Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Bo Ning

Publications and source records attributed to Bo Ning.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

A Complete Solution to the Cvetković-Rowlinson Conjecture

In 1990, Cvetković and Rowlinson [The largest eigenvalue of a graph: a survey, Linear Multilinear Algebra 28(1-2) (1990), 3--33] conjectured that among all outerplanar graphs on $n$ vertices, $K_1\vee P_{n-1}$ attains the maximum spectral radius. In 2017, Tait and Tobin [Three conjectures in extremal spectral graph theory, J. Combin. Theory, Ser. B 126 (2017) 137-161] confirmed the conjecture for sufficiently large values of $n$. In this article, we show the conjecture is true for all $n\geq2$ except for $n=6$.

math.CO↗

Gedanken Experiments to Destroy a BTZ Black Hole

We consider gedanken experiments to destroy an extremal or near-extremal BTZ black hole by throwing matter into the horizon. These black holes are vacuum solutions to (2+1)-dimensional gravity theories, and are asymptotically $\mathrm{AdS}_3$. Provided the null energy condition for the falling matter, we prove the following---(i) in a Mielke-Baekler model without ghost fields, when torsion is present, an extremal BTZ black hole can be overspun and becomes a naked conical singularity; (ii) in 3-dimensional Einstein gravity and chiral gravity, which both live in torsionless limits of Mielke-Baekler model, an extremal BTZ black hole cannot be overspun; and (iii) in both Einstein gravity and chiral gravity, a near-extremal BTZ black hole cannot be overspun, leaving the weak cosmic censorship preserved. To obtain these results, we follow the analysis of Sorce and Wald on their gedanken experiments to destroy a Kerr-Newman black hole, and calculate the second order corrections to the black hole mass. Furthermore, Wald's type of gedanken experiment provides an operational procedure of proving the third law of black hole mechanics. Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, our results on BTZ black holes also indicate that a third law of thermodynamics holds for the holographic conformal field theories dual to 3-dimensional Einstein gravity and chiral gravity.

gr-qc↗

A Strengthening of Erdős-Gallai Theorem and Proof of Woodall's Conjecture

For a 2-connected graph $G$ on $n$ vertices and two vertices $x,y\in V(G)$, we prove that there is an $(x,y)$-path of length at least $k$ if there are at least $\frac{n-1}{2}$ vertices in $V(G)\backslash \{x,y\}$ of degree at least $k$. This strengthens a well-known theorem due to Erdős and Gallai in 1959. As the first application of this result, we show that a 2-connected graph with $n$ vertices contains a cycle of length at least $2k$ if it has at least $\frac{n}{2}+k$ vertices of degree at least $k$. This confirms a 1975 conjecture made by Woodall. As another applications, we obtain some results which generalize previous theorems of Dirac, Erdős-Gallai, Bondy, and Fujisawa et al., present short proofs of the path case of Loebl-Komlós-Sós Conjecture which was verified by Bazgan et al. and of a conjecture of Bondy on longest cycles (for large graphs) which was confirmed by Fraisse and Fournier, and make progress on a conjecture of Bermond.

math.CO↗

Eigenvalues and triangles in graphs

Bollobás and Nikiforov [J. Combin. Theory, Ser. B. 97 (2007) 859--865] conjectured the following. If $G$ is a $K_{r+1}$-free graph on at least $r+1$ vertices and $m$ edges, then $λ^2_1(G)+λ^2_2(G)\leq \frac{r-1}{r}\cdot2m$, where $λ_1(G)$ and $λ_2(G)$ are the largest and the second largest eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix $A(G)$, respectively. In this paper, we confirm the conjecture in the case $r=2$, by using tools from doubly stochastic matrix theory, and also characterize all families of extremal graphs. Motivated by classic theorems due to Erdős and Nosal respectively, we prove that every non-bipartite graph $G$ of order $n$ and size $m$ contains a triangle, if one of the following is true: (1) $λ_1(G)\geq\sqrt{m-1}$ and $G\neq C_5\cup (n-5)K_1$; and (2) $λ_1(G)\geq λ_1(S(K_{\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\rfloor,\lceil\frac{n-1}{2}\rceil}))$ and $G\neq S(K_{\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\rfloor,\lceil\frac{n-1}{2}\rceil})$, where $S(K_{\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\rfloor,\lceil\frac{n-1}{2}\rceil})$ is obtained from $K_{\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\rfloor,\lceil\frac{n-1}{2}\rceil}$ by subdividing an edge. Both conditions are best possible. We conclude this paper with some open problems.

