We model a problem about networks built from wireless devices using identifying and locating–dominating codes in unit disk graphs. It is known that minimizing the size of an identifying code is -complete even for bipartite graphs. First, we improve this result by showing that the problem remains -complete for bipartite planar unit disk graphs. Then, we address the question of the existence of an identifying code for random unit disk graphs. We derive the probability that there exists an identifying code as a function of the radius of the disks, and we find that for all interesting ranges of r this probability is bounded away from one. The results obtained are in sharp contrast to those concerning random graphs in the Erdős–Rényi model. Another well-studied class of codes is that of locating–dominating codes, which are less demanding than identifying codes. A locating–dominating code always exists, but minimizing its size is still -complete in general. We extend this result to our setting by showing that this question remains -complete for arbitrary planar unit disk graphs. Finally, we study the minimum size of such a code in random unit disk graphs, and we prove that with probability tending to one, it is of size (n/r)2/3+o(1) if r ≤ /2−ϵ is chosen such that nr2 → ∞, and of size n1+o(1) if nr2 ≪ lnn.

The interlace polynomials introduced by Arratia, Bollobás and Sorkin extend to invariants of graphs with vertex weights, and these weighted interlace polynomials have several novel properties. One novel property is a version of the fundamental three-term formulathat lacks the last term. It follows that interlace polynomial computations can be represented by binary trees rather than mixed binary–ternary trees. Binary computation trees provide a description of q(G) that is analogous to the activities description of the Tutte polynomial. If G is a tree or forest then these ‘algorithmic activities’ are associated with a certain kind of independent set in G. Three other novel properties are weighted pendant-twin reductions, which involve removing certain kinds of vertices from a graph and adjusting the weights of the remaining vertices in such a way that the interlace polynomials are unchanged. These reductions allow for smaller computation trees as they eliminate some branches. If a graph can be completely analysed using pendant-twin reductions, then its interlace polynomial can be calculated in polynomial time. An intuitively pleasing property is that graphs which can be constructed through graph substitutions have vertex-weighted interlace polynomials which can be obtained through algebraic substitutions.

We investigate the end spaces of infinite dual graphs. We show that there exists a natural homeomorphism * between the end spaces of a graph and its dual, and that * preserves the ‘end degree’. In particular, * maps thick ends to thick ends. Along the way, we prove that Tutte-connectivity is invariant under taking (infinite) duals.

Stein's method of exchangeable pairs is examined through five examples in relation to Poisson and normal distribution approximation. In particular, in the case where the exchangeable pair is constructed from a reversible Markov chain, we analyse how modifying the step size of the chain in a natural way affects the error term in the approximation acquired through Stein's method. It has been noted for the normal approximation that smaller step sizes may yield better bounds, and we obtain the first rigorous results that verify this intuition. For the examples associated to the normal distribution, the bound on the error is expressed in terms of the spectrum of the underlying chain, a characteristic of the chain related to convergence rates. The Poisson approximation using exchangeable pairs is less studied than the normal, but in the examples presented here the same principles hold.

This paper studies the computational complexity of the properinterval colored graph problem (PICG), when the input graphis a colored caterpillar, parameterized by hair length. In order prove ourresult we establish a close relationship between the PICG anda graph layout problem the proper colored layout problem(PCLP). We show a dichotomy: the PICG and thePCLP are NP-complete for colored caterpillars of hair length ≥2, while both problems are in P for colored caterpillarsof hair length <2.For the hardness results we provide a reduction from the multiprocessor scheduling problem, while the polynomial time resultsfollow from a characterization in terms of forbidden subgraphs.

For k prime and A a finite set of integers with |A| ≥ 3(k − 1)2(k − 1)! we prove that |A + k · A| ≥ (k + 1)|A| − ⌈k(k + 2)/4⌉ where k · A = {ka: a ∈ A}. We also describe the sets for which equality holds.

Let c(G) be the smallest number of edges we have to test in order to determine an unknown acyclic orientation of the given graph G in the worst case. For example, if G is the complete graph on n vertices, then c(G) is the smallest number of comparisons needed to sort n numbers.

We prove that c(G) ≤ (1/4 + o(1))n2 for any graph G on n vertices, answering in the affirmative a question of Aigner, Triesch and Tuza [Discrete Mathematics144 (1995) 3–10]. Also, we show that, for every ϵ > 0, it is NP-hard to approximate the parameter c(G) within a multiplicative factor 74/73 − ϵ.

We study the problem of learning k-juntas given access to examples drawn from a number of different product distributions. Thus we wish to learn a function f: {−1, 1}n → {−1, 1} that depends on k (unknown) coordinates. While the best-known algorithms for the general problem of learning a k-junta require running times of nk poly(n, 2k), we show that, given access to k different product distributions with biases separated by γ > 0, the functions may be learned in time poly(n, 2k, γ−k). More generally, given access to t ≤ k different product distributions, the functions may be learned in time nk/tpoly(n, 2k, γ−k). Our techniques involve novel results in Fourier analysis, relating Fourier expansions with respect to different biases, and a generalization of Russo's formula.

