arXiv subjects

Kolja Knauer

Publications and source records attributed to Kolja Knauer.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

On sensitivity in bipartite Cayley graphs

Huang proved that every set of more than half the vertices of the $d$-dimensional hypercube $Q_d$ induces a subgraph of maximum degree at least $\sqrt{d}$, which is tight by a result of Chung, Füredi, Graham, and Seymour. Huang asked whether similar results can be obtained for other highly symmetric graphs. First, we present three infinite families of Cayley graphs of unbounded degree that contain induced subgraphs of maximum degree $1$ on more than half the vertices. In particular, this refutes a conjecture of Potechin and Tsang, for which first counterexamples were shown recently by Lehner and Verret. The first family consists of dihedrants and contains a sporadic counterexample encountered earlier by Lehner and Verret. The second family are star graphs, these are edge-transitive Cayley graphs of the symmetric group. All members of the third family are $d$-regular containing an induced matching on a $\frac{d}{2d-1}$-fraction of the vertices. This is largest possible and answers a question of Lehner and Verret. Second, we consider Huang's lower bound for graphs with subcubes and show that the corresponding lower bound is tight for products of Coxeter groups of type $\mathbf{A_n}$, $\mathbf{I_2}(2k+1)$, and most exceptional cases. We believe that Coxeter groups are a suitable generalization of the hypercube with respect to Huang's question. Finally, we show that induced subgraphs on more than half the vertices of Levi graphs of projective planes and of the Ramanujan graphs of Lubotzky, Phillips, and Sarnak have unbounded degree. This gives classes of Cayley graphs with properties similar to the ones provided by Huang's results. However, in contrast to Coxeter groups these graphs have no subcubes.

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arXiv2021

On the dichromatic number of surfaces

In this paper, we give bounds on the dichromatic number $\vecχ(Σ)$ of a surface $Σ$, which is the maximum dichromatic number of an oriented graph embeddable on $Σ$. We determine the asymptotic behaviour of $\vecχ(Σ)$ by showing that there exist constants $a_1$ and $a_2$ such that, $a_1\frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)} \leq \vecχ(Σ) \leq a_2 \frac{\sqrt{-c}}{\log(-c)} $ for every surface $Σ$ with Euler characteristic $c\leq -2$. We then give more explicit bounds for some surfaces with high Euler characteristic. In particular, we show that the dichromatic numbers of the projective plane $\mathbb{N}_1$, the Klein bottle $\mathbb{N}_2$, the torus $\mathbb{S}_1$, and Dyck's surface $\mathbb{N}_3$ are all equal to $3$, and that the dichromatic numbers of the $5$-torus $\mathbb{S}_5$ and the $10$-cross surface $\mathbb{N}_{10}$ are equal to $4$. We also consider the complexity of deciding whether a given digraph or oriented graph embeddable on a fixed surface is $k$-dicolourable. In particular, we show that for any fixed surface, deciding whether a digraph embeddable on this surface is $2$-dicolourable is NP-complete, and that deciding whether a planar oriented graph is $2$-dicolourable is NP-complete unless all planar oriented graphs are $2$-dicolourable (which was conjectured by Neumann-Lara).

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arXiv2021

On monoid graphs

We investigate Cayley graphs of finite semigroups and monoids. First, we look at semigroup digraphs, i.e., directed Cayley graphs of semigroups, and give a Sabidussi-type characterization in the case of monoids. We then correct a proof of Zelinka from '81 that characterizes semigroup digraphs with outdegree $1$. Further, answering a question of Knauer and Knauer, we construct for every $k\geq 2$ connected $k$-outregular non-semigroup digraphs. On the other hand, we show that every sink-free directed graph is a union of connected components of a monoid digraph. Second, we consider monoid graphs, i.e., underlying simple undirected graphs of Cayley graphs of monoids. We show that forests and threshold graphs form part of this family. Conversely, we construct the -- to our knowledge -- first graphs, that are not monoid graphs. We present non-monoid graphs that are planar, have arboricity $2$, and treewidth $3$ on the one hand, and non-monoid graphs of arbitrarily high connectivity on the other hand. Third, we study generated monoid trees, i.e., trees that are monoid graphs with respect to a generating set. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a tree to be in this family, allowing us to find large classes of trees inside and outside the family.

