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57 votes
4 answers
15k views

Connectivity of the Erdős–Rényi random graph

It is well-known that if $\omega=\omega(n)$ is any function such that $\omega \to \infty$ as $n \to \infty$, and if $p \ge (\log{n}+\omega) / n$ then the Erdős–Rényi random graph $G(n,p)$ is ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
51 votes
3 answers
4k views

What is the sandpile torsor?

Let G be a finite undirected connected graph. A divisor on G is an element of the free abelian group Div(G) on the vertices of G (or an integer-valued function on the vertices.) Summing over all ...
JSE's user avatar
  • 19.2k
25 votes
3 answers
2k views

Some models for random graphs that I am curious about

G(n,p) We are familiar with the standard notion of random graphs where you fixed the number n of vertices and choose every edge to belong to the graph with probability 1/2 (or p) independently. This ...
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.7k
23 votes
4 answers
979 views

What nodes of a graph should be vaccinated first?

Consider a graph, choose some "p: 0<p<1" (probability to infect the neighbor node). Choose some random number "K" of nodes which are "infected" initially. So we ...
Alexander Chervov's user avatar
21 votes
11 answers
4k views

What are some good examples of non-monotone graph properties?

It seems that many, if not almost all, of the properties studied in graph theory are monotone. (Property means it is invariant under permutation of vertices, and monotone means that the property is ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
1k views

In an Erdős–Rényi random graph, what is the threshold for the property "every edge is contained in at least one triangle"?

Let $G(n,p)$ denote the Erdős–Rényi random graph, where $n$ is the number of nodes and $p$ is the probability for each edge. I'm interested in precisely what range of $p$ the random graph has at least ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
1k views

Optimal monotone families for the discrete isoperimetric inequality

Background: the discrete isoperimetric inequality Start with a set $X=\{1,2,...,n\}$ of $n$ elements and the family $2^X$ of all subsets of $X$. For a real number $p$ between zero and one, we consider ...
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.7k
15 votes
2 answers
547 views

Random graphs in $\mathbb R^2$ (or random rays from $\mathbb Z^2$)

The model: Suppose that for each lattice point in $\mathbb Z^2$ we pick a random direction uniformly and independently. At time $t=0$ we start drawing rays starting from each lattice point in the ...
Gjergji Zaimi's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Has the technique of "sprinkling" been used in studying random matrices?

In 1982, while studying the component sizes of random subgraphs of a hypercube, Ajtai, Komlós, and Szemerédi introduced a technique that came to be known as sprinkling. In this technique, the edges of ...
Louigi Addario-Berry's user avatar
14 votes
0 answers
1k views

The threshold for a perfect matching in a random subgraph of a regular bipartite graph?

The following question seems very natural. It is a well known consequence of Hall's Theorem that every regular bipartite graph has a perfect matching. Another classical result states that the ...
Zur Luria's user avatar
  • 1,643
13 votes
1 answer
2k views

Counting subtrees of a random tree ("random Catalan numbers")

Given a rooted tree $T$ and an integer $k \geq 1$, let $N_k(T)$ be the number of subtrees of $T$ containing the root and having exactly $k$ nodes (take $N_k(T)=0$ if $T$ has less than $k$ nodes). ...
Louigi Addario-Berry's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
1k views

A Modern Proof of Erdos and Renyi's 1959 Random Graph Paper?

In their paper, Erdos and Renyi consider a random graph with a fixed number of edges, as opposed to the more modern approach of adding each edge independently with probability $p$. From what I ...
Sam Spiro's user avatar
  • 470
12 votes
1 answer
525 views

An inequality about unit vector orthogonal to $(1,1,...,1)$

Does there exist a constant $\alpha>0$ such that the following holds? $$\liminf_{n\to\infty}\inf_{x\in\mathbb{R}^n, \sum_{i=1}^nx_i^2=1, \sum_{i=1}^nx_i=0}\frac{\sum_{i<j, |i-j|\leq\frac{n}{4}}(...
neverevernever's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is there a simple inductive procedure for generating labeled trees uniformly at random, without direct recourse to Prüfer sequences?