math.CO↗

Proving a conjecture on chromatic polynomials by counting the number of acyclic orientations

The chromatic polynomial $P(G,x)$ of a graph $G$ of order $n$ can be expressed as $\sum\limits_{i=1}^n(-1)^{n-i}a_{i}x^i$, where $a_i$ is interpreted as the number of broken-cycle free spanning subgraphs of $G$ with exactly $i$ components. The parameter $ε(G)=\sum\limits_{i=1}^n (n-i)a_i/\sum\limits_{i=1}^n a_i$ is the mean size of a broken-cycle-free spanning subgraph of $G$. In this article, we confirm and strengthen a conjecture proposed by Lundow and Markström in 2006 that $ε(T_n)< ε(G)<ε(K_n)$ holds for any connected graph $G$ of order $n$ which is neither the complete graph $K_n$ nor a tree $T_n$ of order $n$. The most crucial step of our proof is to obtain the interpretation of all $a_i$'s by the number of acyclic orientations of $G$.

math.CO↗

The formula for Turán number of spanning linear forests

Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a family of graphs. The Turán number $ex(n;\mathcal{F})$ is defined to be the maximum number of edges in a graph of order $n$ that is $\mathcal{F}$-free. In 1959, Erdős and Gallai determined the Turán number of $M_{k+1}$ (a matching of size $k+1$) as follows: \[ ex(n;M_{k+1})= \max\left\{\binom{2k+1}{2},\binom{n}{2}-\binom{n-k}{2}\right\}. \] Since then, there has been a lot of research on Turán number of linear forests. A linear forest is a graph whose connected components are all paths or isolated vertices. Let $\mathcal{L}_{n,k}$ be the family of all linear forests of order $n$ with $k$ edges. In this paper, we prove that \[ ex(n;\mathcal{L}_{n,k})= \max \left\{\binom{k}{2},\binom{n}{2}-\binom{n-\left\lfloor \frac{k-1}{2}\right \rfloor}{2}+ c \right\}, \] where $c=0$ if $k$ is odd and $c=1$ otherwise. This determines the maximum number of edges in a non-Hamiltonian graph with given Hamiltonian completion number and also solves two open problems in \cite{WY} as special cases. Moreover, we show that our main theorem implies Erdős-Gallai Theorem and also gives a short new proof for it by the closure and counting techniques. Finally, we generalize our theorem to a conjecture which implies the famous Erdős Matching Conjecture.

math.CO↗

An Ore-type Condition for Large $k$-factor and Disjoint Perfect Matchings

Win [\emph{J. Graph Theory} {\bf 6}(1982), 489--492] conjectured that a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices contains $k$ disjoint perfect matchings, if the degree sum of any two nonadjacent vertices is at least $n+k-2$, where $n$ is even and $n\geq k+2$. In this paper, we prove that Win's conjecture is true for $k\geq n/2$, where $n$ is sufficiently large. To show this result, we prove a theorem on $k$-factor in a graph under some Ore-type condition. Our main tools include Tutte's $k$-factor theorem, the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker theorem on convex optimization, and the solution to the longstanding 1-factor decomposition conjecture.

math.CO↗

Mass-Radius relationship for M dwarf exoplanets: Comparing nonparametric and parametric methods

M dwarfs, though the most abundant star in the galaxy, form only a small subset of stellar hosts with exoplanets with measured radii and masses. In this paper we analyze the Mass-Radius (M-R) relationship of planets around M dwarfs using M-R measurements for 24 exoplanets. In particular, we apply both parametric and nonparametric models and compare the two different fitting methods. We also use these methods to compare the results of the M dwarf M-R relationship with that from the Kepler sample. Using the nonparametric method, we find that the predicted masses for the smallest and largest planets around M dwarfs are smaller than that given by the relation fit to the Kepler data, but that the distribution of masses for 3 Earth Radii planets does not substantially differ between the two datasets. With future additions to the M dwarf M-R relation from TESS and instruments like the Habitable Zone Planet Finder, we will be able to characterize these differences in more detail, which will help illuminate the process of planetary formation and evolution around these stars. We release a publicly available Python code called MRExo which uses the nonparametric algorithm introduced by Ning et al. (2018) to fit the M-R relationship. Such a nonparametric fit does not assume an underlying power law fit to the measurements and hence can be used on samples spanning large mass and radii ranges. Therefore by not assuming a functional form, the fit is less biased. MRExo also offers a tool to predict mass from radius posteriors, and vice versa. This functionality can help inform observational strategies for radial velocity campaigns, such as TESS follow-up studies, as well as predict radii with microlensing planet masses.

