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Kexiang Xu

Publications and source records attributed to Kexiang Xu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Ore-degree conditions for matchings in uniform hypergraphs

Let $σ_r(\mathcal{H})$ be the minimum sum of vertex degrees over all nonedges of an $r$-uniform hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$ on $n$ vertices. Balogh, Palmer and Raeisi conjectured that $n>2rs$ and $σ_r(\mathcal{H})>r[\binom{n-1}{r-1}-\binom{n-s}{r-1}]$ imply the existence of a matching of size $s$ in $\mathcal{H}$. We prove that, for every fixed $r\ge3$ and all sufficiently large $s$, $σ_r(\mathcal{H})>r[\binom{n-1}{r-1}-\binom{n-s}{r-1}]$ forces an $s$-matching whenever $n\ge rs+\lfloor(r-1)^{r-1}/r^{r-2}\rfloor$. A complete $r$-graph on $rs-1$ vertices together with $\lfloor(r-1)^{r-1}/r^{r-2}\rfloor$ isolated vertices shows that the vertex bound is sharp for all sufficiently large $s$. By adding new vertices to $\mathcal{H}$, retaining all its edges, and adding every $r$-set containing at least one new vertex as an edge, we also deduce that $n\ge rs+C$ suffices under the same degree condition for every $s\ge1$, where $C$ is a finite constant depending only on $r$. For $r=3$, we provide the explicit sufficient order $n\ge\lceil(7s+11)/2\rceil$ for $s\ge6$, together with bounds for $2\le s\le5$, establishing the conjecture in this uniformity. For $s=2$, we improve the known sufficient order $2r+2$ to $2r+1$ for every $r\ge3$ and show that this order is best possible.

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The upper bounds on occupancy fraction and variance fraction for linear regular uniform hypergraphs

The hard-core model can be used to understand the number of independent sets in graphs in extremal graph theory. The occupancy and variance fractions are the expectation and variance, respectively, of the independent-set size, normalized by the number of vertices. We provide upper bounds on the occupancy and variance fractions of linear $d$-regular $r$-uniform hypergraphs for small positive fugacities. In proving these results, we use the cluster expansion and the abstract polymer models, two tools from statistical physics, to analyse auxiliary functions associated with independence polynomials, comparing their low-order coefficients and controlling the remainders uniformly in the number of vertices.

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The multiplicative Merino--Welsh inequality for chordal graphs

For a connected graph $G$, let $τ(G)$, $α(G)$ and $α^*(G)$ denote its numbers of spanning trees, acyclic orientations and totally cyclic orientations, respectively. We prove that $α(G)α^*(G)\geqτ(G)^2$ for every connected bridgeless chordal graph.

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A Turán-type extremal problem for the number of spanning trees in $C_4$-free graphs

For a graph \(F\), the Turán number \(\ex(n,F)\) is the maximum number of edges in an \(F\)-free graph on \(n\) vertices. Let \(q\ge 2\) be an integer and set \(n=q^{2}+q+1\). Brown and Erdős, Rényi and Sós independently proved that $\ex(n,C_{4})\ge \frac12 q(q+1)^{2}$ for every prime power \(q\), and Füredi subsequently established the upper bound $\frac12 q(q+1)^{2}$ for $\ex(n,C_{4})$ whenever \(q\notin\{1, 7,9,11,13\}\). In this article, we prove that every \(C_{4}\)-free graph \(G\) on \(n\) vertices with at most \(\frac12 q(q+1)^{2}\) edges satisfies $τ(G)\le n^{(n-3)/2}$, where \(τ(G)\) denotes the number of spanning trees of \(G\). In particular, for every prime power $q\notin\{7,9,11,13\}$, the above upper bound on $τ(G)$ is attained precisely by the orthogonal polarity graphs, thereby proving London's conjecture for all such $q$.

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Maximum number of spanning trees in bipartite graphs with a given diameter

The number of spanning trees is a classical graph invariant and an important measure of network reliability, as it counts the minimal connected spanning substructures that can maintain communication in a network. Let $\mathcal{B}(n,d)$ be the set of connected bipartite graphs of order $n$ and diameter $d$. Motivated by reliability design problems for bipartite network models with fixed order and diameter, this paper determines all graphs with the maximum number of spanning trees in $\mathcal{B}(n,d)$. The result gives an extremal characterization of bipartite network topologies with the largest number of connected spanning backbones under prescribed order and diameter constraints, and provides a structural reference for the design of reliable bipartite networks.

