Abstract. A graph [Formula: see text] is common if its Ramsey multiplicity, i.e., the minimum number of monochromatic copies of [Formula: see text] contained in any 2-edge-coloring of [Formula: see text], is asymptotically the same as the number of monochromatic copies in the random 2-edge-coloring of [Formula: see text]. Erdős conjectured that every complete graph is common, which was disproved by Thomason in the 1980s. Until today, a classification of common graphs remains a wide open and challenging problem. Grzesik et al. [ Combin. Probab. Comput., 31 (2022), 907–923] conjectured that every [Formula: see text]-apex of any connected Sidorenko graph is common. We prove for [Formula: see text] that the [Formula: see text]-apex of any tree is common.

Given an integer partition of n , we consider the impartial combinatorial game LCTR in which moves consist of removing either the left column or top row of its Young diagram. We show that for both normal and misère play, the optimal strategy can consist mostly of mirroring the opponent’s moves. We also establish that both LCTR and Downright are domestic as well as returnable, and on the other hand neither tame nor forced. For both games, those structural observations allow for computing the Sprague–Grundy value any position in O ( log ( n ) ) time, assuming that the time unit allows for reading an integer, or performing a basic arithmetic operation. This improves on the previously known bound of O ( n ) due to Ilić (2019). We also cover some other complexity measures of both games, such as state–space complexity, and number of leaves and nodes in the corresponding game tree .

Abstract We consider the fair allocation of indivisible items to several agents and add a graph theoretical perspective to this classical problem. Namely, we introduce an incompatibility relation between pairs of items described in terms of a conflict graph. Every subset of items assigned to one agent has to form an independent set in this graph. Thus, the allocation of items to the agents corresponds to a partial coloring of the conflict graph. Every agent has its own profit valuation for every item. Aiming at a fair allocation, our goal is the maximization of the lowest total profit of items allocated to any one of the agents. The resulting optimization problem contains, as special cases, both Partition and Independent Set. In our contribution we derive complexity and algorithmic results depending on the properties of the given graph. We show that the problem is strongly NP-hard for bipartite graphs and their line graphs, and solvable in pseudo-polynomial time for the classes of chordal graphs, cocomparability graphs, biconvex bipartite graphs, and graphs of bounded treewidth. Each of the pseudo-polynomial algorithms can also be turned into a fully polynomial approximation scheme (FPTAS).

Moplexes are natural graph structures that arise when lifting Dirac’s classical theorem from chordal graphs to general graphs. The notion is known to be closely related to lexicographic searches in graphs as well as to asteroidal triples, and has been applied in several algorithms related to graph classes such as interval graphs, claw-free, and diamond-free graphs. However, while every non-complete graph has at least two moplexes, little is known about structural properties of graphs with a bounded number of moplexes. The study of these graphs is, among others, motivated by the parallel between moplexes in general graphs and simplicial modules in chordal graphs: unlike in the moplex setting, properties of chordal graphs with a bounded number of simplicial modules are well understood. For instance, chordal graphs having at most two simplicial modules are interval. In this work we initiate an investigation of k-moplex graphs, which are defined as graphs containing at most k moplexes. Of particular interest is the smallest nontrivial case, k = 2, which forms a counterpart to the class of interval graphs. As our main structural result, we show that the class of connected 2-moplex graphs is sandwiched between the classes of proper interval graphs and cocomparability graphs; moreover, both inclusions are tight for hereditary classes. From a complexity theoretic viewpoint, this leads to the natural question of whether the presence of at most two moplexes guarantees a sufficient amount of structure to efficiently solve problems that are known to be intractable on cocomparability graphs, but not on proper interval graphs. We develop new reductions that answer this question negatively for two prominent problems fitting this profile, namely Graph Isomorphism and Max-Cut. Furthermore, for graphs with a higher number of moplexes, we lift the previously known result that graphs without asteroidal triples have at most two moplexes to the more general setting of larger asteroidal sets. We also discuss sufficient conditions for the existence of Hamiltonian paths in 2-moplex graphs as well as connections with avoidable vertices.

Graph searches and the corresponding search trees can exhibit important structural properties and are used in various graph algorithms. The problem of deciding whether a given spanning tree of a graph is a search tree of a particular search on this graph was introduced by Hagerup in 1985, where the author showed that this problem is efficiently solvable for depth first search (DFS) trees and breadth first search (BFS) trees. If one defines such a search tree in the same way as done for BFS, i.e., by connecting every vertex to its first neighbor, then we call this an ${\cal F}$-tree. If, on the other hand, we connect it with its most recently visited neighbor (as in DFS) we call this an ${\cal L}$-tree. In this paper, we consider related search paradigms. We prove that the search tree problem can be solved in polynomial time for ${\cal L}$-trees of lexicographic depth first search, whereas the ${\cal F}$-tree recognition problem is $\mathcal{NP}$-complete for lexicographic breadth first search, lexicographic depth first search, maximum cardinality search, and maximal neighborhood search. Furthermore, we present polynomial results for both types of trees on chordal graphs.

We study distributed plurality consensus among n nodes, each of which initially holds one of k opinions. The goal is to eventually agree on the initially dominant opinion. We consider an asynchronous communication model in which each node is equipped with a random clock. Whenever the clock of a node ticks, it may open communication channels to a constant number of other nodes, chosen uniformly at random or from a list of constantly many addresses acquired in previous steps. The tick rates and the delays for establishing communication channels (channel delays) follow some probability distribution. Once a channel is established, communication between nodes can be performed instantaneously. We consider distributions for the waiting times between ticks and channel delays that have constant mean and the so-called positive aging property. In this setting, asynchronous plurality consensus is fast: if the initial bias between the largest and second largest opinion is at least [EQUATION] log n , then after O (log log α k · log k + log log n ) time all but a 1/polylog n fraction of nodes have the initial plurality opinion. Here α denotes the initial ratio between the largest and second largest opinion. After additional O (log n ) steps all nodes have the same opinion w.h.p., and this result is tight. If additionally the distributions satisfy a certain density property, which is common in many well-known distributions, we show that consensus is reached in O (log log α k + log log n ) time for all but n /polylog n nodes, w.h.p. This implies that for a large range of initial configurations partial consensus can be reached significantly faster in this asynchronous communication model than in the synchronous setting. To obtain these results, we first assume the existence of a designated base station and later present fully distributed algorithms. Additionally, we derive tail bounds on the Pólya-Eggenberger distribution, which might be of independent interest.

For every $d\ge 3$ and $k\in\{2\}\cup[3,\infty)$, we determine the smallest $\varepsilon$ such that every fractional $(k+\varepsilon)$-precoloring of vertices at mutual distance at least d of a graph G with fractional chromatic number equal to k can be extended to a proper fractional $(k+\varepsilon)$-coloring of G. Our work complements analogous results of Albertson for ordinary colorings and those of Albertson and West for circular colorings.