astro-ph.EP↗

Empirical priors and coverage of posterior credible sets in a sparse normal mean model

Bayesian methods provide a natural means for uncertainty quantification, that is, credible sets can be easily obtained from the posterior distribution. But is this uncertainty quantification valid in the sense that the posterior credible sets attain the nominal frequentist coverage probability? This paper investigates the frequentist validity of posterior uncertainty quantification based on a class of empirical priors in the sparse normal mean model. In particular, we show that our marginal posterior credible intervals achieve the nominal frequentist coverage probability under conditions slightly weaker than needed for selection consistency and a Bernstein--von Mises theorem for the full posterior, and numerical investigations suggest that our empirical Bayes method has superior frequentist coverage probability properties compared to other fully Bayes methods.

math.ST↗

Bayesian Linear Regression for Multivariate Responses Under Group Sparsity

We study frequentist properties of a Bayesian high-dimensional multivariate linear regression model with correlated responses. The predictors are separated into many groups and the group structure is pre-determined. Two features of the model are unique: (i) group sparsity is imposed on the predictors. (ii) the covariance matrix is unknown and its dimensions can also be high. We choose a product of independent spike-and-slab priors on the regression coefficients and a new prior on the covariance matrix based on its eigendecomposition. Each spike-and-slab prior is a mixture of a point mass at zero and a multivariate density involving a $\ell_{2,1}$-norm. We first obtain the posterior contraction rate, the bounds on the effective dimension of the model with high posterior probabilities. We then show that the multivariate regression coefficients can be recovered under certain compatibility conditions. Finally, we quantify the uncertainty for the regression coefficients with frequentist validity through a Bernstein-von Mises type theorem. The result leads to selection consistency for the Bayesian method. We derive the posterior contraction rate using the general theory by constructing a suitable test from the first principle using moment bounds for certain likelihood ratios. This leads to posterior concentration around the truth with respect to the average Rényi divergence of order 1/2. This technique of obtaining the required tests for posterior contraction rate could be useful in many other problems.

math.ST↗

On sufficient conditions for rainbow cycles in edge-colored graphs

Let $G$ be an edge-colored graph. We use $e(G)$ and $c(G)$ to denote the number of edges of $G$ and the number of colors appearing on $E(G)$, respectively. For a vertex $v\in V(G)$, the \emph{color neighborhood} of $v$ is defined as the set of colors assigned to the edges incident to $v$. A subgraph of $G$ is \emph{rainbow} if all of its edges are assigned with distinct colors. The well-known Mantel's theorem states that a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices contains a triangle if $e(G)\geq\lfloor\frac{n^2}{4}\rfloor+1$. Rademacher (1941) showed that $G$ contains at least $\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor$ triangles under the same condition. Li, Ning, Xu and Zhang (2014) proved a rainbow version of Mantel's theorem: An edge-colored graph $G$ has a rainbow triangle if $e(G)+c(G)\geq n(n+1)/2$. In this paper, we first characterize all graphs $G$ satisfying $e(G)+c(G)\geq n(n+1)/2-1$ but containing no rainbow triangles. Motivated by Rademacher's theorem, we then characterize all graphs $G$ which satisfy $e(G)+c(G)\geq n(n+1)/2$ but contain only one rainbow triangle. We further obtain two results on color neighborhood conditions for the existence of rainbow short cycles. Our results improve a previous theorem due to Broersma, Li, Woeginger, and Zhang (2005). Moreover, we provide a sufficient condition in terms of color neighborhood for the existence of a specified number of vertex-disjoint rainbow cycles.

