arXiv subjects

Krystal Guo

Publications and source records attributed to Krystal Guo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Perfect state transfer and Cayley presentations

We study perfect state transfer on Cayley graphs from the point of view that state transfer is a property of a graph and not of a group. This paper is a bridge between the classical question about isomorphic Cayley graphs of non-isomorphic groups and quantum walks on graphs. We show that a Cayley graph of a group with an abelian subgroup of index two is a Cayley graph of an abelian group under any one of three hypotheses, two drawn from the theory of isomorphic Cayley graphs. A statement of the same kind holds for extraspecial groups: every Cayley graph of an extraspecial $p$-group of order $p^{2n+1}$ with a conjugacy-closed connection set is a Cayley graph of $Z_p^{2n+1}$. From these results we deduce that every explicit construction of perfect state transfer in the six papers we survey, on dihedral, dicyclic, generalized dihedral, $V_{8n}$ and extraspecial $2$-groups, is a non-abelian presentation of an abelian Cayley graph. Moreover, we show that a non-abelian group with an abelian subgroup of index two admits a connected Cayley graph with perfect state transfer if and only if its order is divisible by four. Genuinely non-abelian examples do exist. We prove that, for every odd prime power $q\ge 5$, the $SL(2,q)$ graph of Pantangi and Sin, which they showed to admit perfect state transfer, is a Cayley graph of no abelian group; to our knowledge, this is the first infinite family of Cayley graphs with perfect state transfer provably admitting no abelian Cayley presentation. We also construct an infinite family of Cayley graphs with peak state transfer and determine all regular subgroups of the automorphism group of every member. An appendix records a census of the connected vertex-transitive graphs with perfect state transfer on at most $30$ vertices.

math.CO↗

arXiv2026

Seymour-tight orientations

We investigate `almost counterexamples' to Seymour's second neighbourhood conjecture. In what we call Seymour-tight orientations, the size of the first neighbourhood of each vertex equals the size of its second neighbourhood. We give several examples and constructions. Specifically, we prove that the class of Seymour-tight orientations is closed under taking (generalized) lexicographic products. Moreover, the lexicographic product of a putative counterexample to Seymour's second neighbourhood conjecture and a Seymour-tight orientation is again a counterexample. Using lexicographic products, we show that if the conjecture is false, then there exist counterexamples that are close to regular tournaments, and moreover that any digraph occurs as an induced subgraph of a counterexample. We then use this same machinery to construct special putative counterexamples to Sullivan's conjecture. The inherent symmetry of these orientations give access to an algebraic perspective. Seymour-tight orientations that are also Cayley digraphs correspond to special pairs of critical sets in groups, which connects potentially to additive combinatorics. We use Kemperman's theorem to characterize those Seymour-tight orientations that are the Cayley digraph of an abelian group.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Clique complexes of strongly regular graphs, their eigenvalues, and cohomology groups

It is known that non-isomorphic strongly regular graphs with the same parameters must be cospectral (have the same eigenvalues). In this paper, we investigate whether the spectra of higher order Laplacians associated with these graphs can distinguish them. In this direction, we study the clique complexes of strongly regular graphs, and determine the spectra of the triangle complexes of several families of strongly regular graphs including Hamming graphs and Triangular graphs. In many cases, the spectrum of the triangle complex distinguishes between strongly regular graphs with the same parameters, but we find some examples where that is not the case. We also prove that if a graph has the property that for any induced cycle, there are four consecutive vertices on the cycle with a common neighbor, then the first cohomology group of the graph is trivial and we apply this result to several families of graphs.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Cubic graphs with no eigenvalues in the interval (-2,0)

