We prove the existence of a function $f :\mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}$ such that the vertices of every planar graph with maximum degree Δ can be 3-coloured in such a way that each monochromatic component has at most f(Δ) vertices. This is best possible (the number of colours cannot be reduced and the dependence on the maximum degree cannot be avoided) and answers a question raised by Kleinberg, Motwani, Raghavan and Venkatasubramanian in 1997. Our result extends to graphs of bounded genus.

We define the notion of smooth supercritical compositional structures. Two well-known examples are compositions and graphs of given genus. The ‘parts’ of a graph are the subgraphs that are maximal trees. We show that large part sizes have asymptotically geometric distributions. This leads to asymptotically independent Poisson variables for numbers of various large parts. In many cases this leads to asymptotic formulas for the probability of being gap-free and for the expected values of the largest part sizes, number of distinct parts and number of parts of multiplicity k.

The preferential attachment network with fitness is a dynamic random graph model. New vertices are introduced consecutively and a new vertex is attached to an old vertex with probability proportional to the degree of the old one multiplied by a random fitness. We concentrate on the typical behaviour of the graph by calculating the fitness distribution of a vertex chosen proportional to its degree. For a particular variant of the model, this analysis was first carried out by Borgs, Chayes, Daskalakis and Roch. However, we present a new method, which is robust in the sense that it does not depend on the exact specification of the attachment law. In particular, we show that a peculiar phenomenon, referred to as Bose–Einstein condensation, can be observed in a wide variety of models. Finally, we also compute the joint degree and fitness distribution of a uniformly chosen vertex.

A rational polyhedron$P\subseteq {\mathbb{R^n}}$ is a finite union of simplexes in ${\mathbb{R^n}}$ with rational vertices. P is said to be $\mathbb Z$-homeomorphic to the rational polyhedron $Q\subseteq {\mathbb{R^{\it m}}}$ if there is a piecewise linear homeomorphism η of P onto Q such that each linear piece of η and η−1 has integer coefficients. When n=m, $\mathbb Z$-homeomorphism amounts to continuous $\mathcal{G}_n$-equidissectability, where $\mathcal{G}_n=GL(n,\mathbb Z) \ltimes \mathbb Z^{n}$ is the affine group over the integers, i.e., the group of all affinities on $\mathbb{R^{n}}$ that leave the lattice $\mathbb Z^{n}$ invariant. $\mathcal{G}_n$ yields a geometry on the set of rational polyhedra. For each d=0,1,2,. . ., we define a rational measure λd on the set of rational polyhedra, and show that any two $\mathbb Z$-homeomorphic rational polyhedra $$P\subseteq {\mathbb{R^n}}$$ and $Q\subseteq {\mathbb{R^{\it m}}}$ satisfy $\lambda_d(P)=\lambda_d(Q)$. $\lambda_n(P)$ coincides with the n-dimensional Lebesgue measure of P. If 0 ≤ dim P=d < n then λd(P)>0. For rational d-simplexes T lying in the same d-dimensional affine subspace of ${\mathbb{R^{\it n}}, $\lambda_d(T)$$ is proportional to the d-dimensional Hausdorff measure of T. We characterize λd among all unimodular invariant valuations.

Let H be a graph, and let CH(G) be the number of (subgraph isomorphic) copies of H contained in a graph G. We investigate the fundamental problem of estimating CH(G). Previous results cover only a few specific instances of this general problem, for example the case when H has degree at most one (the monomer-dimer problem). In this paper we present the first general subcase of the subgraph isomorphism counting problem, which is almost always efficiently approximable. The results rely on a new graph decomposition technique. Informally, the decomposition is a labelling of the vertices such that every edge is between vertices with different labels, and for every vertex all neighbours with a higher label have identical labels. The labelling implicitly generates a sequence of bipartite graphs, which permits us to break the problem of counting embeddings of large subgraphs into that of counting embeddings of small subgraphs. Using this method, we present a simple randomized algorithm for the counting problem. For all decomposable graphs H and all graphs G, the algorithm is an unbiased estimator. Furthermore, for all graphs H having a decomposition where each of the bipartite graphs generated is small and almost all graphs G, the algorithm is a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme.

We show that the graph classes of H for which we obtain a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme for almost all G includes graphs of degree at most two, bounded-degree forests, bounded-width grid graphs, subdivision of bounded-degree graphs, and major subclasses of outerplanar graphs, series-parallel graphs and planar graphs of large girth, whereas unbounded-width grid graphs are excluded. Moreover, our general technique can easily be applied to proving many more similar results.