math.CO↗

Spectral radius and Hamiltonian properties of graphs, II

In this paper, we first present spectral conditions for the existence of $C_{n-1}$ in graphs (2-connected graphs) of order $n$, which are motivated by a conjecture of Erdős. Then we prove spectral conditions for the existence of Hamilton cycles in balanced bipartite graphs. This result presents a spectral analog of Moon-Moser's theorem on Hamilton cycles in balanced bipartite graphs, and extends a previous theorem due to Li and the second author for $n$ sufficiently large. We conclude this paper with two problems on tight spectral conditions for the existence of long cycles of given lengths.

math.CO↗

Exact bipartite Turán numbers of large even cycles

Let the bipartite Turán number $ex(m,n,H)$ of a graph $H$ be the maximum number of edges in an $H$-free bipartite graph with two parts of sizes $m$ and $n$, respectively. In this paper, we prove that $ex(m,n,C_{2t})=(t-1)n+m-t+1$ for any positive integers $m,n,t$ with $n\geq m\geq t\geq \frac{m}{2}+1$. This confirms the rest of a conjecture of Györi \cite{G97} (in a stronger form), and improves the upper bound of $ex(m,n,C_{2t})$ obtained by Jiang and Ma \cite{JM18} for this range. We also prove a tight edge condition for consecutive even cycles in bipartite graphs, which settles a conjecture in \cite{A09}. As a main tool, for a longest cycle $C$ in a bipartite graph, we obtain an estimate on the upper bound of the number of edges which are incident to at most one vertex in $C$. Our two results generalize or sharpen a classical theorem due to Jackson \cite{J85} in different ways.

math.CO↗

Stability results on the circumference of a graph

In this paper, we extend and refine previous Turán-type results on graphs with a given circumference. Let $W_{n,k,c}$ be the graph obtained from a clique $K_{c-k+1}$ by adding $n-(c-k+1)$ isolated vertices each joined to the same $k$ vertices of the clique, and let $f(n,k,c)=e(W_{n,k,c})$. Improving a celebrated theorem of Erdős and Gallai, Kopylov proved that for $c \max{f(n,3,c),f(n,\lfloor\frac{c}{2}\rfloor-1,c)}$, then either $G$ is a subgraph of $W_{n,2,c}$ or $W_{n,\lfloor\frac{c}{2}\rfloor,c}$, or $c$ is odd and $G$ is a subgraph of a member of two well-characterized families which we define as $\mathcal{X}_{n,c}$ and $\mathcal{Y}_{n,c}$. We prove that if $G$ is a 2-connected graph on $n$ vertices with minimum degree at least $k$ and circumference $c$ such that $10\leq c \max{f(n,k+1,c),f(n,\lfloor\frac{c}{2}\rfloor-1,c)}$, then one of the following holds: (i) $G$ is a subgraph of $W_{n,k,c}$ or $W_{n,\lfloor\frac{c}{2}\rfloor,c}$, (ii) $k=2$, $c$ is odd, and $G$ is a subgraph of a member of $\mathcal{X}_{n,c}\cup \mathcal{Y}_{n,c}$, or (iii) $k\geq 3$ and $G$ is a subgraph of the union of a clique $K_{c-k+1}$ and some cliques $K_{k+1}$'s, where any two cliques share the same two vertices. This provides a unified generalization of the above result of Füredi et al. as well as a recent result of Li et al. and independently, of Füredi et al. on non-Hamiltonian graphs. Moreover, we prove a stability result on a classical theorem of Bondy on the circumference.

math.CO↗

Extensions of Erdős-Gallai Theorem and Luo's Theorem with Applications

The famous Erdős-Gallai Theorem on the Turán number of paths states that every graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges contains a path with at least $\frac{2m}{n}$ edges. In this note, we first establish a simple but novel extension of the Erdős-Gallai Theorem by proving that every graph $G$ contains a path with at least $\frac{(s+1)N_{s+1}(G)}{N_{s}(G)}+s-1$ edges, where $N_j(G)$ denotes the number of $j$-cliques in $G$ for $1\leq j\leqω(G)$. We also construct a family of graphs which shows our extension improves the estimate given by Erdős-Gallai Theorem. Among applications, we show, for example, that the main results of \cite{L17}, which are on the maximum possible number of $s$-cliques in an $n$-vertex graph without a path with $l$ vertices (and without cycles of length at least $c$), can be easily deduced from this extension. Indeed, to prove these results, Luo \cite{L17} generalized a classical theorem of Kopylov and established a tight upper bound on the number of $s$-cliques in an $n$-vertex 2-connected graph with circumference less than $c$. We prove a similar result for an $n$-vertex 2-connected graph with circumference less than $c$ and large minimum degree. We conclude this paper with an application of our results to a problem from spectral extremal graph theory on consecutive lengths of cycles in graphs.