An n-vertex graph G is c-Ramsey if it contains neither a complete nor an empty induced subgraph of size greater than c log n. Erdős, Faudree and Sós conjectured that every c-Ramsey graph with n vertices contains Ω(n5/2) induced subgraphs, any two of which differ either in the number of vertices or in the number of edges, i.e., the number of distinct pairs (|V(H)|, |E(H)|), as H ranges over all induced subgraphs of G, is Ω(n5/2). We prove an Ω(n2.3693) lower bound.

The U-polynomial, the polychromate and the symmetric function generalization of the Tutte polynomial, due to Stanley, are known to be equivalent in the sense that the coefficients of any one of them can be obtained as a function of the coefficients of any other. The definition of each of these functions suggests a natural way in which to strengthen them, which also captures Tutte's universal V-function as a specialization. We show that the equivalence remains true for the strong functions, thus answering a question raised by Dominic Welsh.

Let G = G(n) be a randomly chosen k-edge-coloured k-regular graph with 2n vertices, where k = k(n). Such a graph can be obtained from a random set of k edge-disjoint perfect matchings of K2n. Let h = h(n) be a graph with m = m(n) edges such that m2 + mk = o(n). Using a switching argument, we find an asymptotic estimate of the expected number of subgraphs of G isomorphic to h. Isomorphisms may or may not respect the edge colouring, and other generalizations are also presented. Special attention is paid to matchings and cycles.

The results in this paper are essential to a forthcoming paper of McLeod in which an asymptotic estimate for the number of k-edge-coloured k-regular graphs for k = o(n5/6) is found.

A minor-closed class of graphs is addable if each excluded minor is 2-connected. We see that such a class of labelled graphs has smooth growth; and, for the random graph Rn sampled uniformly from the n-vertex graphs in , the fragment not in the giant component asymptotically has a simple ‘Boltzmann Poisson distribution’. In particular, as n → ∞ the probability that Rn is connected tends to 1/A(ρ), where A(x) is the exponential generating function for and ρ is its radius of convergence.

It is well known that, when normalized by n, the expected length of a longest common subsequence of d sequences of length n over an alphabet of size σ converges to a constant γσ,d. We disprove a speculation by Steele regarding a possible relation between γ2,d and γ2,2. In order to do that we also obtain some new lower bounds for γσ,d, when both σ and d are small integers.

Systems of polynomial equations over the complex or real numbers can be used to model combinatorial problems. In this way, a combinatorial problem is feasible (e.g., a graph is 3-colourable, Hamiltonian, etc.) if and only if a related system of polynomial equations has a solution.

For an infeasible polynomial system, the (complex) Hilbert Nullstellensatz gives a certificate that the associated combinatorial problem is infeasible. Thus, unless P = NP, there must exist an infinite sequence of infeasible instances of each hard combinatorial problem for which the minimum degree of a Hilbert Nullstellensatz certificate of the associated polynomial system grows.

In the first part of the paper, we show that the minimum degree of a Nullstellensatz certificate for the non-existence of a stable set of size greater than the stability number of the graph is the stability number of the graph. Moreover, such a certificate contains at least one term per stable set of G. In contrast, for non-3-colourability, we proved that the minimum degree of a Nullstellensatz certificate is at least four. Our efforts so far have only yielded graphs with Nullstellensatz certificates of precisely that degree.

In the second part of this paper, for the purpose of computation, we construct new polynomial encodings for the problems of finding in a graph its longest cycle, the largest planar subgraph, the edge-chromatic number, or the largest k-colourable subgraph. We include some applications to graph theory.

We perform the asymptotic enumeration of two classes of rooted maps on orientable surfaces: m-hypermaps and m-constellations. For m = 2 they correspond respectively to maps with even face degrees and bipartite maps. We obtain explicit asymptotic formulas for the number of such maps with any finite set of allowed face degrees.

Our proofs combine a bijective approach, generating series techniques related to lattice walks, and elementary algebraic graph theory.

A special case of our results implies former conjectures of Z. Gao.

In this work we study edge weights for two specific families of increasing trees, which include binary increasing trees and plane-oriented recursive trees as special instances, where plane-oriented recursive trees serve as a combinatorial model of scale-free random trees given by the m = 1 case of the Barabási–Albert model. An edge e = (k, l), connecting the nodes labelled k and l, respectively, in an increasing tree, is associated with the weight we = |k − l|. We are interested in the distribution of the number of edges with a fixed edge weight j in a random generalized plane-oriented recursive tree or random d-ary increasing tree. We provide exact formulas for expectation and variance and prove a normal limit law for this quantity. A combinatorial approach is also presented and applied to a related parameter, the maximum edge weight.