Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

We say a class of graphs $\mathcal{F}$ is degree-bounded if there exists a function $f$ such that $\delta(G)\le f(\tau(G))$ for every $G\in\mathcal{F}$, where $\delta(G)$ denotes the minimum degree of $G$ and $\tau(G)$ is the biclique number of $G$, that is, the largest integer $t$ such that $G$ contains $K_{t,t}$ as a subgraph. Such a function $f$ is called a degree-bounding function for $\mathcal{F}$.

In joint work with Ant\'onio Gir\~ao, Zach Hunter, Rose McCarty and Alex Scott, we proved that every hereditary degree-bounded class $\mathcal{F}$ has a degree-bounding function that is singly exponential in the biclique number $\tau$. A more recent result by Ant\'onio Gir\~ao and Zach Hunter improved this bound to a polynomial function in $\tau$. In this talk, I will discuss examples and the recent results on degree-boundedness. 

 When does a graph admit an orientation with some desired properties? This question has been studied extensively for many years and across many different properties. Specifically, I will talk about properties having to do with degree restrictions, and progress towards a conjecture of Akbari, Dalirrooyfard, Ehsani, Ozeki, and Sherkati dealing with a list-type of degree restriction. This is all joint work with my PhD advisor Jessica McDonald.

A matroid $M$ is a pair $(E, \mathcal{I})$ where $E$ is a finite set, called the {\em ground set} of $M$, and $\mathcal{I}$ is a non-empty collection of subsets of $E$, called {\em independent sets} of $M$, such that (1) a subset of an independent set is independent; and (2) if $I$ and $J$ are independent sets with $|I| < |J|$, then exists $x \in J \backslash I$ such that $I \cup \{x\}$ is independent. 

A graph $G$ gives rise to a matroid $M(G)$ where the ground set is $E(G)$ and a subset of $E(G)$ is independent if it spans a forest. Another example is a matroid that comes from a matrix over a field $F$: the ground set $E$ is the set of all columns and a subset of $E$ is independent if it is linearly independent over $F$. 

Tutte's Wheel and Whirl Theorem and Seymour's Splitter Theorem are two well-known inductive tools for proving results for 3-connected graphs and matroids. In this talk, we will give a survey on induction theorems for various versions of 4-connected matroids and graphs.   
 

For integers $k>\ell\ge0$, a graph $G$ is $(k,\ell)$-stable if  $\alpha(G-S)\geq \alpha(G)-\ell$ for every    
$S\subseteq V(G)$ with $|S|=k$. A recent result of Dong and Wu [SIAM J.
Discrete Math. 36 (2022) 229--240] shows that every $(k,\ell)$-stable 
graph $G$  satisfies $\alpha(G) \le  \lfloor ({|V(G)|-k+1})/{2}\rfloor+\ell$.  A $(k,\ell)$-stable graph $G$   is   tight if $\alpha(G) = \lfloor ({|V(G)|-k+1})/{2}\rfloor+\ell$; and  $q$-tight for some integer $q\ge0$ if $\alpha(G) = \lfloor ({|V(G)|-k+1})/{2}\rfloor+\ell-q$.
In this talk, we first prove  that for all $k\geq 24$, the only tight $(k, 0)$-stable graphs are $K_{k+1}$ and  $K_{k+2}$, answering a question of Dong and Luo [arXiv: 2401.16639]. We then prove that  for all nonnegative integers $k, \ell, q$ with $k\geq 3\ell+3$, every $q$-tight $(k,\ell)$-stable graph has at most  $k-3\ell-3+2^{3(\ell+2q+4)^2}$ vertices, answering a question of Dong and Luo in the negative.   \\  

This is joint work with Xiaonan Liu and Zhiyu Wang.