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On the Variance Fraction of the Hard-Core Model on Graphs with Bounded Maximum Degree

The hard-core model can be used to understand the number of independent sets in graphs in extremal graph theory. The occupancy fraction, defined by Davies \textit{et al.} in 2017 as the logarithmic derivative of the independence polynomial of a graph, is a key quantity in the hard-core model. The variance fraction, introduced by Davies \textit{et al.} in 2025, is defined as the derivative of the occupancy fraction with respect to the logarithm of the fugacity. Since the occupancy fraction can be obtained by integrating the variance fraction with respect to the logarithm of the fugacity, bounding the variance fraction yields the corresponding bounds on the occupancy fraction. Moreover, the occupancy fraction correlates, in quantity, to the independence polynomial. In this note we provide two lower bounds on the variance fraction, proving the conjecture by Davies \textit{et al.} in 2025, for graphs with bounded maximum degree and for graphs with $n$ vertices, respectively. We also derive lower bounds for other graph classes, including graphs with a given edge chromatic number, $d$-regular graphs, and triangle-free graphs with bounded maximum degree.

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Counting oriented spanning trees in generalized join digraphs

Let $G$ be a digraph with vertex set $\{1,2,...,n\}$ and $H_{1},H_{2},...,H_{n}$ be $n$ digraphs. The generalized join digraph $\overrightarrow{G}=G[H_{1},H_{2},...,H_{n}]$ is a digraph obtained from $G$ by replacing each vertex $i$ with $H_{i}$ and for any $u\in V(H_{i})$ and $v\in V(H_{j})$, $(u,v)\in E(\overrightarrow{G})$ if and only if $(i,j)\in E(G)$. In this paper we express the number of oriented spanning trees in $\overrightarrow{G}$ in terms of Laplacian eigenvalues of $H_{1},H_{2},...,H_{n}$ and oriented spanning trees of $G$. Furthermore, we consider the number of oriented spanning trees with a fixed root in $\overrightarrow{G}$. First, we introduce the biclique-directed star transformation formula for counting oriented spanning trees with a fixed root in digraphs. Using it, we give the formula for the total number of oriented spanning trees with roots in a certain $H_{i}$ $(1\leq i \leq n)$ of $\overrightarrow{G}$ in terms of Laplacian eigenvalues of $H_{1},H_{2},...,H_{n}$ and oriented spanning trees of $G$. As applications, when each $H_{i}$ is a given digraph, the enumerative formulas for oriented spanning trees with a fixed root of $\overrightarrow{G}$ are derived from our work.

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Edge transmission irregular graphs

The transmission of a vertex $v$ in a connected graph $G$ is the sum of distances from $v$ to all vertices in $G$. A transmission irregular (TI) graph is a connected graph in which any two distinct vertices have different transmissions. We extend the concept of transmission to edges by defining the transmission of an edge as the sum of the transmissions of its two endpoints. A connected graph can now be called edge transmission irregular (ETI) if any two distinct edges have different transmissions. We show that almost all graphs are not ETI and then investigate several related order realizability problems involving chemical ETI graphs. In particular, we prove that for every $n \ge 15$, there exists a subcubic tree of order $n$ that is both TI and ETI.

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On asymptotic values for the minimum number of spanning forests in simple regular graphs

Let $F(G)$ be the number of spanning forests in a graph $G$ and $\mathcal{C}(n,d)$ be the set of all connected $d$-regular simple graphs of order $n$. Define $\widehat{f}_{d}=\liminf_{n\rightarrow \infty}\{F(G)^{1/n}:G\in \mathcal{C}(n,d)\}$. Let $n_i$ be the number of vertices of degree $i$ in $G$. In this paper we give two lower bounds for $F(G)$ in terms of $n_i$ in connected graphs whose vertex degrees belong to $\{2,3\}$ and $\{2,3,4\}$, respectively. Furthermore, we determine the exact values of $\widehat{f}_3$ and $\widehat{f}_4$.

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The enumeration of odd spanning trees in graphs

A graph is odd if all of its vertices have odd degrees. In particular, an odd spanning tree in a connected graph is a spanning tree in which all vertices have odd degrees. In this paper we establish a unified technique to enumerate odd spanning trees of a graph $G$ in terms of a multivariable polynomial associated with $G$ and indeterminates $\{x_{i}:v_i\in V(G)\}$. As applications, the enumerative formulas for odd spanning trees in complete graphs, complete multipartite graphs, almost complete graphs, complete split graphs and Ferrers graphs are, respectively, derived from our work.

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On the transmission irregular trees with the maximum Wiener index

The transmission of a vertex $v$ in a (chemical) graph $G$ is the sum of distances from $v$ to other vertices in $G$. If any two vertices of $G$ have different transmissions, then $G$ is transmission irregular. The Wiener index $W(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the sum of all distances between all unordered pairs of vertices in $G$, which has another formula as the half of the sum of transmissions of all vertices of $G$. In this paper, we consider the Wiener index maximization problem on the set of transmission irregular trees of a given order $n \in \mathbb{N}$. We solve the problem for all odd values of $n$ and for almost all even values of $n$. Each resolved extremal problem has a unique solution that is a chemical tree.

