Conditional fault hamiltonian connectivity of the complete graph

A path in G is a hamiltonian path if it contains all vertices of G. A graph G is hamiltonian connected if there exists a hamiltonian path between any two distinct vertices of G. The degree of a vertex u in G is the number of vertices of G adjacent to u. We denote by δ(G) the minimum degree of vertices of G. A graph G is conditional k edge-fault tolerant hamiltonian connected if G−F is hamiltonian connected for every F⊂E(G) with |F|?k and δ(G−F)?3. The conditional edge-fault tolerant hamiltonian connectivity is defined as the maximum integer k such that G is k edge-fault tolerant conditional hamiltonian connected if G is hamiltonian connected and is undefined otherwise. Let n?4. We use Kn to denote the complete graph with n vertices. In this paper, we show that for n∉{4,5,8,10}, , , , and .     

On edge covering colorings of graphs

An edge covering coloring of a graph G is an edge-coloring of G such that each color appears at each vertex at least one time. The maximum integer k such that G has an edge covering coloring with k colors is called the edge covering chromatic index of G and denoted by . It is known that for any graph G with minimum degree δ(G), it holds that . Based on the subgraph of G induced by the vertices of minimum degree, we find a new sufficient condition for a graph G to satisfy . This result substantially extends a result of Wang et al. in 2006.     

A tighter upper bound for random MAX 2-SAT

Given a conjunctive normal form F with n variables and m=cn 2-clauses, it is interesting to study the maximum number of clauses satisfied by all the assignments of the variables (MAX 2-SAT). When c is sufficiently large, the upper bound of of random MAX 2-SAT had been derived by the first-moment argument. In this paper, we provide a tighter upper bound (3/4)cn+g(c)cn also using the first-moment argument but correcting the error items for f(n,cn), and when considering the ε³ error item. Furthermore, we extrapolate the region of the validity of the first-moment method is c>2.4094 by analyzing the higher order error items.     

Acyclic chromatic index of planar graphs with triangles

A proper edge coloring of a graph G is called acyclic if there is no 2-colored cycle in G. The acyclic chromatic index of G, denoted by , is the least number of colors in an acyclic edge coloring of G. Let G be a planar graph with maximum degree Δ(G). In this paper, we show that , if G contains no 4-cycle; , if G contains no intersecting triangles; and if G contains no adjacent triangles.     

A compact data structure for representing a dynamic multiset

We develop a data structure for maintaining a dynamic multiset that uses bits and O(1) words, in addition to the space required by the n elements stored, supports searches in worst-case time and updates in amortized time. Compared to earlier data structures, we improve the space requirements from O(n) bits to bits, but the running time of updates is amortized, not worst-case.     

The approximate swap and mismatch edit distance

There is no known algorithm that solves the general case of the approximate edit distance problem, where the edit operations are insertion, deletion, mismatch, and swap, in time o(nm), where n is the length of the text and m is the length of the pattern.In the effort to study this problem, the edit operations have been analyzed independently. Karloff [10] showed an algorithm that approximates the edit distance problem with only the mismatch operation in time . Amir et al. [4] showed that if the only edit operations allowed are swap and mismatch, then the exact edit distance problem can be solved in time .In this paper, we discuss the problem of approximate edit distance with swap and mismatch. We show a randomized time algorithm for the problem. The algorithm guarantees an approximation factor of (1+?) with probability of at least .     

Improved approximation bounds for the minimum rainbow subgraph problem

In this paper we consider the Minimum Rainbow Subgraph problem (MRS): Given a graph G with n vertices whose edges are coloured with p colours, find a subgraph F⊆G of minimum order and with p edges such that F contains each colour exactly once.We present a polynomial time -approximation algorithm for the MRS problem for an arbitrary small positive ?. This improves the previously best known approximation ratio of . We also prove the MRS problem to be NP-hard and APX-hard for graphs with maximum degree 2. Finally we present an algorithm to find an optimal solution in running time O(²(p+2plog₂Δ)nO(1)).     

On generalized middle-level problem

Let be the subgraph of the hypercube Q_n induced by levels between k and n-k, where n?2k+1 is odd. The well-known middle-level conjecture asserts that is Hamiltonian for all k?1. We study this problem in for fixed k. It is known that and are Hamiltonian for all odd n?3. In this paper we prove that also is Hamiltonian for all odd n?5, and we conjecture that is Hamiltonian for every k?0 and every odd n?2k+1.     

How strong is Nisan?s pseudo-random generator?