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arXiv2021

Ample completions of OMs and CUOMs

This paper considers completions of COMs (complexes oriented matroids) to ample partial cubes of the same VC-dimension. We show that these exist for OMs (oriented matroids) and CUOMs (complexes of uniform oriented matroids). This implies that OMs and CUOMs satisfy the sample compression conjecture -- one of the central open questions of learning theory. We conjecture that every COM can be completed to an ample partial cube without increasing the VC-dimension.

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arXiv2021

Two-dimensional partial cubes

We investigate the structure of two-dimensional partial cubes, i.e., of isometric subgraphs of hypercubes whose vertex set defines a set family of VC-dimension at most 2. Equivalently, those are the partial cubes which are not contractible to the 3-cube $Q_3$ (here contraction means contracting the edges corresponding to the same coordinate of the hypercube). We show that our graphs can be obtained from two types of combinatorial cells (gated cycles and gated full subdivisions of complete graphs) via amalgams. The cell structure of two-dimensional partial cubes enables us to establish a variety of results. In particular, we prove that all partial cubes of VC-dimension 2 can be extended to ample aka lopsided partial cubes of VC-dimension 2, yielding that the set families defined by such graphs satisfy the sample compression conjecture by Littlestone and Warmuth (1986). Furthermore we point out relations to tope graphs of COMs of low rank and region graphs of pseudoline arrangements.

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arXiv2020

Colouring bottomless rectangles and arborescences

We study problems related to colouring bottomless rectangles. One of our main results shows that for any positive integers $m, k$, there is no semi-online algorithm that can $k$-colour bottomless rectangles with disjoint boundaries in increasing order of their top sides, so that any $m$-fold covered point is covered by at least two colours. This is, surprisingly, a corollary of a stronger result for arborescence colourings. Any semi-online colouring algorithm that colours an arborescence in leaf-to-root order with a bounded number of colours produces arbitrarily long monochromatic paths. This is complemented by optimal upper bounds given by simple online colouring algorithms from other directions. Our other main results study configurations of bottomless rectangles in an attempt to improve the \textit{polychromatic $k$-colouring number}, $m_k^*$. We show that for many families of bottomless rectangles, such as unit-width bottomless rectangles, $m_k^*$ is linear in $k$. We also present an improved lower bound for general families: $m_k^* \geq 2k-1$.

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arXiv2020

On the Djoković-Winkler relation and its closure in subdivisions of fullerenes, triangulations, and chordal graphs

It was recently pointed out that certain SiO$_2$ layer structures and SiO$_2$ nanotubes can be described as full subdivisions aka subdivision graphs of partial cubes. A key tool for analyzing distance-based topological indices in molecular graphs is the Djoković-Winkler relation $Θ$ and its transitive closure $Θ^\ast$. In this paper we study the behavior of $Θ$ and $Θ^\ast$ with respect to full subdivisions. We apply our results to describe $Θ^\ast$ in full subdivisions of fullerenes, plane triangulations, and chordal graphs.

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arXiv2020

Enumerating $k$-arc-connected orientations

We study the problem of enumerating the $k$-arc-connected orientations of a graph $G$, i.e., generating each exactly once. A first algorithm using submodular flow optimization is easy to state, but intricate to implement. In a second approach we present a simple algorithm with $O(knm^2)$ time delay and amortized time $O(m^2)$, which improves over the analysis of the submodular flow algorithm. As ingredients, we obtain enumeration algorithms for the $α$-orientations of a graph $G$ in $O(m^2)$ time delay and for the outdegree sequences attained by $k$-arc-connected orientations of $G$ in $O(knm^2)$ time delay.

