arXiv subjects

Raphael Yuster

Publications and source records attributed to Raphael Yuster.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Ramsey number of 1-subdivisions of transitive tournaments

The study of problems concerning subdivisions of graphs has a rich history in extremal combinatorics. Confirming a conjecture of Burr and Erdős, Alon proved in 1994 that subdivided graphs have linear Ramsey numbers. Later, Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov showed that every $n$-vertex graph with at least $\varepsilon n^2$ edges contains a $1$-subdivision of the complete graph on $c_{\varepsilon}\sqrt{n}$ vertices, resolving another old conjecture of Erdős. In this paper we consider the directed analogue of these problems and show that every tournament on at least $(2+o(1))k^2$ vertices contains the 1-subdivision of a transitive tournament on $k$ vertices. This is optimal up to a multiplicative factor of 4 and confirms a conjecture of Girão, Popielarz and Snyder.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

On the quartet distance given partial information

Let $T$ be an arbitrary phylogenetic tree with $n$ leaves. It is well-known that the average quartet distance between two assignments of taxa to the leaves of $T$ is $\frac 23 \binom{n}{4}$. However, a longstanding conjecture of Bandelt and Dress asserts that $(\frac 23 +o(1))\binom{n}{4}$ is also the {\em maximum} quartet distance between two assignments. While Alon, Naves, and Sudakov have shown this indeed holds for caterpillar trees, the general case of the conjecture is still unresolved. A natural extension is when partial information is given: the two assignments are known to coincide on a given subset of taxa. The partial information setting is biologically relevant as the location of some taxa (species) in the phylogenetic tree may be known, and for other taxa it might not be known. What can we then say about the average and maximum quartet distance in this more general setting? Surprisingly, even determining the {\em average} quartet distance becomes a nontrivial task in the partial information setting and determining the maximum quartet distance is even more challenging, as these turn out to be dependent of the structure of $T$. In this paper we prove nontrivial asymptotic bounds that are sometimes tight for the average quartet distance in the partial information setting. We also show that the Bandelt and Dress conjecture does not generally hold under the partial information setting. Specifically, we prove that there are cases where the average and maximum quartet distance substantially differ.

q-bio.PE↗

arXiv2021

On factors of independent transversals in $k$-partite graphs

A $[k,n,1]$-graph is a $k$-partite graph with parts of order $n$ such that the bipartite graph induced by any pair of parts is a matching. An independent transversal in such a graph is an independent set that intersects each part in a single vertex. A factor of independent transversals is a set of $n$ pairwise-disjoint independent transversals. Let $f(k)$ be the smallest integer $n_0$ such that every $[k,n,1]$-graph has a factor of independent transversals assuming $n \ge n_0$. Several known conjectures imply that for $k \ge 2$, $f(k)=k$ if $k$ is even and $f(k)=k+1$ if $k$ is odd. While a simple greedy algorithm based on iterating Hall's Theorem shows that $f(k) \le 2k-2$, no better bound is known and in fact, there are instances showing that the bound $2k-2$ is tight for the greedy algorithm. Here we significantly improve upon the greedy algorithm bound and prove that $f(k) \le 1.78k$ for all $k$ sufficiently large, answering a question of MacKeigan.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Perfect and nearly perfect separation dimension of complete and random graphs

The separation dimension of a hypergraph $G$ is the smallest natural number $d$ for which there is an embedding of $G$ into $\mathbb{R}^d$, such that any pair of disjoint edges is separated by some hyperplane normal to one of the axes. The perfect separation dimension further requires that any pair of disjoint edges is separated by the same amount of such (pairwise nonparallel) hyperplanes. While it is known that for any fixed $r \ge 2$, the separation dimension of any $n$-vertex $r$-graph is $O(\log n)$, the perfect separation dimension is much larger. In fact, no polynomial upper-bound for the perfect separation dimension of $r$-uniform hypergraphs is known. In our first result we essentially resolve the case $r=2$, i.e. graphs. We prove that the perfect separation dimension of $K_n$ is linear in $n$, up to a small polylogarithmic factor. In fact, we prove it is at least $n/2-1$ and at most $n(\log n)^{1+o(1)}$. Our second result proves that the perfect separation dimension of almost all graphs is also linear in $n$, up to a logarithmic factor. This follows as a special case of a more general result showing that the perfect separation dimension of the random graph $G(n,p)$ is w.h.p. $Ω(n p /\log n)$ for a wide range of values of $p$, including all constant $p$. Finally, we prove that significantly relaxing perfection to just requiring that any pair of disjoint edges of $K_n$ is separated the same number of times up to a difference of $c \log n$ for some absolute constant $c$, still requires the dimension to be $Ω(n)$. This is perhaps surprising as it is known that if we allow a difference of $7\log_2 n$, then the dimension reduces to $O(\log n)$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

