completion problem for the class of acyclic mixed graphs. That is, given an acyclic mixed graph $M$ and a property ${\cal P}$; can we orient the edges of $M$ so that the resulting digraph is acyclic and has property ${\cal P}$. We prove that one can decide in polynomial time whether $M$ can be completed to an acyclic digraph with an out-branching from a prescibed vertex $s$, while it is NP-complete to decide whether $M$ has an acyclic orientation which has both an out-branching and an in-branching (a bipolar orientation). We show that it is NP-complete to decide whether $M$ can be oriented so that it contains a directed path between two prescribed vertices. Finally we describe a polynomial algorithm for deciding whether an acyclic digraph $D$ has an out-branching $B^+_s$ such that the digraph $D-A(B^+_s)$ is connected (in the underlying sense). Based on this we pose as an open problem the complexity of deciding whether the edges of an acyclic mixed graph can be oriented so that the result is an acyclic digraph with a non-separating out-branching.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Jørgen Bang-Jensen, Anders Yeo. 2026-09-26. Acyclic orientations of mixed graphs. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.32403

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

The Rainbow Saturation Number of Cycles

An edge-colored graph $(G,\mathcal C)$ is $F$-rainbow saturated if it contains no rainbow copy of $F$, but adding any nonedge in any prescribed color creates one. The rainbow saturation number $\operatorname{rsat}(n,F)$ is the minimum number of edges in such a graph of order $n$. In this paper we study $\operatorname{rsat}(n,C_r)$. We determine the value for $C_4$ exactly, and establish bounds for every fixed $C_r$ with $r\geq5$.

math.CO↗

Moreira's Theorem for Image Partition Regular Matrices

The famous Hindman conjecture says that for any finite coloring of natural numbers, there exists a monochromatic copy of the form $\{x,x+y,xy\}.$ In a celebrated article, Moreira gave a partial answer to this conjecture by showing that every finite coloring of the natural numbers contains a monochromatic configuration of the form $\{x, x+y, xy\}$. In this article we prove matrix versions (both finite and infinite) of Moreira's theorem. A matrix $A$ is said to be an image partition regular matrix if for any finite coloring of naturals, there exists a monochromatic image of $A,$ i.e. there exists a vector $\vec X$ such that all the entries of $A\vec X$ are monochromatic. From a recent paper of Bowen, one can derive the finite matrix version of the Moreira theorem: if $A$ and $B$ are two finite image partition regular matrices of the same order, then under any finite coloring of $\mathbb{N}$, there exist vectors $\vec{X}$ and $\vec{Y}$ such that all entries in the union of $A\vec{X}, A\vec{X} + B\vec{Y}, A\vec{X} \cdot B\vec{Y}$ are monochromatic, where $A\vec{X} \cdot B\vec{Y}$ denote the vector each of its entries are pointwise multiplication of the coordinates of $A\vec{X} \text{ and } B\vec{Y}$. In this article, we give a short combinatorial proof of this result, and then we extend it to infinite image partition regular matrices.

math.CO↗

Explicit enumeration and large-valence asymptotics of even-valent maps

Let $\mathscr{N}_g(2ν,j)$ denote the number of connected labelled $2ν$-valent maps of genus $g$ with $j$ vertices. Explicit bivariate formulae for $\mathscr{N}_g(2ν,j)$ have been available only in the planar and toroidal cases. Using a structural formula of Ercolani et al (2023), we translate the problem of determining an explicit bivariate formula for $\mathscr{N}_g(2ν,j)$, $g \geq 2$, to finding finitely many counts with a fixed number of vertices. For $g=2,3$ and $4$ we determine these counts using the associated orthogonal polynomials, yielding explicit bivariate formulae for $\mathscr{N}_g(2ν,j)$ in these genera. Furthermore, the same method applies for every $g\ge5$ at the cost of additional computation. From these formulae we obtain the leading-order asymptotics of $\mathscr{N}_g(2ν,j)$ as $ν\to\infty$ for $g=2,3,4$, and we conjecture the structure of these formulae in general genus. In addition, we establish an analogous reduction to finitely many counts, derive explicit formulae and large-valence asymptotics, and formulate corresponding conjectures for two-legged even-valent maps.

math.CO↗