Suppose you have a labeled tree $T$ on vertices $V=\lbrace 1,\ldots,n\rbrace$ that is drawn uniformly at random from the set of all $n^{n-2}$ such trees. I am seeking an $f$ satisfying the following ...
Ben Golub's user avatar
  • 1,068
11 votes
2 answers
714 views

Pursuit-Evasion type game on graph ("Flyswatter game")

An instance of the "flyswatter game" is defined by a graph $G$ and positive integer $k$. There are two players, A (the 'fly') and B (the 'swatter'). Essentially, the fly moves around $G$ and the ...
minderbinder8's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
880 views

Covering a random graph with spanning trees.

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a connected graph, say $V=\{1,\ldots,n\}$. Let $F=(V,E')$ be a uniformly random forest in $G$. (In other words, $E'$ is a subset of edges $E$ not containing a cycle, and it is ...
Louigi Addario-Berry's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
370 views

Graph with path of length $\geq n$ along grid diagonals - a known result in graph theory?

Is the following lemma a well known result in graph theory? I am studying a basic existence result that appears to be simple yet powerful. I have not seen it stated as an important result in graph ...
Claus's user avatar
  • 6,937
10 votes
2 answers
270 views

Maximal in-degree in directed voting graph

Real-life motivation. Our team has $n$ members. For the next in-team presentation session, everyone had 1 talk prepared that he or she would be able to present. Now everyone could cast $1$ vote about ...
Dominic van der Zypen's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
462 views

For what range of edge probability does the following property hold for random graphs?

Let $G(n,p)$ denote the Erdős–Rényi model of random graph. For a given function $p = p(n)$ we say that $G \in G(n,p)$ asymptotically almost surely has property $\mathcal{P}$ if $$\mbox{Pr}[G \mbox{ ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
222 views

Asymptotics of subgraph densities in graphons

In Pittel (1989)'s solution to a problem of Knuth (1976) on the expected number of stable matchings between $n$ men and $n$ women under uniform random preferences, it was shown that, as $n \to \infty$,...
Yufei Zhao's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
860 views

Random walk on a simple finite network

Consider a graph $\Delta_N = \lgroup (x,y)\in\mathbb{Z}^2| x+y\leq N-1, x\geq 0,\ y\geq 0 \rgroup$ (set of edges is defined in a natural way): see here ). Take a random walker that wonders around ...
Michał Oszmaniec's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Vertex connectivity of random graphs?

Consider simple, undirected Erdős–Rényi graphs $G(n,p)$, where $n$ is the number of vertices and $p$ is the probability for each pair of vertices to form an edge. Many properties of these graphs are ...
Justin Melvin's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
695 views

Probability of return vs. probability of return in minimal number of steps

Consider a random walk on a connected graph $G=(V,E)$. That is, associate to each neighbouring nodes $a,b\in V\ $ transition probabilities $\mathbb{P}(a\rightarrow b), \mathbb{P}(b\rightarrow a) $ ...
Michał Oszmaniec's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
174 views

Equalizing Geometric means of Graph Cycles

Consider a strongly connected directed graph $G$. I have been stuck on the following question: can you assign real numbers in $[0,1]$ to each edge of $G$ so that the geometric mean of all cycles are ...
sai's user avatar
  • 183
8 votes
0 answers
304 views

"Meritocratic" pyramid schemes

There have been a couple of times in my life when people from multi-level marketing organizations attempted to recruit me. I listened to what they had to say, and both times I did not get involved ...
Favst's user avatar
  • 2,075
8 votes
0 answers
181 views

Self-avoiding walks on strips

A strip is a locally finite graph which admits a quasi-transitive (i.e. finitley many orbits on vertices) action of $\mathbb Z$. A self avoiding walk is a walk which visits no vertex more than once. ...
Florian Lehner's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Assigning positive edge weights to a graph so that the weight incident to each vertex is 1.