All feedback arc sets of a random Turán tournament have n/k-k+1 disjoint k-cliques (and this is tight)

We look at structures that must be removed (or reversed) in order to make acyclic a given oriented graph. For a directed acyclic graph $H$ and an oriented graph $G$, let $f_H(G)$ be the maximum number of pairwise disjoint copies of $H$ that can be found in {\em all} feedback arc sets of $G$. In particular, to make $G$ acyclic, one must remove (or reverse) $f_H(G)$ pairwise disjoint copies of $H$. Most intriguing is the case where $H$ is a $k$-clique, where the parameter is denoted by $f_k(G)$. Determining $f_k(G)$ for arbitrary $G$ seems challenging. Here we determine $f_k(G)$ precisely for almost all $k$-partite tournaments. Let $s(G)$ denote the size of the smallest vertex class of a $k$-partite tournament $G$. We prove that for all sufficiently large $s=s(G)$, a random $k$-partite tournament $G$ satisfies $f_k(G) = s(G)-k+1$ almost surely. In particular, as the title states, $f_k(G) = \lfloor n/k\rfloor-k+1$ almost surely, where $G$ is a random orientation of the Turán graph $T(n,k)$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Sum-distinguishing number of sparse hypergraphs

A vertex labeling of a hypergraph is sum distinguishing if it uses positive integers and the sums of labels taken over the distinct hyperedges are distinct. Let s(H) be the smallest integer N such that there is a sum-distinguishing labeling of H with each label at most N. The largest value of s(H) over all hypergraphs on n vertices and m hyperedges is denoted s(n,m). We prove that s(n,m) is almost-quadratic in m as long as m is not too large. More precisely, the following holds: If n < m < n^{O(1)} then s(n,m)= m^2/w(m), where w(m) is a function that goes to infinity and is smaller than any polynomial in m. The parameter s(n,m) has close connections to several other graph and hypergraph functions, such as the irregularity strength of hypergraphs. Our result has several applications, notably: 1. We answer a question of Gyarfas et al. whether there are n-vertex hypergraphs with irregularity strength greater than 2n. In fact we show that there are n-vertex hypergraphs with irregularity strength at least n^{2-o(1)}. 2. Our results imply that s*(n)=n^2/w(n) where s*(n) is the distinguishing closed-neighborhood number, i.e., the smallest integer N such that any n-vertex graph allows for a vertex labeling with positive integers at most N so that the sums of labels on distinct closed neighborhoods of vertices are distinct.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Paths with many shortcuts in tournaments

A shortcut of a directed path $v_1 v_2 \cdots v_n$ is an edge $v_iv_j$ with $j > i+1$. If $j = i+2$ the shortcut is called a hop. If all hops are present, the path is called hop complete, so the path and its hops form a square of a path. We prove that every tournament with $n \ge 4$ vertices has a Hamiltonian path with at least $(4n-10)/7$ hops, and has a hop complete path of order at least $n^{0.295}$. A spanning binary tree of a tournament is a spanning shortcut tree if for every vertex of the tree, all its left descendants are in-neighbors and all its right descendants are out-neighbors. It is well-known that every tournament contains a spanning shortcut tree. The number of shortcuts of a shortcut tree is the number of shortcuts of its unique induced Hamiltonian path. Let $t(n)$ denote the largest integer such that every tournament with $n$ vertices has a spanning shortcut tree with at least $t(n)$ shortcuts. We almost determine the asymptotic growth of $t(n)$ as it is proved that $Θ(n\log^2n) \ge t(n)-\frac{1}{2}\binom{n}{2} \ge Θ(n \log n)$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

