arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Riste Škrekovski.
In this short paper, we introduce a new vertex coloring whose motivation comes from our series on odd edge-colorings of graphs. A proper vertex coloring $φ$ of graph $G$ is said to be odd if for each non-isolated vertex $x\in V(G)$ there exists a color $c$ such that $φ^{-1}(c)\cap N(x)$ is odd-sized. We prove that every simple planar graph admits an odd $9$-coloring, and conjecture that $5$ colors always suffice.
The (independent) chromatic vertex stability ($\ivs(G)$) $\vs(G)$ is the minimum size of (independent) set $S\subseteq V(G)$ such that $χ(G-S)=χ(G)-1$. In this paper we construct infinitely many graphs $G$ with $Δ(G)=4$, $χ(G)=3$, $\ivs(G)=3$ and $\vs(G)=2$, which gives a partial negative answer to a problem posed in \cite{ABKM}.
The vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension of a graph G is the size of a smallest vertex set in G which distinguishes all pairs of vertices (resp. edges) in G and it is denoted by dim(G) (resp. edim(G)). The upper bounds dim(G) <= 2c(G) - 1 and edim(G) <= 2c(G)-1; where c(G) denotes the cyclomatic number of G, were established to hold for cacti without leaves distinct from cycles, and moreover all leafless cacti which attain the bounds were characterized. It was further conjectured that the same bounds hold for general connected graphs without leaves and this conjecture was supported by showing that the problem reduces to 2-connected graphs. In this paper we focus on Theta graphs, as the most simple 2-connected graphs distinct from cycle, and show that the the upper bound 2c(G) - 1 holds for both metric dimensions of Theta graphs and we characterize all Theta graphs for which the bound is attained. We conclude by conjecturing that there are no other extremal graphs for the bound 2c(G) - 1 in the class of leafless graphs besides already known extremal cacti and extremal Theta graphs mentioned here.
A vertex coloring of a graph is said to be \textit{conflict-free} with respect to neighborhoods if for every non-isolated vertex there is a color appearing exactly once in its (open) neighborhood. As defined in [Fabrici et al., \textit{Proper Conflict-free and Unique-maximum Colorings of Planar Graphs with Respect to Neighborhoods}, arXiv preprint], the minimum number of colors in any such proper coloring of graph $G$ is the PCF chromatic number of $G$, denoted $χ_{\mathrm{pcf}}(G)$. In this paper, we determine the value of this graph parameter for several basic graph classes including trees, cycles, hypercubes and subdivisions of complete graphs. We also give upper bounds on $χ_{\mathrm{pcf}}(G)$ in terms of other graph parameters. In particular, we show that $χ_{\mathrm{pcf}}(G) \leq5Δ(G)/2$ and characterize equality. Several sufficient conditions for PCF $k$-colorability of graphs are established for $4\le k\le 6$. The paper concludes with few open problems.
A locally irregular graph is a graph in which the end-vertices of every edge have distinct degrees. A locally irregular edge coloring of a graph G is any edge coloring of G such that each of the colors induces a locally irregular subgraph of G. A graph G is colorable if it admits a locally irregular edge coloring. The locally irregular chromatic index of a colorable graph G, denoted by CHI'irr(G), is the smallest number of colors used by a locally irregular edge coloring of G. The Local Irregularity Conjecture claims that all graphs, except odd length path, odd length cycle and a certain class of cacti, are colorable by 3 colors. As the conjecture is valid for graphs with large minimum degree and all non-colorable graphs are vertex disjoint cacti, we take direction to study rather sparse graphs. In this paper, we give a cactus graph B which contradicts this conjecture, i.e. CHI'irr(B) = 4. Nevertheless, we show that the conjecture holds for unicyclic graphs and cacti with vertex disjoint cycles.
The vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension of a connected graph G; denoted by dim(G) (resp. edim(G)), is defined as the size of a smallest set S in V (G) which distinguishes all pairs of vertices (resp. edges) in G: Bounds dim(G) <= L(G)+2c(G) and edim(G) <= L(G) + 2c(G); where c(G) is the cyclomatic number in G and L(G) depends on the number of leaves in G, are known to hold for cacti and are conjectured to hold for general graphs. In leafless graphs it holds that L(G) = 0; so for such graphs the conjectured upper bound becomes 2c(G). In this paper, we show that the bound 2c(G) cannot be attained by leafless cacti, so the upper bound for such cacti decreases to 2c(G)-1, and we characterize all extremal leafless cacti for the decreased bound. We conjecture that the decreased bound holds for all leafless graphs, i.e. graphs with minimum degree at least two. We support this conjecture by showing that it holds for all graphs with minimum degree at least three and that it is suficient to show that it holds for all 2-connected graphs, and we also verify the conjecture for graphs of small order.