We show that the expected time for a random walk on a (multi-)graph G to traverse all m edges of G, and return to its starting point, is at most 2m2; if each edge must be traversed in both directions, the bound is 3m2. Both bounds are tight and may be applied to graphs with arbitrary edge lengths. This has interesting implications for Brownian motion on certain metric spaces, including some fractals.

We prove that the number of 1324-avoiding permutations of length n is less than $(7+4\sqrt{3})^n$. The novelty of our method is that we injectively encode such permutations by a pair of words of length n over a finite alphabet that avoid a given factor.

Let $(G_m)_{0\le m\le \binom{n}{2}}$ be the random graph process starting from the empty graph on vertex set [n] and with a random edge added in each step. Let mk denote the minimum integer such that Gmk contains a k-regular subgraph. We prove that for all sufficiently large k, there exist two constants εk ≥ σk > 0, with εk → 0 as k → ∞, such that asymptotically almost surely any k-regular subgraph of Gmk has size between (1 − εk)|${\mathcal C}_k$| and (1 − σk)|${\mathcal C}_k$|, where ${\mathcal C}_k$ denotes the k-core of Gmk.

An intersection graph of curves in the plane is called a string graph. Matoušek almost completely settled a conjecture of the authors by showing that every string graph with m edges admits a vertex separator of size $O(\sqrt{m}\log m)$. In the present note, this bound is combined with a result of the authors, according to which every dense string graph contains a large complete balanced bipartite graph. Three applications are given concerning string graphs G with n vertices: (i) if Kt ⊈ G for some t, then the chromatic number of G is at most (log n)O(log t); (ii) if Kt,t ⊈ G, then G has at most t(log t)O(1)n edges,; and (iii) a lopsided Ramsey-type result, which shows that the Erdős–Hajnal conjecture almost holds for string graphs.

We study a discrete time self-interacting random process on graphs, which we call greedy random walk. The walker is located initially at some vertex. As time evolves, each vertex maintains the set of adjacent edges touching it that have not yet been crossed by the walker. At each step, the walker, being at some vertex, picks an adjacent edge among the edges that have not traversed thus far according to some (deterministic or randomized) rule. If all the adjacent edges have already been traversed, then an adjacent edge is chosen uniformly at random. After picking an edge the walker jumps along it to the neighbouring vertex. We show that the expected edge cover time of the greedy random walk is linear in the number of edges for certain natural families of graphs. Examples of such graphs include the complete graph, even degree expanders of logarithmic girth, and the hypercube graph. We also show that GRW is transient in $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for all d ≥ 3.

We study the (1:b) Maker–Breaker component game, played on the edge set of a d-regular graph. Maker's aim in this game is to build a large connected component, while Breaker's aim is to prevent him from doing so. For all values of Breaker's bias b, we determine whether Breaker wins (on any d-regular graph) or Maker wins (on almost every d-regular graph) and provide explicit winning strategies for both players.

To this end, we prove an extension of a theorem of Gallai, Hasse, Roy and Vitaver about graph orientations without long directed simple paths.

We study the conflict-free chromatic number χCF of graphs from extremal and probabilistic points of view. We resolve a question of Pach and Tardos about the maximum conflict-free chromatic number an n-vertex graph can have. Our construction is randomized. In relation to this we study the evolution of the conflict-free chromatic number of the Erdős–Rényi random graph G(n,p) and give the asymptotics for p = ω(1/n). We also show that for p ≥ 1/2 the conflict-free chromatic number differs from the domination number by at most 3.

We extend the conductance and canonical paths methods to the setting of general finite Markov chains, including non-reversible non-lazy walks. The new path method is used to show that a known bound for the mixing time of a lazy walk on a Cayley graph with a symmetric generating set also applies to the non-lazy non-symmetric case, often even when there is no holding probability.

In a 1976 paper published in Science, Knuth presented an algorithm to sample (non-uniform) self-avoiding walks crossing a square of side k. From this sample, he constructed an estimator for the number of such walks. The quality of this estimator is directly related to the (relative) variance of a certain random variable Xk. From his experiments, Knuth suspected that this variance was extremely large (so that the estimator would not be very efficient). But how large? For the analogous Rosenbluth algorithm, which samples unconfined self-avoiding walks of length n, the variance of the corresponding estimator is believed to be exponential in n.