A $2^{O(k)}n$ algorithm for $k$-cycle in minor-closed graph families

Let ${\mathcal C}$ be a proper minor-closed family of graphs. We present a randomized algorithm that given a graph $G \in {\mathcal C}$ with $n$ vertices, finds a simple cycle of size $k$ in $G$ (if exists) in $2^{O(k)}n$ time. The algorithm applies to both directed and undirected graphs. In previous linear time algorithms for this problem, the runtime dependence on $k$ is super-exponential. The algorithm can be derandomized yielding a $2^{O(k)}n\log n$ time algorithm.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2020

Dominant tournament families

For a tournament $H$ with $h$ vertices, its typical density is $h!2^{-\binom{h}{2}}/aut(H)$, i.e. this is the expected density of $H$ in a random tournament. A family ${\mathcal F}$ of $h$-vertex tournaments is {\em dominant} if for all sufficiently large $n$, there exists an $n$-vertex tournament $G$ such that the density of each element of ${\mathcal F}$ in $G$ is larger than its typical density by a constant factor. Characterizing all dominant families is challenging already for small $h$. Here we characterize several large dominant families for every $h$. In particular, we prove the following for all $h$ sufficiently large: (i) For all tournaments $H^*$ with at least $5\log h$ vertices, the family of all $h$-vertex tournaments that contain $H^*$ as a subgraph is dominant. (ii) The family of all $h$-vertex tournaments whose minimum feedback arc set size is at most $\frac{1}{2}\binom{h}{2}-h^{3/2}\sqrt{\ln h}$ is dominant. For small $h$, we construct a dominant family of $6$ (i.e. $50\%$ of the) tournaments on $5$ vertices and dominant families of size larger than $40\%$ for $h=6,7,8,9$. For all $h$, we provide an explicit construction of a dominant family which is conjectured to obtain an absolute constant fraction of the tournaments on $h$ vertices. Some additional intriguing open problems are presented.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Perfect sequence covering arrays

An $(n,k)$ sequence covering array is a set of permutations of $[n]$ such that each sequence of $k$ distinct elements of $[n]$ is a subsequence of at least one of the permutations. An $(n,k)$ sequence covering array is perfect if there is a positive integer $λ$ such that each sequence of $k$ distinct elements of $[n]$ is a subsequence of precisely $λ$ of the permutations. While relatively close upper and lower bounds for the minimum size of a sequence covering array are known, this is not the case for perfect sequence covering arrays. Here we present new nontrivial bounds for the latter. In particular, for $k=3$ we obtain a linear lower bound and an almost linear upper bound.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

Vector clique decompositions

Let $F_k$ be the set of graphs on $k$ vertices. For a graph $G$, a $k$-decomposition is a set of induced subgraphs of $G$, each isomorphic to an element of $F_k$, such that each pair of vertices of $G$ is in exactly one element of the set. A fundamental result of Wilson is that for all $n=|V(G)|$ sufficiently large, $G$ has a $k$-decomposition if and only if $G$ is $k$-divisible. Let ${\bf v} \in {\mathbb R}^{|F_k|}$ be indexed by $F_k$. For a $k$-decomposition $L$ of $G$, let $ν_{\bf v}(L) = \sum_{F \in F_k} {\bf v}_F d_{L,F}$ where $d_{L,F}$ is the fraction of elements of $L$ isomorphic to $F$. Let $ν_{\bf v}(G) = \max_{L} ν_{\bf v}(L)$ and $ν_{\bf v}(n)=\min\{ν_{\bf v}(G):|V(G)|=n\}$. It is not difficult to prove that the sequence $ν_{\bf v}(n)$ has a limit so let $ν_{\bf v} = \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} ν_{\bf v}(n)$. Replacing $k$-decompositions with their fractional relaxations, one obtains the (polynomial time computable) fractional analogue $ν_{\bf v}^*(G)$ and corresponding fractional values $ν^*_{\bf v}(n)$ and $ν^*_{\bf v}$. Our first main result is that for each ${\bf v} \in {\mathbb R}^{|F_k|}$ $$ ν_{\bf v} = ν^*_{\bf v}\;. $$ Further, there is a polynomial time algorithm that produces a decomposition $L$ of a $k$-decomposable graph such that $ν_{\bf v}(L) \ge ν_{\bf v} - o_n(1)$. A similar result holds when $F_k$ is the family of all tournaments on $k$ vertices and when $F_k$ is the family of all edge-colorings of $K_k$. We use these results to obtain new and improved bounds on several decomposition results. For example, we prove that every $n$-vertex tournament which is $3$-divisible has a triangle decomposition in which the number of directed triangles is less than $0.0222n^2(1+o(1))$ and that every $5$-decomposable $n$-vertex graph has a $5$-decomposition in which the fraction of cycles of length $5$ is $o_n(1)$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