In a graph G; a vertex (resp. an edge) metric generator is a set of vertices S such that any pair of vertices (resp. edges) from G is distinguished by at least one vertex from S: The cardinality of a smallest vertex (resp. edge) metric generator is the vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension of G: In [19] we determined the vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension of unicyclic graphs and that it takes its value from two consecutive integers. Therein, several cycle configurations were introduced and the vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension takes the greater of the two consecutive values only if any of these configurations is present in the graph. In this paper we extend the result to cactus graphs i.e. graphs in which all cycles are pairwise edge disjoint. We do so by defining a unicyclic subgraph of G for every cycle of G and applying the already introduced approach for unicyclic graphs which involves the configurations. The obtained results enable us to prove the cycle rank conjecture for cacti. They also yield a simple upper bound on metric dimensions of cactus graphs and we conclude the paper by conjecturing that the same upper bound holds in general.
In a graph G, the cardinality of the smallest ordered set of vertices that distinguishes every element of V (G) (resp. E(G)) is called the vertex (resp. edge) metric dimension of G. In [16] it was shown that both vertex and edge metric dimension of a unicyclic graph G always take values from just two explicitly given consecutive integers that are derived from the structure of the graph. A natural problem that arises is to determine under what conditions these dimensions take each of the two possible values. In this paper for each of these two metric dimensions we characterize three graph configurations and prove that it takes the greater of the two possible values if and only if the graph contains at least one of these configurations. One of these configurations is the same for both dimensions, while the other two are specific for each of them. This enables us to establish the exact value of the metric dimensions for a unicyclic graph and also to characterize when each of these two dimensions is greater than the other one.
A nut graph is a simple graph whose adjacency matrix is singular with $1$-dimensional kernel such that the corresponding eigenvector has no zero entries. In 2020, Fowler et al. characterised for each $d \in \{3,4,\ldots,11\}$ all values $n$ such that there exists a $d$-regular nut graph of order $n$. In the present paper, we determine all values $n$ for which a $12$-regular nut graph of order $n$ exists. We also present a result by which there are infinitely many circulant nut graphs of degree $d \equiv 0 \pmod 4$ and no circulant nut graph of degree $d \equiv 2 \pmod 4$.
A homomorphism of a signed graph $(G, σ)$ to $(H, π)$ is a mapping of vertices and edges of $G$ to (respectively) vertices and edges of $H$ such that adjacencies, incidences and the product of signs of closed walks are preserved. Motivated by reformulations of the $k$-coloring problem in this language, and specially in connection with results on $3$-coloring of planar graphs, such as Grötzsch's theorem, in this work we consider bounds on maximum average degree which are sufficient for mapping to the signed graph $(K_{2k}, σ_m)$ ($k\geq 3$) where $σ_m$ assigns to edges of a perfect matching the negative sign. For $k=3$, we show that the maximum average degree strictly less than $\frac{14}{5}$ is sufficient and that this bound is tight. For all values of $k\geq 4$, we find the best maximum average degree bound to be 3. While the homomorphisms of signed graphs is relatively new subject, through the connection with the homomorphisms of $2$-edge-colored graphs, which are largely studied, some earlier bounds are already given. In particular, it is implied from Theorem 2.5 of "Borodin, O. V., Kim, S.-J., Kostochka, A. V., and West, D. B., Homomorphisms from sparse graphs with large girth. J. Combin. Theory Ser. B (2004)" that if $G$ is a graph of girth at least 7 and maximum average degree $\frac{28}{11}$, then for any signature $σ$ the signed graph $(G,σ)$ maps to $(K_6, σ_m)$. We discuss applications of our work to signed planar graphs and, among others, we propose questions similar to Steinberg's conjecture for the class of signed bipartite planar graphs.
In a graph G, the cardinality of the smallest ordered set of vertices that distinguishes every element of V(G)U E(G) is called the mixed metric dimension of G, and it is denoted by mdim(G). In [12] it was conjectured that for a graph G with cyclomatic number c(G) it holds that mdim(G) <= L1(G) + 2c(G) where L1(G) is the number of leaves in G. It is already proven that the equality holds for all trees and more generally for graphs with edge-disjoint cycles in which every cycle has precisely one vertex of degree >= 3. In this paper we determine that for every Theta graph G, the mixed metric dimension mdim(G) equals 3 or 4, with 4 being attained if and only if G is a balanced Theta graph. Thus, for balanced Theta graphs the above inequality is also tight. We conclude the paper by further conjecturing that there are no other graphs, besides the ones mentioned here, for which the equality mdim(G) = L1(G) + 2c(G) holds.
