Related papers: Pebbling and Optimal Pebbling in Graphs

Let $G$ be a graph on $n$ vertices of maximum degree $\Delta$. We show that, for any $\delta > 0$, the down-up walk on independent sets of size $k \leq (1-\delta)\alpha_c(\Delta)n$ mixes in time $O_{\Delta,\delta}(k\log{n})$, thereby…

A graph $G$ of order $n$ is called edge-pancyclic if, for every integer $k$ with $3 \leq k \leq n$, every edge of $G$ lies in a cycle of length $k$. Determining the minimum size $f(n)$ of a simple edge-pancyclic graph with $n$ vertices…

We offer a new, gradual approach to the largest girth problem for cubic graphs. It is easily observed that the largest possible girth of all $n$-vertex cubic graphs is attained by a $2$-connected graph $G=(V,E)$. By Petersen's graph…

Let $G$ be a graph with nonnegative integer weights. A {\it unit acquisition move} transfers one unit of weight from a vertex to a neighbor that has at least as much weight. The {\it unit acquisition number} of a graph $G$, denoted…

A subset S of vertices of a graph G is called a k-path vertex cover if every path of order k in G contains at least one vertex from S. Denote by \psi_k(G) the minimum cardinality of a k-path vertex cover in G. It is shown that the problem…

We present improved bounds for randomly sampling $k$-colorings of graphs with maximum degree $\Delta$; our results hold without any further assumptions on the graph. The Glauber dynamics is a simple single-site update Markov chain. Jerrum…

Contraction of triangles is a standard operation in the study of cubic graphs, as it reduces the order of the graph while typically preserving many of its properties. In this paper, we investigate the converse problem, wherein certain…

The notion of vertex sparsification is introduced in \cite{M}, where it was shown that for any graph $G = (V, E)$ and a subset of $k$ terminals $K \subset V$, there is a polynomial time algorithm to construct a graph $H = (K, E_H)$ on just…

We study a problem motivated by a question related to quantum-error-correcting codes. Combinatorially, it involves the following graph parameter: $$f(G)=\min\set{|A|+|\{x\in V\setminus A : d_A(x)\text{is odd}\}| : A\neq\emptyset},$$ where…

Graph burning runs on discrete time steps. The aim is to burn all the vertices in a given graph in the least number of time steps. This number is known to be the burning number of the graph. The spread of social influence, an alarm, or a…

For a vertex $v$ of a connected graph $G(V,E)$ and a subset $S$ of $V$, the distance between $v$ and $S$ is defined by $d(v,S)=min\{d(v,x):x \in S \}.$ For an ordered \emph{k}-partition $\Pi=\{S_1,S_2\ldots S_k\}$ of $V$, the representation…

Graph burning is a graph process that models the spread of social contagion. Initially, all the vertices of a graph $G$ are unburnt. At each step, an unburnt vertex is put on fire and the fire from burnt vertices of the previous step…

Let $S\subseteq V(G)$ and $\pi_{G}(S)$ denote the maximum number $t$ of edge-disjoint paths $P_{1},P_{2},\ldots,P_{t}$ in a graph $G$ such that $V(P_{i})\cap V(P_{j})=S$ for any $i,j\in\{1,2,\ldots,t\}$ and $i\neq j$. If $S=V(G)$, then…

A \emph{tree-partition} of a graph $G$ is a proper partition of its vertex set into `bags', such that identifying the vertices in each bag produces a forest. The \emph{tree-partition-width} of $G$ is the minimum number of vertices in a bag…

A straight-line drawing $\delta$ of a planar graph $G$ need not be plane, but can be made so by \emph{untangling} it, that is, by moving some of the vertices of $G$. Let shift$(G,\delta)$ denote the minimum number of vertices that need to…

We consider the (exact, minimum) $k$-cut problem: given a graph and an integer $k$, delete a minimum-weight set of edges so that the remaining graph has at least $k$ connected components. This problem is a natural generalization of the…

Let $k$ be an integer. Two vertex $k$-colorings of a graph are \emph{adjacent} if they differ on exactly one vertex. A graph is \emph{$k$-mixing} if any proper $k$-coloring can be transformed into any other through a sequence of adjacent…

We give an $n^{2+o(1)}$-time algorithm for finding $s$-$t$ min-cuts for all pairs of vertices $s$ and $t$ in a simple, undirected graph on $n$ vertices. We do so by constructing a Gomory-Hu tree (or cut equivalent tree) in the same running…

We initiate the algorithmic study of retracting a graph into a cycle in the graph, which seeks a mapping of the graph vertices to the cycle vertices, so as to minimize the maximum stretch of any edge, subject to the constraint that the…

A strict bramble of a graph $G$ is a collection of pairwise-intersecting connected subgraphs of $G.$ The order of a strict bramble ${\cal B}$ is the minimum size of a set of vertices intersecting all sets of ${\cal B}.$ The strict bramble…