Packing without some pieces

Erdős and Hanani proved that for every fixed integer $k \ge 2$, the complete graph $K_n$ can be almost completely packed with copies of $K_k$; that is, $K_n$ contains pairwise edge-disjoint copies of $K_k$ that cover all but an $o_n(1)$ fraction of its edges. Equivalently, elements of the set $\C(k)$ of all red-blue edge colorings of $K_k$ can be used to almost completely pack every red-blue edge coloring of $K_n$. The following strengthening of the aforementioned Erdős-Hanani result is considered. Suppose $\C' \subset \C(k)$. Is it true that we can use elements only from $\C'$ and almost completely pack every red-blue edge coloring of $K_n$? An element $C \in \C(k)$ is {\em avoidable} if $\C'=\C(k) \setminus C$ has this property and a subset ${\cal F} \subset \C(k)$ is avoidable if $\C'=\C(k) \setminus {\cal F}$ has this property. It seems difficult to determine all avoidable graphs as well as all avoidable families. We prove some nontrivial sufficient conditions for avoidability. Our proofs imply, in particular, that (i) almost all elements of $\C(k)$ are avoidable (ii) all Eulerian elements of $\C(k)$ are avoidable and, in fact, the set of all Eulerian elements of $\C(k)$ is avoidable.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Induced subgraphs with many repeated degrees

Erdős, Fajtlowicz and Staton asked for the least integer $f(k)$ such that every graph with more than $f(k)$ vertices has an induced regular subgraph with at least $k$ vertices. Here we consider the following relaxed notions. Let $g(k)$ be the least integer such that every graph with more than $g(k)$ vertices has an induced subgraph with at least $k$ repeated degrees and let $h(k)$ be the least integer such that every graph with more than $h(k)$ vertices has an induced subgraph with at least $k$ maximum degree vertices. We obtain polynomial lower bounds for $h(k)$ and $g(k)$ and nontrivial linear upper bounds when the host graph has bounded maximum degree.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Acyclic subgraphs with high chromatic number

For an oriented graph $G$, let $f(G)$ denote the maximum chromatic number of an acyclic subgraph of $G$. Let $f(n)$ be the smallest integer such that every oriented graph $G$ with chromatic number larger than $f(n)$ has $f(G) > n$. Let $g(n)$ be the smallest integer such that every tournament $G$ with more than $g(n)$ vertices has $f(G) > n$. It is straightforward that $Ω(n) \le g(n) \le f(n) \le n^2$. This paper provides the first nontrivial lower and upper bounds for $g(n)$. In particular, it is proved that $\frac{1}{4}n^{8/7} \le g(n) \le n^2-(2-\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}})n+2$. It is also shown that $f(2)=3$, i.e. every orientation of a $4$-chromatic graph has a $3$-chromatic acyclic subgraph. Finally, it is shown that a random tournament $G$ with $n$ vertices has $f(G) = Θ(\frac{n}{\log n})$ whp.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Clumsy packings of graphs

Let $G$ and $H$ be graphs. We say that $P$ is an $H$-packing of $G$ if $P$ is a set of edge-disjoint copies of $H$ in $G$. An $H$-packing $P$ is maximal if there is no other $H$-packing of $G$ that properly contains $P$. Packings of maximum cardinality have been studied intensively, with several recent breakthrough results. Here, we consider minimum cardinality maximal packings. An $H$-packing $P$ is clumsy if it is maximal of minimum size. Let $cl(G,H)$ be the size of a clumsy $H$-packing of $G$. We provide nontrivial bounds for $cl(G,H)$, and in many cases asymptotically determine $cl(G,H)$ for some generic classes of graphs $G$ such as $K_n$ (the complete graph), $Q_n$ (the cube graph), as well as square, triangular, and hexagonal grids. We asymptotically determine $cl(K_n,H)$ for every fixed non-empty graph $H$. In particular, we prove that $$ cl(K_n, H) = \frac{\binom{n}{2}- ex(n,H)}{|E(H)|}+o(ex(n,H)),$$ where $ex(n,H)$ is the extremal number of $H$. A related natural parameter is $cov(G,H)$, that is the smallest number of copies of $H$ in $G$ (not necessarily edge-disjoint) whose removal from $G$ results in an $H$-free graph. While clearly $cov(G,H) \le cl(G,H)$, all of our lower bounds for $cl(G,H)$ apply to $cov(G,H)$ as well.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