A set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G$ is a dominating set if every vertex of $G$ is in $S$ or is adjacent to a vertex in $S$. If, in addition, $S$ is an independent set, then $S$ is an independent dominating set. The domination number $γ(G)$ of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a dominating set in $G$, while the independent domination number $i(G)$ of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of an independent dominating set in $G$. We prove that for all integers $k \geq 3$ it holds that if $G$ is a connected $k$-regular graph, then $\frac{i(G)}{γ(G)} \leq \frac{k}{2}$, with equality if and only if $G = K_{k,k}$. The result was previously known only for $k\leq 6$. This affirmatively answers a recent question of Babikir and Henning.
In a graph G, cardinality of the smallest ordered set of vertices that distinguishes every element of V (G) is the (vertex) metric dimension of G. Similarly, the cardinality of such a set is the edge metric dimension of G, if it distinguishes E(G). In this paper these invariants are considered first for unicyclic graphs, and it is shown that the vertex and edge metric dimensions obtain values from two particular consecutive integers, which can be determined from the structure of the graph. In particular, as a consequence, we obtain that these two invariants can differ for at most one for a same unicyclic graph. Next we extend the results to graphs with edge disjoint cycles showing that the two invariants can differ at most by c, where c is the number of cycles in such a graph. We conclude the paper with a conjecture that generalizes the previously mentioned consequences to graphs with prescribed cyclomatic number c by claiming that the difference of the invariant is still bounded by c.
In a graph G, the cardinality of the smallest ordered set of vertices that distinguishes every element of V (G)[E(G) is called the mixed metric dimension of G. In this paper we first establish the exact value of the mixed metric dimension of a unicycic graph G which is derived from the structure of G. We further consider graphs G with edge disjoint cycles in which a unicyclic restriction Gi is introduced for each cycle Ci: Applying the result for unicyclic graph to each Gi then yields the exact value of the mixed metric dimension of such a graph G. The obtained formulas for the exact value of the mixed metric dimension yield a simple sharp upper bound on the mixed metric dimension, and we conclude the paper conjecturing that the analogous bound holds for general graphs with prescribed cyclomatic number.
The Petersen colouring conjecture states that every bridgeless cubic graph admits an edge-colouring with $5$ colours such that for every edge $e$, the set of colours assigned to the edges adjacent to $e$ has cardinality either $2$ or $4$, but not $3$. We prove that every bridgeless cubic graph $G$ admits an edge-colouring with $4$ colours such that at most $\frac45\cdot|V(G)|$ edges do not satisfy the above condition. This bound is tight and the Petersen graph is the only connected graph for which the bound cannot be decreased. We obtain such a $4$-edge-colouring by using a carefully chosen subset of edges of a perfect matching, and the analysis relies on a simple discharging procedure with essentially no reductions and very few rules.
The Wiener index (the distance) of a connected graph is the sum of distances between all pairs of vertices. In this paper, we study the maximum possible value of this invariant among graphs on $n$ vertices with fixed number of blocks $p$. It is known that among graphs on $n$ vertices that have just one block, the $n$-cycle has the largest Wiener index. And the $n$-path, which has $n-1$ blocks, has the maximum Wiener index in the class of graphs on $n$ vertices. We show that among all graphs on $n$ vertices which have $p\ge 2$ blocks, the maximum Wiener index is attained by a graph composed of two cycles joined by a path (here we admit that one or both cycles can be replaced by a single edge, as in the case $p=n-1$ for example).
Wiener index, defined as the sum of distances between all unordered pairs of vertices, is one of the most popular molecular descriptors. It is well known that among 2-vertex connected graphs on $n\ge 3$ vertices, the cycle $C_n$ attains the maximum value of Wiener index. We show that the second maximum graph is obtained from $C_n$ by introducing a new edge that connects two vertices at distance two on the cycle if $n\ne 6$. If $n\ge 11$, the third maximum graph is obtained from a $4$-cycle by connecting opposite vertices by a path of length $n-3$. We completely describe also the situation for $n\le 10$.
An extension of the well-known Szeged index was introduced recently, named as weighted Szeged index ($\textrm{sz}(G)$). This paper is devoted to characterizing the extremal trees and graphs of this new topological invariant. In particular, we proved that the star is a tree having the maximal $\textrm{sz}(G)$. Finding a tree with the minimal $\textrm{sz}(G)$ is not an easy task to be done. Here, we present the minimal trees up to 25 vertices obtained by computer and describe the regularities which retain in them. Our preliminary computer tests suggest that a tree with the minimal $\textrm{sz}(G)$ is also the connected graph of the given order that attains the minimal weighted Szeged index. Additionally, it is proven that among the bipartite connected graphs the complete balanced bipartite graph $K_{\left\lfloor n/2\right\rfloor\left\lceil n/2 \right\rceil}$ attains the maximal $\textrm{sz}(G)$\,. We believe that the $K_{\left\lfloor n/2\right\rfloor\left\lceil n/2 \right\rceil}$ is a connected graph of given order that attains the maximum $\textrm{sz}(G)$.