We give a complete characterisation of the cubic graphs with no eigenvalues in the interval $(-2,0)$. There is one thin infinite family consisting of a single graph on $6n$ vertices for each $n \geqslant 2$, and five ``sporadic'' graphs, namely the $3$-prism $K_3 \mathbin{\square} K_2$, the complete bipartite graph $K_{3,3}$, the Petersen graph, the dodecahedron and Tutte's $8$-cage. The proof starts by observing that if a cubic graph has no eigenvalues in $(-2,0)$ then its local structure around a girth-cycle is very constrained. Then a separate case analysis for each possible girth shows that these constraints can be satisfied only by the known examples. All but one of these case analyses can be completed by hand, but for girth five there are sufficiently many cases that it is necessary to use a computer for the analysis.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Peak state transfer in continuous quantum walks

We introduce and study peak state transfer, a notion of high state transfer in qubit networks modeled by continuous-time quantum walks. Unlike perfect or pretty good state transfer, peak state transfer does not require fidelity arbitrarily close to 1, but crucially allows for an explicit determination of the time at which transfer occurs. We provide a spectral characterization of peak state transfer, which allows us to find many examples of peak state transfer, and we also establish tight lower bounds on fidelity and success probability. As a central example, we construct a family of weighted path graphs that admit peak state transfer over arbitrarily long distances with transfer probability approaching $\pi/4 \approx 0.78$. These graphs offer exponentially improved sensitivity over known perfect state transfer examples such as the weighted paths related to hypercubes, making them practical candidates for efficient quantum wires.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

On cores of distance-regular graphs

We look at the question of which distance-regular graphs are core-complete, meaning they are isomorphic to their own core or have a complete core. We build on Roberson's homomorphism matrix approach by which method he proved the Cameron-Kazanidis conjecture that strongly regular graphs are core-complete. We develop the theory of the homomorphism matrix for distance-regular graphs of diameter $d$. We derive necessary conditions on the cosines of a distance-regular graph for it to admit an endomorphism into a subgraph of smaller diameter $e<d$. As a consequence of these conditions, we show that if $X$ is a primitive distance-regular graph where the subgraph induced by the set of vertices furthest away from a vertex $v$ is connected, any retraction of $X$ onto a diameter-$d$ subgraph must be an automorphism, which recovers Roberson's result for strongly regular graphs as a special case for diameter $2$. We illustrate the application of our necessary conditions through computational results. We find that no antipodal, non-bipartite distance-regular graphs of diameter 3, with degree at most $50$ admits an endomorphism to a diameter 2 subgraph. We also give many examples of intersection arrays of primitive distance-regular graphs of diameter $3$ which are core-complete. Our methods include standard tools from the theory of association schemes, particularly the spectral idempotents. Keywords: algebraic graph theory, distance-regular graphs, association schemes, graph homomorphisms

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Characteristic Polynomials and Hypergraph Generating Functions via Heaps of Pieces

It is a classical result due to Jacobi in algebraic combinatorics that the generating function of closed walks at a vertex $u$ in a graph $G$ is determined by the rational function \[ \frac{ϕ_{G-u}(t)}{ϕ_G(t)} \] where $ϕ_G(t)$ is the characteristic polynomial of $G$. In this paper, we show that the corresponding rational function for a hypergraph is also a generating function for some combinatorial objects in the hypergraph. We make use of the Heaps of Pieces framework, developed by Viennot, demonstrating its use on graphs, digraphs, and multigraphs before using it on hypergraphs. In the case of a graph $G$, the pieces are cycles and the concurrence relation is sharing a vertex. The pyramids with maximal piece containing a vertex $u \in V(G)$ are in one-to-one correspondence with closed walks at $u$. In the case of a hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$, connected "infragraphs" can be defined as the set of pieces, with the same concurrence relation: sharing a vertex. Our main results are established by analyzing multivariate resultants of polynomial systems associated to adjacency hypermatrices.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