On the exact maximum induced density of almost all graphs and their inducibility

Let $H$ be a graph on $h$ vertices. The number of induced copies of $H$ in a graph $G$ is denoted by $i_H(G)$. Let $i_H(n)$ denote the maximum of $i_H(G)$ taken over all graphs $G$ with $n$ vertices. Let $f(n,h) = Π_{i}^h a_i$ where $\sum_{i=1}^h a_i = n$ and the $a_i$ are as equal as possible. Let $g(n,h) = f(n,h) + \sum_{i=1}^h g(a_i,h)$. It is proved that for almost all graphs $H$ on $h$ vertices it holds that $i_H(n)=g(n,h)$ for all $n \le 2^{\sqrt{h}}$. More precisely, we define an explicit graph property ${\cal P}_h$ which, when satisfied by $H$, guarantees that $i_H(n)=g(n,h)$ for all $n \le 2^{\sqrt{h}}$. It is proved, in particular, that a random graph on $h$ vertices satisfies ${\cal P}_h$ with probability $1-o_h(1)$. Furthermore, all extremal $n$-vertex graphs yielding $i_H(n)$ in the aforementioned range are determined. We also prove a stability result. For $H \in {\cal P}_h$ and a graph $G$ with $n \le 2^{\sqrt{h}}$ vertices satisfying $i_H(G) \ge f(n,h)$, it must be that $G$ is obtained from a balanced blowup of $H$ by adding some edges inside the blowup parts. The {\em inducibility} of $H$ is $i_H = \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} i_H(n)/\binom{n}{h}$. It is known that $i_H \ge h!/(h^h-h)$ for all graphs $H$ and that a random graph $H$ satisfies almost surely that $i_H \le h^{3\log h}h!/(h^h-h)$. We improve upon this upper bound almost matching the lower bound. It is shown that a graph $H$ which satisfies ${\cal P}_h$ has $i_H =(1+O(h^{-h^{1/3}}))h!/(h^h-h)$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2017

The effect of local majority on global majority in connected graphs

Let ${\mathcal G}$ be an infinite family of connected graphs and let $k$ be a positive integer. We say that $k$ is ${\it forcing}$ for ${\mathcal G}$ if for all $G \in {\mathcal G}$ but finitely many, the following holds. Any $\{-1,1\}$-weighing of the edges of $G$ for which all connected subgraphs on $k$ edges are positively weighted implies that $G$ is positively weighted. Otherwise, we say that it is ${\it weakly~forcing}$ for ${\mathcal G}$ if any such weighing implies that the weight of $G$ is bounded from below by a constant. Otherwise we say that $k$ ${\it collapses}$ for ${\mathcal G}$. We classify $k$ for some of the most prominent classes of graphs, such as all connected graphs, all connected graphs with a given maximum degree and all connected graphs with a given average degree.

math.CO↗

arXiv2017

The Removal Lemma for Tournaments

Suppose one needs to change the direction of at least $εn^2$ edges of an $n$-vertex tournament $T$, in order to make it $H$-free. A standard application of the regularity method shows that in this case $T$ contains at least $f^*_H(ε)n^h$ copies of $H$, where $f^*_H$ is some tower-type function. It has long been observed that many graph/digraph problems become easier when assuming that the host graph is a tournament. It is thus natural to ask if the removal lemma becomes easier if we assume that the digraph $G$ is a tournament. Our main result here is a precise characterization of the tournaments $H$ for which $f^*_H(ε)$ is polynomial in $ε$, stating that such a bound is attainable if and only if $H$'s vertex set can be partitioned into two sets, each spanning an acyclic directed graph. The proof of this characterization relies, among other things, on a novel application of a regularity lemma for matrices due to Alon, Fischer and Newman, and on probabilistic variants of Ruzsa-Szemerédi graphs. We finally show that even when restricted to tournaments, deciding if $H$ satisfies the condition of our characterization is an NP-hard problem.

math.CO↗