Let $\Gamma=(G,E)$ be a connected undirected graph, with no loops or multiple edges. $G$ is finite or countably infinite. For each edge $e=\{x,y\}\in E$, we assign a positive, symmetric edge weight $...
mfolz's user avatar
  • 269
7 votes
3 answers
330 views

Quantifying the noninvertibility of a function

Given a function $f$ from a finite set $X$ to itself, it seems natural to consider $\kappa_f := (\sum_{x \in X} |f^{-1}(x)|^2)/|X|$ as a measure of the non-invertibility of $f$: it equals 1 if $f$ is ...
James Propp's user avatar
  • 19.7k
7 votes
1 answer
463 views

Boundedness of total current in electrical network

Consider the following symmetric matrix (adjacency matrix): $$A=(a_{ij})_{1\leq i,j\leq n}$$ such that $a_{ij}=a_{ji}, a_{ii}=0$ and $a_{ij}=0$ for $|i-j|\geq k$ where $k\geq3$. We also have $1\leq a_{...
neverevernever's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
191 views

Is there a Degenerate Dependency Local Lemma?

The Lovasz Local Lemma has several generalizations, with names usually starting with L, such as Lopsided or Lefthanded. Here I ask whether another possible generalization (for which I could not yet ...
domotorp's user avatar
  • 19k
7 votes
1 answer
222 views

Algorithm to generate random commuting permutations

I am seeking to understand the properties of a typical pair of permutations $(\sigma,\tau) \in \mathrm{Sym}(n)^2$ chosen uniformly at random from all pairs such that $\sigma$ and $\tau$ commute. In ...
burtonpeterj's user avatar
  • 1,769
7 votes
0 answers
171 views

What is known about the distribution of lengths of the cycle you get by adding an edge to a uniform spanning tree?

Let $G$ be a finite, connected graph. Let $T$ be a uniform spanning tree, and let $e$ be a uniformly random edge not in $T$. When we add $e$ to $T$, we get a subgraph with a unique cycle, $C$. I am ...
Elle Najt's user avatar
  • 1,462
6 votes
2 answers
725 views

Threshold function for a graph not being planar

A graph property $\mathcal{P}$ is monotone increasing if $G\in \mathcal{P}$ implies $G+e \in \mathcal{P}$, i.e., adding an edge to a graph does not destroy the property. It is well-known that every ...
W. Paul Liu's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to understand the combinatorial Laplacian $\Delta$ which is defined on the graph?

I have a question about the combinatorial Laplacian $\Delta$ which is defined by $$\Delta(u,v)=c(u)1_{u=v}-c(u,v)$$ where $u, v$ are some vertices in the graph $G=(V, E)$, and $c(u,v)$ is a ...
Hermi's user avatar
  • 288
6 votes
2 answers
729 views

Has the following kind of (minimum degree $d$) random graph been studied?

The following random construction is simple enough that I am guessing it must have been studied. Fix $d \ge 3$, and let $n > d$. For each of the $n$ vertices, pick exactly $d$ other vertices to ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
361 views

Random walks on infinite directed regular graphs

Let us consider a directed graph $\Gamma=(V,E,s,t)$ ($V$ set of vertices, $E$ set of edges, $s,t: E \rightarrow V$ are the "source" and "target" maps). Assume that $\Gamma$ is bi-regular, that is ...
Joël's user avatar
  • 26k
6 votes
2 answers
266 views

Lovasz local lemma for the edge model

In order to successfully apply the Lovasz local lemma, one needs the events to be relatively independent. This (sometimes) works well in the $G(n,p)$ model of random graphs, where the presence or ...
Vince Vatter's user avatar
  • 2,339
6 votes
1 answer
225 views