State transfer in discrete-time quantum walks via projected transition matrices

In this paper, we analyze state transfer in quantum walks by using combinatorial methods. We generalize perfect state transfer in two-reflection discrete-time quantum walks to a notion that we call 'peak state transfer'; we define peak state transfer as the highest state transfer that can be achieved between an initial and a target state under unitary evolution, even when perfect state transfer is unattainable. We give a spectral characterization of peak state transfer that allows us to fully characterize peak state transfer in the arc-reversal (Grover) walk on various families of graphs, including strongly regular graphs and incidence graphs of block designs (assuming that the walk starts at a point of the design). In addition, we provide many examples of peak state transfer, including an infinite family where the amount of peak state transfer tends to $1$ as the number of vertices grows. We further demonstrate that peak state transfer properties extend to infinite families of graphs generated by vertex blow-ups, and we characterize periodicity in the vertex-face walk on toroidal grids. In our analysis, we make extensive use of the spectral decomposition of a matrix that is obtained by projecting the transition matrix down onto a subspace. Though we are motivated by a problem in quantum computing, we identify several open problems that are purely combinatorial, arising from the spectral conditions required for peak state transfer in discrete-time quantum walks.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Spectral approaches for $d$-improper chromatic number

In this paper, we explore algebraic approaches to $d$-improper and $t$-clustered colourings, where the colouring constraints are relaxed to allow some monochromatic edges. Bilu [J. Comb. Theory Ser. B, 96(4):608-613, 2006] proved a generalization of the Hoffman bound for $d$-improper colourings. We strengthen this theorem by characterizing the equality case. In particular, if the Hoffman bound is tight for a graph $G$, then the $d$-improper Hoffman bound is tight for the strong product $G \boxtimes K_{d+1}$. Moreover, we prove d-improper analogous for the inertia bound by Cvetkovíc and the multi-eigenvalue lower bounds of Elphick and Wocjan. We conjecture an equality between the chromatic number of a graph $G$ and the $d$-improper chromatic number of its strong product with a complete graph, $G \boxtimes K_{d+1}$, and prove the conjecture in special graph classes, including perfect graphs and graphs with chromatic number at most 4. Other supporting evidence for the conjecture includes a fractional analogue, a clustered analogue, and various spectral relaxations of the equality.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Cubic graphs with no eigenvalues in the interval (-1,1)

We give a complete characterisation of the cubic graphs with no eigenvalues in the open interval $(-1,1)$. There are two infinite families, one due to Guo and Mohar [Linear Algebra Appl. 449:68--75] the other due to Kollár and Sarnak [Communications of the AMS. 1,1--38], and $14$ "sporadic" graphs on at most $32$ vertices. This allows us to show that $(-1,1)$ is a maximal spectral gap set for cubic graphs. Our techniques including examination of various substructure and an application of the classification of generalized line graphs.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Selected Open Problems in Continuous-Time Quantum Walks

Quantum walks on graphs are fundamental to quantum computing and have led to many interesting open problems in algebraic graph theory. This review article highlights three key classes of open problems in this domain; perfect state transfer, instantaneous uniform mixing, and average mixing matrices. In highlighting these open problems, our aim is to stimulate further research and exploration in this rapidly evolving field.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Positive and Negative Square Energies of Graphs

The energy of a graph $G$ is the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of $G$. Let $s^+(G), s^-(G)$ denote the sum of the squares of the positive and negative eigenvalues of $G$, respectively. It was conjectured by [Elphick, Farber, Goldberg, Wocjan, Discrete Math. (2016)] that if $G$ is a connected graph of order $n$, then $s^+(G)\geq n-1$ and $s^-(G) \geq n-1$. In this paper, we show partial results towards this conjecture. In particular, numerous structural results that may help in proving the conjecture are derived, including the effect of various graph operations. These are then used to establish the conjecture for several graph classes, including graphs with certain fraction of positive eigenvalues and unicyclic graphs.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Simple eigenvalues of cubic vertex-transitive graphs

If $v$ is an eigenvector for eigenvalue $λ$ of a graph $X$ and $α$ is an automorphism of $X$, then $α(v)$ is also an eigenvector for $λ$. Thus it is rather exceptional for an eigenvalue of a vertex-transitive graph to be simple. We study cubic vertex-transitive graphs with a non-trivial simple eigenvalue, and discover remarkable connections to arc-transitivity, regular maps and Chebyshev polynomials.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Transversal polynomial of r-fold covers

