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Jessica McDonald

Publications and source records attributed to Jessica McDonald.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2021

A Note on the Immersion Number of Generalized Mycielski Graphs

The immersion number of a graph $G$, denoted im$(G)$, is the largest $t$ such that $G$ has a $K_t$-immersion. In this note we are interested in determining the immersion number of the $m$-Mycielskian of $G$, denoted $μ_m(G)$. Given the immersion number of $G$ we provide a lower bound for im$(μ_m(G))$. To do this we introduce the "distinct neighbor property" of immersions. We also include examples of classes of graphs where im$(μ_m(G))$ exceeds the lower bound. We conclude with a conjecture about im$(μ_m(K_t))$.

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arXiv2021

3-Flows with Large Support

We prove that every 3-edge-connected graph $G$ has a 3-flow $ϕ$ with the property that $|\mathop{supp}(ϕ)| \ge \frac{5}{6} |E(G)|$. The graph $K_4$ demonstrates that this $\frac{5}{6}$ ratio is best possible; there is an infinite family where $\frac 56$ is tight.

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arXiv2020

On clique immersions in line graphs

We prove that if $L(G)$ immerses $K_t$ then $L(mG)$ immerses $K_{mt}$, where $mG$ is the graph obtained from $G$ by replacing each edge in $G$ with a parallel edge of multiplicity $m$. This implies that when $G$ is a simple graph, $L(mG)$ satisfies a conjecture of Abu-Khzam and Langston. We also show that when $G$ is a line graph, $G$ has a $K_t$-immersion iff $G$ has a $K_t$-minor whenever $t\leq 4$, but this equivalence fails in both directions when $t \geq 5$.

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arXiv2019

Clique immersion in graph products

Let $G,H$ be graphs and $G*H$ represent a particular graph product of $G$ and $H$. We define $im(G)$ to be the largest $t$ such that $G$ has a $K_t$-immersion and ask: given $im(G)=t$ and $im(H)=r$, how large is $im(G*H)$? Best possible lower bounds are provided when $*$ is the Cartesian or lexicographic product, and a conjecture is offered for each of the direct and strong products, along with some partial results.

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arXiv2019

Upper bounds for inverse domination in graphs

In any graph $G$, the domination number $γ(G)$ is at most the independence number $α(G)$. The Inverse Domination Conjecture says that, in any isolate-free $G$, there exists pair of vertex-disjoint dominating sets $D, D'$ with $|D|=γ(G)$ and $|D'| \leq α(G)$. Here we prove that this statement is true if the upper bound $α(G)$ is replaced by $\frac{3}{2}α(G) - 1$ (and $G$ is not a clique). We also prove that the conjecture holds whenever $γ(G)\leq 5$ or $|V(G)|\leq 16$.

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arXiv2019

Packing and covering directed triangles

We prove that if a directed multigraph $D$ has at most $t$ pairwise arc-disjoint directed triangles, then there exists a set of less than $2t$ arcs in $D$ which meets all directed triangles in $D$, except in the trivial case $t=0$. This answers affirmatively a question of Tuza from 1990.

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arXiv2018

Non-monochromatic Triangles in a 2-Edge-Coloured Graph

Let $G = (V,E)$ be a simple graph and let $\{R,B\}$ be a partition of $E$. We prove that whenever $|E| + \min\{ |R|, |B| \} > { |V| \choose 2 }$, there exists a subgraph of $G$ isomorphic to $K_3$ which contains edges from both $R$ and $B$. We conjecture a natural generalization to partitions with more blocks.

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arXiv2018

$t$-cores for $(Δ+t)$-edge-colouring

We extend the edge-coloring notion of core (subgraph induced by the vertices of maximum degree) to $t$-core (subgraph induced by the vertices $v$ with $d(v)+μ(v)> Δ+t$), and find a sufficient condition for $(Δ+t)$-edge-coloring. In particular, we show that for any $t\geq 0$, if the $t$-core of $G$ has multiplicity at most $t+1$, with its edges of multiplicity $t+1$ inducing a multiforest, then $χ'(G) \leq Δ+t$. This extends previous work of Ore, Fournier, and Berge and Fournier. A stronger version of our result (which replaces the multiforest condition with a vertex-ordering condition) generalizes a theorem of Hoffman and Rodger about cores of $Δ$-edge-colourable simple graphs. In fact, our bounds hold not only for chromatic index, but for the \emph{fan number} of a graph, a parameter introduced by Scheide and Stiebitz as an upper bound on chromatic index. We are able to give an exact characterization of the graphs $H$ such that $\mathrm{Fan}(G) \leq Δ(G)+t$ whenever $G$ has $H$ as its $t$-core.

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arXiv2018

List-edge-colouring planar graphs with precoloured edges

Let $G$ be a simple planar graph of maximum degree $Δ$, let $t$ be a positive integer, and let $L$ be an edge list assignment on $G$ with $|L(e)| \geq Δ+t$ for all $e \in E(G)$. We prove that if $H$ is a subgraph of $G$ that has been $L$-edge-coloured, then the edge-precolouring can be extended to an $L$-edge-colouring of $G$, provided that $H$ has maximum degree $d\leq t$ and either $d \leq t-4$ or $Δ$ is large enough ($Δ\geq 16+d$ suffices). If $d>t$, there are examples for any choice of $Δ$ where the extension is impossible.