We study the resilience of the classical pseudo-random generator (PRG) of Nisan (1992) [6] against space-bounded machines that make multiple passes over the input. Nisan?s PRG is known to fool log-space machines that read the input once. We ask what are the limits of this PRG regarding log-space machines that make multiple passes over the input. We show that for every constant k Nisan?s PRG fools log-space machines that make passes over the input, using a seed of length , for some k^′>k. We complement this result by showing that in general Nisan?s PRG cannot fool log-space machines that make nO(1) passes even for a seed of length . The observations made in this note outline a more general approach in understanding the difficulty of derandomizing BPNC¹.     

Bottleneck flows in unit capacity networks

The bottleneck network flow problem (BNFP) is a generalization of several well-studied bottleneck problems such as the bottleneck transportation problem (BTP), bottleneck assignment problem (BAP), bottleneck path problem (BPP), and so on. The BNFP can easily be solved as a sequence of O(logn) maximum flow problems on almost unit capacity networks. We observe that this algorithm runs in O(min{m3/2,n2/3m}logn) time by showing that the maximum flow problem on an almost unit capacity graph can be solved in O(min{m3/2,n2/3m}) time. We then propose a faster algorithm to solve the unit capacity BNFP in time, an improvement by a factor of at least . For dense graphs, the improvement is by a factor of . On unit capacity simple graphs, we show that BNFP can be solved in time, an improvement by a factor of . As a consequence we have an algorithm for the BTP with unit arc capacities.     

On domination number of Cartesian product of directed cycles

Let γ(G) denote the domination number of a digraph G and let Cm□Cn denote the Cartesian product of Cm and Cn, the directed cycles of length m,n?2. In this paper, we determine the exact values: γ(C₂□Cn)=n; γ(C₃□Cn)=n if , otherwise, γ(C₃□Cn)=n+1; if , otherwise, .     

New instability results for high-dimensional nearest neighbor search

Consider a dataset of n(d) points generated independently from Rd according to a common p.d.f. fd with support(fd)=d[0,1] and sup{fd(Rd)} growing sub-exponentially in d. We prove that: (i) if n(d) grows sub-exponentially in d, then, for any query point and any ?>0, the ratio of the distance between any two dataset points and is less that 1+? with probability →1 as d→∞; (ii) if n(d)>d[4(1+?)] for large d, then for all (except a small subset) and any ?>0, the distance ratio is less than 1+? with limiting probability strictly bounded away from one. Moreover, we provide preliminary results along the lines of (i) when .     

The size and depth of layered Boolean circuits

We consider the relationship between size and depth for layered Boolean circuits and synchronous circuits. We show that every layered Boolean circuit of size s can be simulated by a layered Boolean circuit of depth . For synchronous circuits of size s, we obtain simulations of depth . The best known result so far was by Paterson and Valiant (1976) [17], and Dymond and Tompa (1985) [6], which holds for general Boolean circuits and states that , where C(f) and D(f) are the minimum size and depth, respectively, of Boolean circuits computing f. The proof of our main result uses an adaptive strategy based on the two-person pebble game introduced by Dymond and Tompa (1985) [6]. Improving any of our results by polylog factors would immediately improve the bounds for general circuits.     

An approximation algorithm dependent on edge-coloring number for minimum maximal matching problem

We consider the minimum maximal matching problem, which is NP-hard (Yannakakis and Gavril (1980) [18]). Given an unweighted simple graph G=(V,E), the problem seeks to find a maximal matching of minimum cardinality. It was unknown whether there exists a non-trivial approximation algorithm whose approximation ratio is less than 2 for any simple graph. Recently, Z. Gotthilf et al. (2008) [5] presented a -approximation algorithm, where c is an arbitrary constant.In this paper, we present a -approximation algorithm based on an LP relaxation, where χ^′(G) is the edge-coloring number of G. Our algorithm is the first non-trivial approximation algorithm whose approximation ratio is independent of |V|. Moreover, it is known that the minimum maximal matching problem is equivalent to the edge dominating set problem. Therefore, the edge dominating set problem is also -approximable. From edge-coloring theory, the approximation ratio of our algorithm is , where Δ(G) represents the maximum degree of G. In our algorithm, an LP formulation for the edge dominating set problem is used. Fujito and Nagamochi (2002) [4] showed the integrality gap of the LP formulation for bipartite graphs is at least . Moreover, χ^′(G) is Δ(G) for bipartite graphs. Thus, as far as an approximation algorithm for the minimum maximal matching problem uses the LP formulation, we believe our result is the best possible.     