We explore the interplay between algebraic combinatorics and algorithmic problems in graph theory by defining a polynomial with connections to correspondence colouring (also known as DP-colouring), a recent generalization of list-colouring, and the Unique Games Conjecture. Like the chromatic polynomial of a graph, we are able to evaluate this polynomial at a point, despite the complexity of computing this polynomial. We construct a cover of a graph $X$ by blowing up each vertex to a set of $r$ vertices and joining each pair of sets corresponding to adjacent vertices by a matching with $r$ edges. To each cover $Y$ of $X$ we associate a polynomial $ξ(Y,t)$, called the transversal polynomial. The coefficient $t^k$ of $ξ(Y,t)$ is the number of $k$-edge induced subgraphs of $Y$ whose vertex set is a transversal of the set system given by the blown-up vertices. We show that $ξ(Y,t)$ satisfies a contraction-deletion formula, and that if $n=|V_X|$ and the cover has index $r$, then $ξ(Y,-(r-1)) \equiv 0 \mod r^n$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Perfect state transfer in quantum walks on orientable maps

A discrete-time quantum walk is the quantum analogue of a Markov chain on a graph. Zhan [J. Algebraic Combin. 53(4):1187-1213, 2020] proposes a model of discrete-time quantum walk whose transition matrix is given by two reflections, using the face and vertex incidence relations of a graph embedded in an orientable surface. We show that the evolution of a general discrete-time quantum walk that consists of two reflections satisfies a Chebyshev recurrence, under a projection. For the vertex-face walk, we prove theorems about perfect state transfer and periodicity and give infinite families of examples where these occur. We bring together tools from algebraic and topological graph theory to analyze the evolution of this walk.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

New Eigenvalue Bound for the Fractional Chromatic Number

Given a graph $G$, we let $s^+(G)$ denote the sum of the squares of the positive eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of $G$, and we similarly define $s^-(G)$. We prove that \[\chi_f(G)\ge 1+\max\left\{\frac{s^+(G)}{s^-(G)},\frac{s^-(G)}{s^+(G)}\right\}\] and thus strengthen a result of Ando and Lin, who showed the same lower bound for the chromatic number $\chi(G)$. We in fact show a stronger result wherein we give a bound using the eigenvalues of $G$ and $H$ whenever $G$ has a homomorphism to an edge-transitive graph $H$. Our proof utilizes ideas motivated by association schemes.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Pseudo-Geometric Strongly Regular Graphs with a Regular Point

We study pseudo-geometric strongly regular graphs whose second subconstituent with respect to a vertex is a cover of a strongly regular graph or a complete graph. By studying the structure of such graphs, we characterize all graphs containing such a vertex, and use our characterization to find many new strongly regular graphs. Thereby, we answer a question posed by Gardiner, Godsil, Hensel, and Royle. We give an explicit construction for q new, pairwise non-isomorphic graphs with the same parameters as the collinearity graph of generalized quadrangles of order $(q,q)$ and a new non-geometric graph with the same parameters as the collinearity graph of the Hermitian generalized quadrangle of order $(q^2, q)$, for prime powers $q$. Using our characterization, we computed 135478 new strongly regular graphs with parameters (85,20,3,5) and 27 039 strongly regular graphs with parameters (156, 30, 4, 6).

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Entanglement of Free Fermions on Hadamard Graphs

Free Fermions on vertices of distance-regular graphs are considered. Bipartition are defined by taking as one part all vertices at a given distance from a reference vertex. The ground state is constructed by filling all states below a certain energy. Borrowing concepts from time and band limiting problems, algebraic Heun operators and Terwilliger algebras, it is shown how to obtain, quite generally, a block tridiagonal matrix that commutes with the entanglement Hamiltonian. The case of the Hadamard graphs is studied in details within that framework and the existence of the commuting matrix is shown to allow for an analytic diagonalization of the restricted two-point correlation matrix and hence for an explicit determination of the entanglement entropy.

math-ph↗