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Maximum number of spanning trees and connectivity: Graphs with a fixed minimum degree and bipartite graphs

The number of spanning trees in a graph $G$ is the total number of distinct spanning subgraphs of $G$ that are trees. In this paper we characterize the unique graph with a prescribed vertex (resp. edge) connectivity, minimum degree and order that attains the maximum number of spanning trees. Moreover, all the bipartite graphs are determined with a given vertex (resp. edge) connectivity and order maximizing the number of spanning trees.

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Uniquely $C_{4}^{+}$-saturated graphs

A graph $G$ is uniquely $H$-saturated if it contains no copy of a graph $H$ as a subgraph, but adding any new edge into $G$ creates exactly one copy of $H$. Let $C_{4}^{+}$ be the diamond graph consisting of a $4$-cycle $C_{4}$ with one chord and $C_{3}^{*}$ be the graph consisting of a triangle with a pendant edge. In this paper we prove that a nontrivial uniquely $C_{4}^{+}$-saturated graph $G$ has girth $3$ or $4$. Further, $G$ has girth $4$ if and only if it is a strongly regular graph with special parameters. For $n>18k^{2}-24k+10$ with $k\geq2$, there are no uniquely $C_{4}^{+}$-saturated graphs on $n$ vertices with $k$ triangles. In particular, $C_{3}^{*}$ is the only nontrivial uniquely $C_{4}^{+}$-saturated graph with one triangle, and there are no uniquely $C_{4}^{+}$-saturated graphs with two, three or four triangles.

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Solving the Mostar index inverse problem

A nonnegative integer $p$ is realizable by a graph-theoretical invariant $I$ if there exist a graph $G$ such that $I(G) = p$. The inverse problem for $I$ consists of finding all nonnegative integers $p$ realizable by $I$. In this paper, we consider and solve the inverse problem for the Mostar index, a recently introduced graph-theoretical invariant which attracted a lot of attention in recent years in both the mathematical and the chemical community. We show that a nonnegative integer is realizable by the Mostar index if and only if it is not equal to one. Besides presenting the complete solution to the problem, we also present some empirical observations and outline several open problems and possible directions for further research.

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New transmission irregular chemical graphs

The transmission of a vertex $v$ of a (chemical) graph $G$ is the sum of distances from $v$ to other vertices in $G$. If any two vertices of $G$ have different transmissions, then $G$ is a transmission irregular graph. It is shown that for any odd number $n\geq 7$ there exists a transmission irregular chemical tree of order $n$. A construction is provided which generates new transmission irregular (chemical) trees. Two additional families of chemical graphs are characterized by property of transmission irregularity and two sufficient condition provided which guarantee that the transmission irregularity is preserved upon adding a new edge.

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On the general position numbers of maximal outerplanar graphs

A subset $R\subseteq V(G)$ of a graph $G$ is a general position set if any triple set $R_0$ of $R$ is non-geodesic in $G$, that is, no vertex of $R_0$ lies on any geodesic between the other two vertices of $R_0$ in $G$. Let $\mathcal{R}$ be the set of general position sets of a graph $G$. The general position number of a graph $G$, denoted by $gp(G)$, is defined as $gp(G)=\max\{|R|:R\in\mathcal{R}\}$. In this paper, we determine the bounds on the gp-numbers for any maximal outerplane graph and characterize the corresponding extremal graphs.

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Relating the total domination number and the annihilation number for quasi-trees and some composite graphs

The total domination number $γ_{t}(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the cardinality of a smallest set $D\subseteq V(G)$ such that each vertex of $G$ has a neighbor in $D$. The annihilation number $a(G)$ of $G$ is the largest integer $k$ such that there exist $k$ different vertices in $G$ with the degree sum at most $m(G)$. It is conjectured that $γ_{t}(G)\leq a(G)+1$ holds for every nontrivial connected graph $G$. The conjecture has been proved for graphs with minimum degree at least $3$, trees, certain tree-like graphs, block graphs, and cactus graphs. In the main result of this paper it is proved that the conjecture holds for quasi-trees. The conjecture is verified also for some graph constructions including bijection graphs, Mycielskians, and the newly introduced universally-identifying graphs.

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The domination game played on diameter 2 graphs

Let $γ_g(G)$ be the game domination number of a graph $G$. It is proved that if ${\rm diam}(G) = 2$, then $γ_g(G) \le \left\lceil \frac{n(G)}{2} \right\rceil- \left\lfloor \frac{n(G)}{11}\right\rfloor$. The bound is attained: if ${\rm diam}(G) = 2$ and $n(G) \le 10$, then $γ_g(G) = \left\lceil \frac{n(G)}{2} \right\rceil$ if and only if $G$ is one of seven sporadic graphs with $n(G)\le 6$ or the Petersen graph, and there are exactly ten graphs of diameter $2$ and order $11$ that attain the bound.

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