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46 votes
8 answers
5k views

Can a problem be simultaneously polynomial time and undecidable?

The Robertson-Seymour theorem on graph minors leads to some interesting conundrums. The theorem states that any minor-closed class of graphs can be described by a finite number of excluded minors. As ...
Gordon Royle's user avatar
  • 12.7k
47 votes
7 answers
5k views

Is it easy to produce hard-to-color graphs?

This question arises from my recent visit to my daughter's second-grade class, where I led some discussion and activities on graph coloring (see Math for seven-year-olds). In one such activity, each ...
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
185 views

Maximum independent set in dense graphs

Let $0 < A < 1$ and $G$ be connected d-regular graph with degree $d=[A n]$. The density of $G$ is about $A$. Q1 Are there constraints on $A$ such that finding maximum independent set of $G$ is ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
25 votes
2 answers
2k views

Who first dubbed them "expander graphs"?

Expander graphs ("sparse graphs that have strong connectivity properties") burst onto the mathematical scene around the millennium, but I have not been successful in tracing the origin of (a) the ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
2k views

A generalization of the triangle counting problem for simple weighted graphs

One nice identity is that $$\operatorname{tr}(A^3)/6$$ counts the number of triangles of a graph with adjacency matrix $A$. It also implies that triangle counting in a graph can be performed in sub-...
Jernej's user avatar
  • 3,463
11 votes
3 answers
3k views

Do you know a faster algorithm to color planar graphs?

while studying the four color theorem, I implemented an algorithm (in Python and Sage) that can color planar graphs much faster than the implementations I found around on internet. The program can be ...
Mario Stefanutti's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
203 views

Upper bound on the number of perfect matchings in $K_{3,3}$-free graphs

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph with an even number of vertices $|V|=2n$. Assume that $G$ is $K_{3,3}$-free i.e. it does not contain a graph isomorphic to biclique $K_{3,3}$. A perfect matching of $G$ is a ...
Michał Oszmaniec's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
404 views

A natural problem on "cartesian union" of set families (hypergraphs). Are there NP-complete problems related to the notion of cartesian product?

I'm curious whether the problem below is NP-complete. I provide two simple definitions and one example at first. Definition 1. Let $\langle \cal S_i\rangle\substack{i\in I}$ and $\langle \cal S_j \...
Martin's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
1 answer
215 views

Construction of planar embedding

I'm reading the following paper on universality considerations in VLSI circuits http://www.computer.org/csdl/trans/tc/1981/02/06312176.pdf In Theorem 2 On the second page it states there exists ...
Pavan Sangha's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
176 views

Reduction graph isomorphism to maximum independent set in very dense graph

We got a reduction graph isomorphism to MIS in a very dense graph, or alternatively negative monotone 2-CNF to MAX-ONEs with a formula with many clauses. Let $G,H$ be graphs of order $n$ and adjacency ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k