A few years ago, Bassetti and Diaconis showed that, for a sampler à la Knuth that generates walks crossing a k × k square and consisting of North and East steps, the relative variance is only $O(\sqrt k)$. In this note we take one step further and show that, for walks consisting of North, South and East steps, the relative variance jumps to $2^{k(k+1)}/(k+1)^{2k}$. This is exponential in the average length of the walks, which is of order k2. We also obtain partial results for general self-avoiding walks crossing a square, suggesting that the relative variance could be exponential in k2 (which is again the average length of these walks).

Knuth's algorithm is a basic example of a widely used technique called sequential importance sampling. The present paper, following the paper by Bassetti and Diaconis, is one of very few examples where the variance of the estimator can be found.

We consider statistical properties of random integer partitions. In order to compute means, variances and higher moments of various partition statistics, one often has to study generating functions of the form P(x)F(x), where P(x) is the generating function for the number of partitions. In this paper, we show how asymptotic expansions can be obtained in a quasi-automatic way from expansions of F(x) around x = 1, which parallels the classical singularity analysis of Flajolet and Odlyzko in many ways. Numerous examples from the literature, as well as some new statistics, are treated via this methodology. In addition, we show how to compute further terms in the asymptotic expansions of previously studied partition statistics.

The d-dimensional Hamming torus is the graph whose vertices are all of the integer points inside an a1n × a2n × ⋅⋅⋅ × adn box in $\mathbb{R}^d$ (for constants a1, . . ., ad > 0), and whose edges connect all vertices within Hamming distance one. We study the size of the largest connected component of the subgraph generated by independently removing each vertex of the Hamming torus with probability 1 − p. We show that if p = λ/n, then there exists λc > 0, which is the positive root of a degree d polynomial whose coefficients depend on a1, . . ., ad, such that for λ < λc the largest component has O(log n) vertices (w.h.p. as n → ∞), and for λ > λc the largest component has $(1-q) \lambda \bigl(\prod_i a_i \bigr) n^{d-1} + o (n^{d-1})$ vertices and the second largest component has O(log n) vertices w.h.p. An implicit formula for q < 1 is also given. The value of λc that we find is distinct from the critical value for the emergence of a giant component in bond percolation on the Hamming torus.

We present a two-parameter family $(G_{m,k})_{m, k \in \mathbb{N}_{\geq 2}}$, of finite, non-abelian random groups and propose that, for each fixed k, as m → ∞ the commuting graph of Gm,k is almost surely connected and of diameter k. We present heuristic arguments in favour of this conjecture, following the lines of classical arguments for the Erdős–Rényi random graph. As well as being of independent interest, our groups would, if our conjecture is true, provide a large family of counterexamples to the conjecture of Iranmanesh and Jafarzadeh that the commuting graph of a finite group, if connected, must have a bounded diameter. Simulations of our model yielded explicit examples of groups whose commuting graphs have all diameters from 2 up to 10.

Let ${\cal A}$ be a minor-closed class of labelled graphs, and let ${\cal G}_{n}$ be a random graph sampled uniformly from the set of n-vertex graphs of ${\cal A}$. When n is large, what is the probability that ${\cal G}_{n}$ is connected? How many components does it have? How large is its biggest component? Thanks to the work of McDiarmid and his collaborators, these questions are now solved when all excluded minors are 2-connected.

Using exact enumeration, we study a collection of classes ${\cal A}$ excluding non-2-connected minors, and show that their asymptotic behaviour may be rather different from the 2-connected case. This behaviour largely depends on the nature of the dominant singularity of the generating function C(z) that counts connected graphs of ${\cal A}$. We classify our examples accordingly, thus taking a first step towards a classification of minor-closed classes of graphs. Furthermore, we investigate a parameter that has not received any attention in this context yet: the size of the root component. It follows non-Gaussian limit laws (Beta and Gamma), and clearly merits a systematic investigation.

We consider two graph colouring problems in which edges at distance at most t are given distinct colours, for some fixed positive integer t. We obtain two upper bounds for the distance-t chromatic index, the least number of colours necessary for such a colouring. One is a bound of (2-ε)Δt for graphs of maximum degree at most Δ, where ε is some absolute positive constant independent of t. The other is a bound of O(Δt/log Δ) (as Δ → ∞) for graphs of maximum degree at most Δ and girth at least 2t+1. The first bound is an analogue of Molloy and Reed's bound on the strong chromatic index. The second bound is tight up to a constant multiplicative factor, as certified by a class of graphs of girth at least g, for every fixed g ≥ 3, of arbitrarily large maximum degree Δ, with distance-t chromatic index at least Ω(Δt/log Δ).