math.CO↗

Predicting Exoplanets Mass and Radius: A Nonparametric Approach

A fundamental endeavor in exoplanetary research is to characterize the bulk compositions of planets via measurements of their masses and radii. With future sample sizes of hundreds of planets to come from TESS and PLATO, we develop a statistical method that can flexibly yet robustly characterize these compositions empirically, via the exoplanet M-R relation. Although the M-R relation has been explored in many prior works, they mostly use a power-law model, with assumptions that are not flexible enough to capture important features in current and future M-R diagrams. To address these shortcomings, a nonparametric approach is developed using a sequence of Bernstein polynomials. We demonstrate the benefit of taking the nonparametric approach by benchmarking our findings with previous work and showing that a power-law can only reasonably describe the M-R relation of the smallest planets and that the intrinsic scatter can change non-monotonically with different values of a radius. We then apply this method to a larger dataset, consisting of all the Kepler observations in the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Our nonparametric approach provides a tool to estimate the M-R relation by incorporating heteroskedastic measurement errors into the model. As more observations will be obtained in the near future, this approach can be used with the provided R code to analyze a larger dataset for a better understanding of the M-R relation.

astro-ph.EP↗

Extremal problems on the Hamiltonicity of claw-free graphs

In 1962, Erdős proved that if a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices satisfies $$ e(G)>\max\left\{\binom{n-k}{2}+k^2,\binom{\lceil(n+1)/2\rceil}{2}+\left\lfloor \frac{n-1}{2}\right\rfloor^2\right\}, $$ where the minimum degree $δ(G)\geq k$ and $1\leq k\leq(n-1)/2$, then it is Hamiltonian. For $n \geq 2k+1$, let $E^k_n=K_{k}\vee (kK_1+K_{n-2k})$, where "$\vee$" is the "join" operation. One can observe $e(E^k_n)=\binom{n-k}{2}+k^2$ and $E^k_n$ is not Hamiltonian. As $E^k_n$ contains induced claws for $k\geq 2$, a natural question is to characterize all 2-connected claw-free non-Hamiltonian graphs with the largest possible number of edges. We answer this question completely by proving a claw-free analog of Erdős' theorem. Moreover, as byproducts, we establish several tight spectral conditions for a 2-connected claw-free graph to be Hamiltonian. Similar results for the traceability of connected claw-free graphs are also obtained. Our tools include Ryjáček's claw-free closure theory and Brousek's characterization of minimal 2-connected claw-free non-Hamiltonian graphs.

math.CO↗

Bayesian method for causal inference in spatially-correlated multivariate time series

Measuring the causal impact of an advertising campaign on sales is an essential task for advertising companies. Challenges arise when companies run advertising campaigns in multiple stores which are spatially correlated, and when the sales data have a low signal-to-noise ratio which makes the advertising effects hard to detect. This paper proposes a solution to address both of these challenges. A novel Bayesian method is proposed to detect weaker impacts and a multivariate structural time series model is used to capture the spatial correlation between stores through placing a $\mathcal{G}$-Wishart prior on the precision matrix. The new method is to compare two posterior distributions of a latent variable---one obtained by using the observed data from the test stores and the other one obtained by using the data from their counterfactual potential outcomes. The counterfactual potential outcomes are estimated from the data of synthetic controls, each of which is a linear combination of sales figures at many control stores over the causal period. Control stores are selected using a revised Expectation-Maximization variable selection (EMVS) method. A two-stage algorithm is proposed to estimate the parameters of the model. To prevent the prediction intervals from being explosive, a stationarity constraint is imposed on the local linear trend of the model through a recently proposed prior. The benefit of using this prior is discussed in this paper. A detailed simulation study shows the effectiveness of using our proposed method to detect weaker causal impact. The new method is applied to measure the causal effect of an advertising campaign for a consumer product sold at stores of a large national retail chain.

stat.ME↗