A new min-max theorem concerning bi-supermodular functions on pairs of sets is proved. As a special case, we derive an extension of (A. Lubiw's extension of) E. Györi's theorem on intervals, W. Mader's theorem on splitting off edges in directed graphs, J. Edmonds' theorem on matroid partitions, and an earlier result of the first author on the minimum number of new directed edges whose addition makes a digraph k-edge-connected. As another consequence, we solve the corresponding node-connectivity augmentation problem in directed graphs.

Finite graph homology may seem trivial, but for infinite graphs things become interesting. We present a new approach that builds the cycle space of a graph not on its finite cycles but on its topological circles, the homeomorphic images of the unit circle in the space formed by the graph together with its ends. Our approach

In a total order of the vertices of a graph, two edges with no endpoint in common can be crossing, nested, or disjoint. A k-stack (resp...

Submodular functions and related polyhedra play an increasing role in combinatorial optimization. The present survey-type paper is intended to provide a brief account of this theory along with several applications in graph theory and combinatorial optimization.

We consider the minimum cost spanning tree problem under the restriction that all degrees must be at most a given value k. We show that we can efficiently find a spanning tree of maximum degree at most k + 2 whose cost is at most the cost of the optimum spanning tree of maximum degree at most k. This is almost best possible. The approach uses a sequence of simple algebraic, polyhedral and combinatorial arguments. It illustrates many techniques and ideas in combinatorial optimization as it involves polyhedral characterizations, uncrossing, matroid intersection, and graph orientations (or packing of spanning trees). The result generalizes to the setting where every vertex has both upper and lower bounds and gives then a spanning tree which violates the bounds by at most two units and whose cost is at most the cost of the optimum tree. It also gives a better understanding of the subtour relaxation for both the symmetric and asymmetric traveling salesman problems. The generalization to l-edge-connected subgraphs is briefly discussed.

The aim of this paper is to give several characterizations for the following two classes of graphs: (i) graphs for which adding any l edges produces a graph which is decomposible into k spanning trees and (ii) graphs for which adding some l edges produces a graph which is decomposible into k spanning trees. Introduction and Theorems The concept of decomposing a graph into the minimum number of trees or forests dates back to Nash-Williams and Tutte [6, 7, 11]. Since then, many authors have examined various tree decompositions of classes of graphs (for example [2, 8]). The aim of this paper is to give several characterizations for

Let G be a graph with chromatic number χ(G). A vertex colouring of G is acyclic if each bichromatic subgraph is a forest. A star colouring of G is an acyclic colouring in which each bichromatic subgraph is a star forest. Let χa(G) and χs(G) denote the acyclic and star chromatic numbers of G. This paper investigates acyclic and star colourings of subdivisions. Let G ′ be the graph obtained from G by subdividing each edge once. We prove that acyclic (respectively, star) colourings of G ′ correspond to vertex partitions of G in which each subgraph has small arboricity (chromatic index). It follows that χa(G ′), χs(G ′ ) and χ(G) are tied, in the sense that each is bounded by a function of the other. Moreover the binding functions that we establish are all tight. The oriented chromatic number − → χ (G) of an (undirected) graph G is the maximum, taken over all orientations D of G, of the minimum number of colours in a vertex colouring of D such that between any two colour classes, all edges have the same direction. We prove that − → χ (G ′ ) = χ(G) whenever χ(G) ≥ 9.

We study the distributed maximal independent set (henceforth, MIS) problem on sparse graphs. Currently, there are known algorithms with a sublogarithmic running time for this problem on oriented trees and graphs of bounded degrees. We devise the first sublogarithmic algorithm for computing MIS on graphs of bounded arboricity. This is a large family of graphs that includes graphs of bounded degree, planar graphs, graphs of bounded genus, graphs of bounded treewidth, graphs that exclude a fixed minor, and many other graphs. We also devise efficient algorithms for coloring graphs from these families. These results are achieved by the following technique that may be of independent interest. Our algorithm starts with computing a certain graph-theoretic structure, called Nash-Williams forests-decomposition. Then this structure is used to compute the MIS or coloring. Our results demonstrate that this methodology is very powerful. Finally, we show nearly-tight lower bounds on the running time of any distributed algorithm for computing a forestsdecomposition.

The paper considers representations of unions and products of trees as rectangle-visibility graphs (abbreviated RVGs), i.e., graphs whose vertices are rectangles in the plane, with adjacency determined by horizontal and vertical visibility. Our main results are that the union of any tree (or forest) with a depth-1 tree is an RVG, and that the union of two depth-2 trees and the union of a depth-3 tree with a matching are subgraphs of RVGs. We also show that the cartesian product of two forests is an RVG. Communicated by J. S. B. Mitchell: submitted January 1998; revised September 1998. A. Dean and J. Hutchinson, RVG Layouts, JGAA, 2(8) 1-21 (1998) 2 1 Introduction In this paper we study aspects of the question of how to represent a graph in the plane as a rectangle-visibility graph (RVG for short). In such a representation the vertices are drawn as rectangles with horizontal and vertical sides, and two vertices are adjacent if and only if their rectangles can be connected by a horiz...

Consider the open problem: does every complete geometric graph K 2n have a partition of its edge set into n plane spanning trees? We approach this problem from three directions. First, we study the case of convex geometric graphs. It is well known that the complete convex graph K 2n has a partition into n plane spanning trees. We characterise all such partitions. Second, we give a sufficient condition, which generalises the convex case, for a complete geometric graph to have a partition into plane spanning trees. Finally, we consider a relaxation of the problem in which the trees of the partition are not necessarily spanning. We prove that every complete geometric graph Kn can be partitioned into at most n n/12 plane trees.