We present a near-linear-time algorithm that, given a bridgeless cubic graph, finds a perfect matching intersecting every 3-edge-cut in exactly one edge. This improves over a cubic algorithm of Boyd et al. for the same problem, and over our previous algorithm, which worked only for 3-edge-connected graphs. The main ingredient is a cactus representation of the 2-edge-cuts, together with an efficient update procedure under 2-cut reductions.

A random 2-cell embedding of a connected graph G in some orientable surface is obtained by choosing a random local rotation around each vertex. Under this setup, the number of faces or the genus of the corresponding 2-cell embedding becomes a random variable. Random embeddings of two particular graph classes - those of a bouquet of n loops and those of n parallel edges connecting two vertices - have been extensively studied and are well-understood. However, little is known about more general graphs despite their important connections with central problems in mainstream mathematics and in theoretical physics (see [Lando & Zvonkin, Graphs on surfaces and their applications, Springer 2004]). There are also tight connections with problems in computing (random generation, approximation algorithms). The results of this paper, in particular, explain why Monte Carlo methods (see, e.g., [Gross & Tucker, Local maxima in graded graphs of imbeddings, Ann. NY Acad. Sci 1979] and [Gross & Rieper, Local extrema in genus stratified graphs, JGT 1991]) cannot work for approximating the minimum genus of graphs.

We introduce a nonlocal game that captures and extends the notion of graph isomorphism. This game can be won in the classical case if and only if the two input graphs are isomorphic. Thus, by considering quantum strategies we are able to define the notion of quantum isomorphism. We also consider the case of more general non-signalling strategies, and show that such a strategy exists if and only if the graphs are fractionally isomorphic. We prove several necessary conditions for quantum isomorphism, including cospectrality, and provide a construction for producing pairs of non-isomorphic graphs that are quantum isomorphic. We then show that both classical and quantum isomorphism can be reformulated as feasibility programs over the completely positive and completely positive semidefinite cones respectively. This leads us to considering relaxations of (quantum) isomorphism arrived at by relaxing the cone to either the doubly nonnegative (DNN) or positive semidefinite (PSD) cones. We show that DNN-isomorphism is equivalent to the previous defined notion of graph equivalence, a polynomial-time decidable relation that is related to coherent algebras. We also show that PSD-isomorphism implies several types of cospectrality, and that it is equivalent to cospectrality for connected 1-walk-regular graphs. Finally, we show that all of the above mentioned relations form a strict hierarchy of weaker and weaker relations, with non-singalling/fractional isomorphism being the weakest. The techniques used are an interesting mix of algebra, combinatorics, and quantum information.

An embedding $$i \mapsto p_i\in \mathbb {R}^d$$ of the vertices of a graph G is called universally completable if the following holds: For any other embedding $$i\mapsto q_i~\in \mathbb {R}^{k}$$ satisfying $$q_i^{T}q_j = p_i^{T}p_j$$ for $$i = j$$ and i adjacent to j, there exists an isometry mapping $$q_i$$ to $$p_i$$ for all $$ i\in V(G)$$ . The notion of universal completability was introduced recently due to its relevance to the positive semidefinite matrix completion problem. In this work we focus on graph embeddings constructed using the eigenvectors of the least eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of G, which we call least eigenvalue frameworks. We identify two necessary and sufficient conditions for such frameworks to be universally completable. Our conditions also allow us to give algorithms for determining whether a least eigenvalue framework is universally completable. Furthermore, our computations for Cayley graphs on $$\mathbb {Z}_2^n \ (n \le 5)$$ show that almost all of these graphs have universally completable least eigenvalue frameworks. In the second part of this work we study uniquely vector colorable (UVC) graphs, i.e., graphs for which the semidefinite program corresponding to the Lovász theta number (of the complementary graph) admits a unique optimal solution. We identify a sufficient condition for showing that a graph is UVC based on the universal completability of an associated framework. This allows us to prove that Kneser and q-Kneser graphs are UVC. Lastly, we show that least eigenvalue frameworks of 1-walk-regular graphs always provide optimal vector colorings and furthermore, we are able to characterize all optimal vector colorings of such graphs. In particular, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a 1-walk-regular graph to be uniquely vector colorable.

The shortest cycle cover conjecture of Alon and Tarsi asserts that the edges of every bridgeless graph with m edges can be covered by cycles of total length at most $7m/5=1.400m$. We show that every cubic bridgeless graph has a cycle cover of total length at most $34m/21\approx1.619m$, and every bridgeless graph with minimum degree three has a cycle cover of total length at most $44m/27\approx1.630m$.