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arXiv2019

Cayley posets

We introduce Cayley posets as posets arising naturally from pairs $S<T$ of semigroups, much in the same way that Cayley graph arises from a (semi)group and a subset. We show that Cayley posets are a common generalization of several known classes of posets, e.g. posets of numerical semigroups (with torsion) and more generally affine semigroups. Furthermore, we give Sabidussi-type characterizations for Cayley posets and for several subclasses in terms of their endomorphism monoid. We show that large classes of posets are Cayley posets, e.g., series-parallel posets and (generalizations of) join-semilattices, but also provide examples of posets which cannot be represented this way. Finally, we characterize (locally finite, with a finite number of atoms) auto-equivalent posets - a class that generalizes a recently introduced notion for numerical semigroups - as those posets coming from a finitely generated submonoid of an abelian group.

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arXiv2019

Hypercellular graphs: partial cubes without $Q_3^-$ as partial cube minor

We investigate the structure of isometric subgraphs of hypercubes (i.e., partial cubes) which do not contain finite convex subgraphs contractible to the 3-cube minus one vertex $Q^-_3$ (here contraction means contracting the edges corresponding to the same coordinate of the hypercube). Extending similar results for median and cellular graphs, we show that the convex hull of an isometric cycle of such a graph is gated and isomorphic to the Cartesian product of edges and even cycles. Furthermore, we show that our graphs are exactly the class of partial cubes in which any finite convex subgraph can be obtained from the Cartesian products of edges and even cycles via successive gated amalgams. This decomposition result enables us to establish a variety of results. In particular, it yields that our class of graphs generalizes median and cellular graphs, which motivates naming our graphs hypercellular. Furthermore, we show that hypercellular graphs are tope graphs of zonotopal complexes of oriented matroids. Finally, we characterize hypercellular graphs as being median-cell -- a property naturally generalizing the notion of median graphs.

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arXiv2019

Planar cubic graphs of small diameter

Cubic planar $n$-vertex graphs with faces of length at most $6$, e.g., fullerene graphs, have diameter in $Ω(\sqrt{n})$. It has been suspected, that a similar result can be shown for cubic planar graphs with faces of bounded length. This note provides a family of cubic planar $n$-vertex graphs with faces of length at most $7$ and diameter in ${O}(\log n)$, thus refuting the above suspicion.

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arXiv2019

The interval number of a planar graph is at most three

The interval number of a graph $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that one can assign to each vertex of $G$ a union of $k$ intervals on the real line, such that $G$ is the intersection graph of these sets, i.e., two vertices are adjacent in $G$ if and only if the corresponding sets of intervals have non-empty intersection. In 1983 Scheinerman and West [The interval number of a planar graph: Three intervals suffice. \textit{J.~Comb.~Theory, Ser.~B}, 35:224--239, 1983] proved that the interval number of any planar graph is at most $3$. However the original proof has a flaw. We give a different and shorter proof of this result.

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arXiv2019

On tope graphs of complexes of oriented matroids

We give two graph theoretical characterizations of tope graphs of (complexes of) oriented matroids. The first is in terms of excluded partial cube minors, the second is that all antipodal subgraphs are gated. A direct consequence is a third characterization in terms of zone graphs of tope graphs. Further corollaries include a characterization of topes of oriented matroids due to da Silva, another one of Handa, a characterization of lopsided systems due to Lawrence, and an intrinsic characterization of tope graphs of affine oriented matroids. Furthermore, we obtain polynomial time recognition algorithms for tope graphs of the above and a finite list of excluded partial cube minors for the bounded rank case. In particular, this answers a relatively long-standing open question in oriented matroids. Another consequence is that all finite Pasch graphs are tope graphs of complexes of oriented matroids, which confirms a conjecture of Chepoi and the two authors.

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arXiv2019

Complete Acyclic Colorings

We study two parameters that arise from the dichromatic number and the vertex-arboricity in the same way that the achromatic number comes from the chromatic number. The adichromatic number of a digraph is the largest number of colors its vertices can be colored with such that every color induces an acyclic subdigraph but merging any two colors yields a monochromatic directed cycle. Similarly, the a-vertex arboricity of an undirected graph is the largest number of colors that can be used such that every color induces a forest but merging any two yields a monochromatic cycle. We study the relation between these parameters and their behavior with respect to other classical parameters such as degeneracy and most importantly feedback vertex sets.