Restricted independent set of the cycle graph $C_{3n}$

Let $V$ be the vertices of the cycle graph $C_{3n}$. Suppose there is a partition of $V$ into sets of $3$, i.e. $V=\cup_{k=1}^{n}{V_k}$ where $|V_k|=3$ for $k$ in $1..n$. QUESTION: Is it possible ...
LeechLattice's user avatar
  • 9,501
6 votes
1 answer
356 views

Probabilistic problem on random spanning trees

Let $G(V,E)$ be a connected simple graph, where $V$ and $E$ denote respectively its vertex and the edge set respectively. Let $f: V\to \{-1,1\}$ a function mapping each vertex to a value in $\{-1,1\}$....
Penelope Benenati's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
595 views

Number of connected components in a graph from G(n,m)

Hello, $G(n,m)$ is the family of all graphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges (I consider $m < n$). Each graph in $G(n,m)$ is selected with uniform probability. What is the probability that the ...
Marina's user avatar
  • 61
6 votes
0 answers
164 views

Hamilton cycles in random graphs with just enough connectivity

What is the asymptotic probability that $G$ has a Hamilton cycle if $G$ is a random $n$ vertex $\frac{4}{3}n$ edge graph, with minimum degree 2 and without degree 2 vertices at distance 1 or 2 to each ...
Dmytro Taranovsky's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
172 views

Uniformly sampling from the set of all simplicial maps

Let $K$ and $L$ be finite simplicial complexes that remain fixed throughout. How does one efficiently sample (according to the uniform distribution) elements from the finite set of simplicial maps ...
Vidit Nanda's user avatar
  • 15.5k
5 votes
1 answer
980 views

"Nice" eigenvectors for (square of) adjacency matrix of a bipartite graph?

Let $G$ be a bipartite graph, and let $A$ be its adjacency matrix. I was wondering in this case whether $A^2$ will have nice eigenvectors that reflect combinatorial structure of the graph. I'd be ...
marco polo's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
209 views

Randomized version of Turán's theorem

Turán's theorem says the following. Take any natural $n$ and $r$. Suppose that \begin{equation*} |G|>\Big(1-\frac1r\Big)\frac{n^2}2, \tag{0} \end{equation*} where $|G|$ is the number of edges of ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
281 views

Transfer-impedance matrix for edge correlations in random spanning tree

Suppose $G$ is a (weighted) connected graph and let $T$ denote a random spanning tree of $G$, chosen uniformly (or respecting the edge weights). It is known that for any distinct edges $e, f$ $$\...
Harry Richman's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
587 views

Combinatorial descriptions of the stationary distribution of a Markov chain

When I say "Markov chain" I think of a directed positively weighted (finite) graph, such that the sum of all edges going out of a vertex equals 1. Also I assume that it is aperiodic and irreducible. ...
Erik Aas's user avatar
  • 406
4 votes
6 answers
751 views

Reconstructing an ordering of a multiset from its consecutive submultisets

We have a multiset $S$ of size $t$ with $r$ distinct elements, where $t$ is much larger than $r$. We want to reconstruct an ordering $s_1, s_2, ... s_t$ of the elements of $S$ given the values of $t$ ...
Rob Grey's user avatar
  • 599
4 votes
1 answer
669 views

Number of independent sets of a random tree

Let $T_n$ be a random tree on $n$ labelled vertices chosen equiprobably among all $n^{n - 2}$ trees, and $I(T)$ be the number of distinct independent sets of a tree $T$. I'm interested in the average ...
Mikhail Tikhomirov's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
232 views

Negative Association of Component Size in Random Hypergraph

I have a $d$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices with $k$ hyperedges, where $d << k$ and $n = 4k d^2$ or so. The hyperedges are placed independently uniformly at random. I would like to have a ...
Eric Price's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
1k views

Number of arrangements that contain at least 1 path from top to bottom of 2D matrix

I have a $n\times n$ matrix of objects. $n'$ objects are black, and the rest $n^2-n'$ are white. With that information, I can easily calculate the total number of black element arrangements that exist ...
Cardstdani's user avatar