The main result of this paper has the following consequence. Let G be an abelian group of order n. Let {xi: 1 ≤ 2n − 1} be a family of elements of G and let {wi: 1 ≤ i ≤ n − 1} be a family of integers prime relative to n. Then there is a permutation & of [1,2n − 1] such that

Applying this result with wi = 1 for all i, one obtains the Erdős–Ginzburg–Ziv Theorem.

Thinking of a deterministic function s: ℤ → ℕ as ‘scenery’ on the integers, a simple random walk on ℤ generates a random record of scenery ‘observed’ along the walk. We address this question: If t:ℤ → ℕ is another scenery on the integers and we are handed a random scenery record obtained from either s or t, under what circumstances can the source be distinguished? We allow ourselves to use information about s and t together with information contained in the scenery record. It has been conjectured that it is sufficient for t to be neither a translate of s nor a translate of the reflection of s. We show that this condition is sufficient to ensure distinguishability if s−1(δ) is finite and non-empty for some δ ∈ℕ.

Let G be a graph and P(G, t) be the chromatic polynomial of G. It is known that P(G, t) has no zeros in the intervals (−∞, 0) and (0, 1). We shall show that P(G, t) has no zeros in (1, 32/27]. In addition, we shall construct graphs whose chromatic polynomials have zeros arbitrarily close to 32/27.

In this paper, we present a techique for examining all trees of a given order. Our approach is based on the Beyer and Hedetniemi algorithm for generating all rooted trees of a given order and on the Wright, Richmond, Odlyzko and McKay algorithm for generating all free trees of a given order. In the introduction we describe these algorithms. We also give a precise evaluation of the average number of moves it takes to generate a rooted tree, which improves the upper bound given by Beyer and Hedetniemi. In the second section we present a new method of examining all trees which uses these generating algorithms. The last section contains two applications of the method introduced. The main result of the paper is that the average number of steps required by the proposed algorithm to examine a rooted tree is bounded by a constant independent of the order of a tree.

Recently, Galvin [7] proved that every k-edge-colourable bipartite multigraph is k-edge-choosable. In particular, for a bipartite multigraph G, . Here we give a brief self-contained proof of this result.

A transformation that increases the blocking probability of the channel graphs arising in interconnection networks is developed. This provides the basis for eminently computing a bound on the blocking probability by applying the transformation to reduce an arbitrary four-stage channel graph to a threshold channel graph. The four-stage channel graph that is most likely to block, given links that are equally likely to block, is characterized. Partial results are proved concerning the threshold channel graphs that are least likely to block.

We consider the problem of broadcasting in an n–node hypercube whose links and nodes fail independently with given probabilities p < 1 and q < 1, respectively. Information held in a fault-free node, called the source, has to reach all other fault-free nodes. Messages may be directly transmitted to adjacent nodes only, and every node may communicate with at most one neighbour in a unit of time. A message can be transmitted only if both communicating neighbours and the link joining them are fault-free. For parameters p and q satisfying (1 – p)(1 – q) ≽ 0.99 (e.g. p = q = 0.5%), we give an algorithm working in time O(log n) and broadcasting source information to all fault-free nodes with probability exceeding 1 – cn-e for some positive constant ε, c depending on p and q but not depending on n.

Every general graph with degrees 2k and 2k − 2, k ≥ 3, with zero or at least two vertices of degree 2k − 2 in each component, has a k-edge-colouring such that each monochromatic subgraph has degree 1 or 2 at every vertex.

In particular, if T is a triangle in a 6-regular general graph, there exists a 2-factorization of G such that each factor uses an edge in T if and only if T is non-separating.

We prove the existence of an asymptotic expansion in the inverse dimension, to all orders, for the connective constant for self-avoiding walks on ℤd. For the critical point, defined as the reciprocal of the connective constant, the coefficients of the expansion are computed through order d−6, with a rigorous error bound of order d−7 Our method for computing terms in the expansion also applies to percolation, and for nearest-neighbour independent Bernoulli bond percolation on ℤd gives the 1/d-expansion for the critical point through order d−3, with a rigorous error bound of order d−4 The method uses the lace expansion.