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arXiv2019

Flip distances between graph orientations

Flip graphs are a ubiquitous class of graphs, which encode relations induced on a set of combinatorial objects by elementary, local changes. Skeletons of associahedra, for instance, are the graphs induced by quadrilateral flips in triangulations of a convex polygon. For some definition of a flip graph, a natural computational problem to consider is the flip distance: Given two objects, what is the minimum number of flips needed to transform one into the other? We consider flip graphs on orientations of simple graphs, where flips consist of reversing the direction of some edges. More precisely, we consider so-called $α$-orientations of a graph $G$, in which every vertex $v$ has a specified outdegree $α(v)$, and a flip consists of reversing all edges of a directed cycle. We prove that deciding whether the flip distance between two $α$-orientations of a planar graph $G$ is at most two is \NP-complete. This also holds in the special case of perfect matchings, where flips involve alternating cycles. This problem amounts to finding geodesics on the common base polytope of two partition matroids, or, alternatively, on an alcoved polytope. It therefore provides an interesting example of a flip distance question that is computationally intractable despite having a natural interpretation as a geodesic on a nicely structured combinatorial polytope. We also consider the dual question of the flip distance betwe en graph orientations in which every cycle has a specified number of forward edges, and a flip is the reversal of all edges in a minimal directed cut. In general, the problem remains hard. However, if we restrict to flips that only change sinks into sources, or vice-versa, then the problem can be solved in polynomial time. Here we exploit the fact that the flip graph is the cover graph of a distributive lattice. This generalizes a recent result from Zhang, Qian, and Zhang.

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arXiv2018

Cuts in matchings of 3-connected cubic graphs

We discuss conjectures on Hamiltonicity in cubic graphs (Tait, Barnette, Tutte), on the dichromatic number of planar oriented graphs (Neumann-Lara), and on even graphs in digraphs whose contraction is strongly connected (Hochstättler). We show that all of them fit into the same framework related to cuts in matchings. This allows us to find a counterexample to the conjecture of Hochstättler and show that the conjecture of Neumann-Lara holds for all planar graphs on at most 26 vertices. Finally, we state a new conjecture on bipartite cubic oriented graphs, that naturally arises in this setting.

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arXiv2018

The Queue-Number of Posets of Bounded Width or Height

Heath and Pemmaraju conjectured that the queue-number of a poset is bounded by its width and if the poset is planar then also by its height. We show that there are planar posets whose queue-number is larger than their height, refuting the second conjecture. On the other hand, we show that any poset of width $2$ has queue-number at most $2$, thus confirming the first conjecture in the first non-trivial case. Moreover, we improve the previously best known bounds and show that planar posets of width $w$ have queue-number at most $3w-2$ while any planar poset with $0$ and $1$ has queue-number at most its width.

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arXiv2018

Computing metric hulls in graphs

We prove that, given a closure function the smallest preimage of a closed set can be calculated in polynomial time in the number of closed sets. This confirms a conjecture of Albenque and Knauer and implies that there is a polynomial time algorithm to compute the convex hull-number of a graph, when all its convex subgraphs are given as input. We then show that computing if the smallest preimage of a closed set is logarithmic in the size of the ground set is LOGSNP-complete if only the ground set is given. A special instance of this problem is computing the dimension of a poset given its linear extension graph, that was conjectured to be in P. The intent to show that the latter problem is LOGSNP-complete leads to several interesting questions and to the definition of the isometric hull, i.e., a smallest isometric subgraph containing a given set of vertices $S$. While for $|S|=2$ an isometric hull is just a shortest path, we show that computing the isometric hull of a set of vertices is NP-complete even if $|S|=3$. Finally, we consider the problem of computing the isometric hull-number of a graph and show that computing it is $Σ^P_2$ complete.

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