Month: August 2012

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Open Problems from Lovasz and Plummer’s Matching Theory Book

I always have exactly one bed-time mathematical book to read (for an hour) before going to sleep. It helps me learn new concepts and hopefully stumble upon interesting open problems. Matching Theory by Laszlo Lovasz and Michael D. Plummer has been my bed-time book for the last six months. I bought this book 3 years back (during my PhD days) but never got a chance to read it. This book often disappears from Amazon’s stock. I guess they are printing it on-demand.

If you are interested in learning the algorithmic and combinatorial foundations of Matching Theory (with a historic perspective), then this book is a must read. Today’s post is about the open problems mentioned in Matching Theory book. If you know the status (or progress) of these problems, please leave a comment.

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1 . Consistent Labeling and Maximum Flow 

Conjecture (Fulkerson) : Any consistent labelling procedure results in a maximum flow in polynomial number of steps.

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2. Toughness and Hamiltonicity

The toughness of a graph G, t(G) is defined to be +\infty, if G = K_n and to be min(|S|/c(G-S)), if G \neq K_n. Here c(G-S) is the number of components of G-S.

Conjecture (Chvatal 1973) : There exists a positive real number t_0 such that for every graph G, t(G) \geq t_0 implies G is Hamiltonian.

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3. Perfect Matchings and Bipartite Graphs

Theorem : Let X be a set, X_1, \dots, X_t \subseteq X and suppose that |X_i| \leq r for i = 1, \dots, t. Let G be a bipartite graph such that

a) X \subseteq V(G),

b) G - X_i has a perfect matching , and

c) if any edge of G is deleted, property (b) fails to hold in the resulting graph.

Then, the number of vertices in G with degree \geq 3 is at most r^3 {t \choose 3}.

Conjecture : The conclusion of the above theorem holds for non-bipartite graphs as well.

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4. Number of Perfect Matchings

Conjecture (Schrijver and W.G.Valiant 1980) : Let \Phi(n,k) denote the minimum number of perfect matchings a k-regular bipartite graph on 2n points can have. Then, \lim_{n \to \infty} (\Phi(n,k))^{\frac{1}{n}} = \frac{(k-1)^{k-1}}{k^{k-2}}.

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5. Elementary Graphs

Conjecture : For k \geq 3 there exist constants c_1(k) > 1 and c_2(k) > 0 such that every k-regular elementary graph on 2n vertices, without forbidden edges , contains at least c_2(k){\cdot}c_1(k)^n perfect matchings. Furthermore c_1(k) \to \infty as k \to \infty.

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6. Number of colorations

Conjecture (Schrijver’83) : Let G be a k-regular bipartite graph on 2n vertices. Then the number of colorings of the edges of G with k given colors is at least (\frac{(k!)^2}{k^k})^n.

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7. The Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture (resolved)

Theorem : A graph is perfect if and only if it does not contain, as an induced subgraph, an odd hole or an odd antihole.

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