Upper bound for algebraic immunity on a subclass of Maiorana McFarland class of bent functions

Studying algebraic immunity of Boolean functions is recently a very important research topic in cryptography. It is recently proved by Courtois and Meier that for any Boolean function of n-variable the maximum algebraic immunity is . We found a large subclass of Maiorana McFarland bent functions on n-variable with a proven low level of algebraic immunity . To the best of our knowledge we provide for the first time a new upper bound for algebraic immunity for a nontrivial class of Boolean functions. We also discuss that this result has some fascinating implications.     

On exact solutions to the Euclidean bottleneck Steiner tree problem

We study the Euclidean bottleneck Steiner tree problem: given a set P of n points in the Euclidean plane and a positive integer k, find a Steiner tree with at most k Steiner points such that the length of the longest edge in the tree is minimized. This problem is known to be NP-hard even to approximate within ratio and there was no known exact algorithm even for k=1 prior to this work. In this paper, we focus on finding exact solutions to the problem for a small constant k. Based on geometric properties of optimal location of Steiner points, we present an optimal -time exact algorithm for k=1 and an O(n²)-time algorithm for k=2. Also, we present an optimal -time exact algorithm for any constant k for a special case where there is no edge between Steiner points.     

Greedy algorithms for generalized k-rankings of paths

A k-ranking of a graph is a labeling of the vertices with positive integers 1,2,…,k so that every path connecting two vertices with the same label contains a vertex of larger label. An optimal ranking is one in which k is minimized. Let Pn be a path with n vertices. A greedy algorithm can be used to successively label each vertex with the smallest possible label that preserves the ranking property. We seek to show that when a greedy algorithm is used to label the vertices successively from left to right, we obtain an optimal ranking. A greedy algorithm of this type was given by Bodlaender et al. in 1998 [1] which generates an optimal k-ranking of Pn. In this paper we investigate two generalizations of rankings. We first consider bounded (k,s)-rankings in which the number of times a label can be used is bounded by a predetermined integer s. We then consider kt-rankings where any path connecting two vertices with the same label contains t vertices with larger labels. We show for both generalizations that when G is a path, the analogous greedy algorithms generate optimal k-rankings. We then proceed to quantify the minimum number of labels that can be used in these rankings. We define the bounded rank number to be the smallest number of labels that can be used in a (k,s)-ranking and show for n?2, where i=⌊log₂(s)⌋+1. We define the kt-rank number, to be the smallest number of labels that can be used in a kt-ranking. We present a recursive formula that gives the kt-rank numbers for paths, showing for all an−1<j?an where {an} is defined as follows: a₁=1 and an=⌊((t+1)/t)an−1⌋+1.     

One conjecture of bubble-sort graphs

The bubble-sort graph is an important interconnection network designed from Cayley graph model. One conjecture is proposed in Shi and Lu (2008) [10] as follows: for any integer n?2, if n is odd then bubble-sort graph Bn is a union of edge-disjoint hamiltonian cycles; if n is even then bubble-sort graph Bn is a union of edge-disjoint hamiltonian cycles and its perfect matching that has no edges in common with the hamiltonian cycles. In this paper, we prove that conjecture is true for n=5,6.     

Embedding paths and cycles in 3-ary n-cubes with faulty nodes and links

The k-ary n-cube, denoted by , is one of the most important interconnection networks for parallel computing. In this paper, we consider the problem of embedding cycles and paths into faulty 3-ary n-cubes. Let F be a set of faulty nodes and/or edges, and n?2. We show that when |F|?2n-2, there exists a cycle of any length from 3 to in . We also prove that when |F|?2n-3, there exists a path of any length from 2n-1 to between two arbitrary nodes in . Since the k-ary n-cube is regular of degree 2n, the fault-tolerant degrees 2n-2 and 2n-3 are optimal.     

Multi-degree reduction of Bézier curves using reparameterization

L₂-norms are often used in the multi-degree reduction problem of Bézier curves or surfaces. Conventional methods on curve cases are to minimize , where and are the given curve and the approximation curve, respectively. A much better solution is to minimize , where is the closest point to point , that produces a similar effect as that of the Hausdorff distance. This paper uses a piecewise linear function L(t) instead of t to approximate the function φ(t) for a constrained multi-degree reduction of Bézier curves. Numerical examples show that this new reparameterization-based method has a much better approximation effect under Hausdorff distance than those of previous methods.