A forest ℱ(n, M) chosen uniformly from the family of all labelled unrooted forests with n vertices and M edges is studied. We show that, like the Érdős-Rényi random graph G(n, M), the random forest exhibits three modes of asymptotic behaviour: subcritical, nearcritical and supercritical, with the phase transition at the point M = n/2. For each of the phases, we determine the limit distribution of the size of the k-th largest component of ℱ(n, M). The similarity to the random graph is far from being complete. For instance, in the supercritical phase, the giant tree in ℱ(n, M) grows roughly two times slower than the largest component of G(n, M) and the second largest tree in ℱ(n, M) is of the order n⅔ for every M = n/2 +s, provided that s3n−2 → ∞ and s = o(n), while its counterpart in G(n, M) is of the order n2s−2 log(s3n−2) ≪ n⅔.

Associate to a finite labeled graph G(V, E) its multiset of neighborhoods (G) = {N(υ): υ ∈ V}. We discuss the question of when a list is realizable by a graph, and to what extent G is determined by (G). The main results are: the decision problem is NP-complete; for bipartite graphs the decision problem is polynomially equivalent to Graph Isomorphism; forests G are determined up to isomorphism by (G); and if G is connected bipartite and (H) = (G), then H is completely described.

We introduce five probability models for random topological graph theory. For two of these models (I and II), the sample space consists of all labeled orientable 2-cell imbeddings of a fixed connected graph, and the interest centers upon the genus random variable. Exact results are presented for the expected value of this random variable for small-order complete graphs, for closed-end ladders, and for cobblestone paths. The expected genus of the complete graph is asymptotic to the maximum genus. For Model III, the sample space consists of all labeled 2-cell imbeddings (possibly nonorientable) of a fixed connected graph, and for Model IV the sample space consists of all such imbeddings with a rotation scheme also fixed. The event of interest is that the ambient surface is orientable. In both these models the complete graph is almost never orientably imbedded. The probability distribution in Models I and III is uniform; in Models II and IV it depends on a parameter p and is uniform precisely when p = 1/2. Model V combines the features of Models II and IV.

We consider unlabelled flowgraphs for a model of binary logic without the constraints of structured programming. The number of such flowgraphs is asymptotic to (3.4n)n/2, where n is the number of nodes in the flowgraph. This is to be compared with bounds of between (8.8)n/2 and of (9.8)n/2 for unlabelled structured flowgraphs of the Böhm and Jacopini type. Of the space of flowgraphs we study, 41% are prime, that is contain no proper sub-flowgraphs. The main obstructions to primality being the Dijkstra-structures, which are based on If_Then_Else and Do_While constructs.

All digraphs are determined that have the property that when any vertex and any edge that are not adjacent are deleted, the connectivity number decreases by two.

We consider networks in which both the nodes and the links may fail. We represent the network by an undirected graph G. Vertices of the graph fail with probability p and edges of the graph fail with probability q, where all failures are assumed independent. We shall be concerned with minimising the probability P(G) that G is disconnected for graphs with given numbers of vertices and edges. We show how to construct these optimal graphs in many cases when p and q are ‘small’.

Every word in the lexicon of a natural language is used distinctly from all the other words. A word expert is a small expert system-like module for processing a particular word based on other words in its vicinity. A word expert exploits the idiosyncratic nature of a word by using a set of context testing decision rules that test the identity and placement of context words to infer the word's role in the passage.

The main application of word experts is disambiguating words. Work on word experts has never fully recognized previous related work, and a comprehensive review of that work would therefore contribute to the field. This paper both provides such a review, and describes guidelines and considerations useful in the design and construction of word expert based systems.

In this paper we consider the problem of estimating the spectral gap of a reversible Markov chain in terms of geometric quantities associated with the underlying graph. This quantity provides a bound on the rate of convergence of a Markov chain towards its stationary distribution. We give a critical and systematic treatment of this subject, summarizing and comparing the results of the two main approaches in the literature, algebraic and functional. The usefulness and drawbacks of these bounds are also discussed here.

A graph G is Ramsey size linear if there is a constant C such that for any graph H with n edges and no isolated vertices, the Ramsey number r(G, H) ≤ Cn. It will be shown that any graph G with p vertices and q ≥ 2p − 2 edges is not Ramsey size linear, and this bound is sharp. Also, if G is connected and q ≤ p + 1, then G is Ramsey size linear, and this bound is sharp also. Special classes of graphs will be shown to be Ramsey size linear, and bounds on the Ramsey numbers will be determined.