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arXiv2017

The list chromatic index of simple graphs whose odd cycles intersect in at most one edge

We study the class of simple graphs $\mathcal{G}^*$ for which every pair of distinct odd cycles intersect in at most one edge. We give a structural characterization of the graphs in $\mathcal{G}^*$ and prove that every $G \in \mathcal{G}^*$ satisfies the list-edge-coloring conjecture. When $Δ(G) \geq 4$, we in fact prove a stronger result about kernel-perfect orientations in $L(G)$ which implies that $G$ is $(mΔ(G):m)$-edge-choosable and $Δ(G)$-edge-paintable for every $m \geq 1$.

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arXiv2015

Packing Steiner Trees

Let $T$ be a distinguished subset of vertices in a graph $G$. A $T$-\emph{Steiner tree} is a subgraph of $G$ that is a tree and that spans $T$. Kriesell conjectured that $G$ contains $k$ pairwise edge-disjoint $T$-Steiner trees provided that every edge-cut of $G$ that separates $T$ has size $\ge 2k$. When $T=V(G)$ a $T$-Steiner tree is a spanning tree and the conjecture is a consequence of a classic theorem due to Nash-Williams and Tutte. Lau proved that Kriesell's conjecture holds when $2k$ is replaced by $24k$, and recently West and Wu have lowered this value to $6.5k$. Our main result makes a further improvement to $5k+4$.

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arXiv2015

A list analog of Vizing's Theorem for simple graphs with triangles but no other odd cycles

This paper has been withdrawn by the author. Peterson and Woodall previously proved that the list-edge-colouring conjecture holds for graphs without odd cycles of length 5 or longer. D. Peterson and D. R. Woodall, Edge-choosability in line-perfect multigraphs, Discrete Mathematics 202 (1999), 191-199. D. Peterson and D. R. Woodall, Erratum to "Edge-choosability in line-perfect multigraphs", Discrete Mathematics 260 (2003), 323-326.

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arXiv2015

On Galvin orientations of line graphs and list-edge-colouring

The notion of a Galvin orientation of a line graph is introduced, generalizing the idea used by Galvin in his landmark proof of the list-edge-colouring conjecture for bipartite graphs. If L(G) has a proper Galvin orientation with respect to k, then it immediately implies that G is k-list-edge-colourable, but the converse is not true. The stronger property is studied in graphs of the form `bipartite plus an edge', the Petersen graph, cliques, and simple graphs without odd cycles of length 5 or longer.

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arXiv2015

Packing triangles in weighted graphs

Tuza conjectured that for every graph $G$, the maximum size $ν$ of a set of edge-disjoint triangles and minimum size $τ$ of a set of edges meeting all triangles satisfy $τ\leq 2ν$. We consider an edge-weighted version of this conjecture, which amounts to packing and covering triangles in multigraphs. Several known results about the original problem are shown to be true in this context, and some are improved. In particular, we answer a question of Krivelevich who proved that $τ\leq 2ν^*$ (where $ν^*$ is the fractional version of $ν$), and asked if this is tight. We prove that $τ\leq 2ν^*-\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}\sqrt{ν^*}$ and show that this bound is essentially best possible.

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arXiv2012

A note on forbidding clique immersions

Robertson and Seymour proved that the relation of graph immersion is well-quasi-ordered for finite graphs. Their proof uses the results of graph minors theory. Surprisingly, there is a very short proof of the corresponding rough structure theorem for graphs without $K_t$-immersions; it is based on the Gomory-Hu theorem. The same proof also works to establish a rough structure theorem for Eulerian digraphs without $\vec{K}_t$-immersions, where $\vec{K}_t$ denotes the bidirected complete digraph of order $t$.

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arXiv2011

Immersing complete digraphs

We consider the problem of immersing the complete digraph on t vertices in a simple digraph. For Eulerian digraphs, we show that such an immersion always exists whenever minimum degree is at least t(t-1), and for t at most 4 minimum degree at least t-1 suffices. On the other hand, we show that there exist non-Eulerian digraphs with all vertices of arbitrarily high in- and outdegree which do not contain an immersion of the complete digraph on 3 vertices. As a side result, we obtain a construction of digraphs with large outdegree in which all cycles have odd length, simplifying a former construction of such graphs by Thomassen.

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arXiv2011

Minimum degree condition forcing complete graph immersion

An immersion of a graph $H$ into a graph $G$ is a one-to-one mapping $f:V(H) \to V(G)$ and a collection of edge-disjoint paths in $G$, one for each edge of $H$, such that the path $P_{uv}$ corresponding to edge $uv$ has endpoints $f(u)$ and $f(v)$. The immersion is strong if the paths $P_{uv}$ are internally disjoint from $f(V(H))$. It is proved that for every positive integer $t$, every simple graph of minimum degree at least $200t$ contains a strong immersion of the complete graph $K_t$. For dense graphs one can say even more. If the graph has order $n$ and has $2cn^2$ edges, then there is a strong immersion of the complete graph on at least $c^2 n$ vertices in $G$ in which each path $P_{uv}$ is of length 2. As an application of these results, we resolve a problem raised by Paul Seymour by proving that the line graph of every simple graph with average degree $d$ has a clique minor of order at least $cd^{3/2}$, where $c>0$ is an absolute constant. For small values of $t$, $1\le t\le 7$, every simple graph of minimum degree at least $t-1$ contains an immersion of $K_t$ (Lescure and Meyniel, DeVos et al.). We provide a general class of examples showing that this does not hold when $t$ is large.

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