Ars Combinatoria

ISSN 0381-7032 (print), 2817-5204 (online)

Ars Combinatoria is the oldest Canadian journal of combinatorics, established in 1976, dedicated to advancing combinatorial mathematics through the publication of high-quality, peer-reviewed research papers. Over the decades, it has built a strong international reputation and continues to serve as a leading platform for significant contributions to the field.
Open Access:  The journal follows the Diamond Open Access model—completely free for both authors and readers, with no article processing charges (APCs)
Publication Frequency: From 2024 onward, Ars Combinatoria publishes four issues annually—in March, June, September, and December.
Scope: Publishes research in all areas of combinatorics, including graph theory, design theory, enumeration, algebraic combinatorics, combinatorial optimization and related fields.
Indexing & Abstracting:  Indexed in MathSciNet, Zentralblatt MATH, and EBSCO, ensuring wide visibility and scholarly reach.
Rapid Publication: Submissions are processed efficiently, with accepted papers published promptly in the next available issue.
Print & Online Editions: Issues are available in both print and online formats to serve a broad readership.

Hui-Chuan Lu1
1Center of General Education, National United University, Miaoli, Taiwan
Abstract:

In this paper, we give one construction for constructing large harmonious graphs from smaller ones. Subsequently, three families of graphs are introduced and some members of them are shown to be or not to be harmonious.

S. Ramachandran1, S. Monikandan1
1Department of Mathematics, Vivekananda College, Agasteeswaram-629 701, Kanyakumari, T.N. State, INDIA.
Abstract:

A graph is called set reconstructible if it is determined uniquely (up to isomorphism) by the set of its vertex-deleted subgraphs. We prove that all graphs are set reconstructible if all \(2\)-connected graphs \(G\) with \(diam(G) = 2\) and all \(2\)-connected graphs \(G\) with \(diam(G) = diam(\overline{G}) = 3\) are set reconstructible.

Haichao Wang1, Erfang Shan1
1Department of Mathematics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Abstract:

A function \(f: V(G) \to \{-1,0,1\}\) defined on the vertices of a graph \(G\) is a minus total dominating function (MTDF) if the sum of its function values over any open neighborhood is at least one. That is, for every \(v \in V\), \(f(N(v)) \geq 1\), where \(N(v)\) consists of every vertex adjacent to \(v\). The weight of a MTDF is the sum of its function values over all vertices. A MTDF \(f\) is minimal if there does not exist a MTDF \(g: V(G) \to \{-1,0,1\}\), \(f \neq g\), for which \(g(v) \leq f(v)\) for every \(v \in V\). The upper minus total domination number, denoted by \(\Gamma^{-}_{t}(G)\), of \(G\) is the maximum weight of a minimal MTDF on \(G\). A function \(f: V(G) \to \{-1,1\}\) defined on the vertices of a graph \(G\) is a signed total dominating function (STDF) if the sum of its function values over any open neighborhood is at least one. The signed total domination number, denoted by \(\gamma^{s}_{t}(G)\), of \(G\) is the minimum weight of a STDF on \(G\). In this paper, we establish an upper bound on \(\Gamma^{-}_{t}(G)\) of the 5-regular graph and characterize the extremal graphs attaining the upper bound. Also, we exhibit an infinite family of cubic graphs in which the difference \(\Gamma^{-}_t(G) – \gamma^{s}_t(G)\) can be made arbitrarily large.

Changqing Xu1, Yanbin Jia1
1Department of Applied Mathematics, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, P.R. China
Abstract:

Let \(G\) be a graph with vertex set \(V(G)\). An edge coloring \(C\) of \(G\) is called an edge-cover coloring, if for each color, the edges assigned with it form an edge cover of \(G\). The maximum positive integer \(k\) such that \(G\) has a \(k\)-edge-cover coloring is called the edge cover chromatic index of \(G\) and is denoted by \(\chi’_c(G)\). It is well known that \(\min\{d(v) – \mu(v) : v \in V(G)\} \leq \chi’_c(G) \leq \delta(G)\), where \(\mu(v)\) is the multiplicity of \(v\) and \(\delta(G)\) is the minimum degree of \(G\). If \(\chi’_c(G) = \delta(G)\), \(G\) is called a graph of CI class, otherwise \(G\) is called a graph of CII class. In this paper, we give a new sufficient condition for a nearly bipartite graph to be of CI class.

Ludovit Niepel1, Anton Cerny1, Bader AlBdaiwi1
1Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Kuwait University P.O. Box 5969, Safat , 13060, Kuwait
Abstract:

Though the well-known Vizing’s conjecture is not true for directed graphs in general, we show that it is true when the digraph and its reversal contain an efficient dominating set. In this paper, we investigate the existence of such sets in directed tori and infinite grids. We give a complete characterization of efficient dominating sets in the \(3\)-dimensional case and show the nonexistence of efficient \(d\)-dominating sets in directed tori for any \(d > 1\) and any dimension \(n > 1\).

Lin Dong1, Changhong Lu2,3, Xiao Wang2
1Department of Mathematics, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
2Department of Mathematics, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China
3Institute of Theoretical Computing, ECNU, Shanghai, 200062, China
Abstract:

For every two vertices \(u\) and \(v\) in a graph \(G\), a \(u-v\) geodesic is a shortest path between \(u\) and \(v\). Let \(I(u,v)\) denote the set of all vertices lying on a \(u-v\) geodesic. For a vertex subset \(S\), let \(I_G(S)\) denote the union of all \(I_G(u,v)\) for \(u,v \in S\). The geodetic number \(g(G)\) of a graph \(G\) is the minimum cardinality of a set \(S\) with \(I_G(S) = V(G)\). For a digraph \(D\), there is analogous terminology for the geodetic number \(g(D)\). The geodetic spectrum of a graph \(G\), denoted by \(S(G)\), is the set of geodetic numbers over all orientations of graph \(G\). The lower geodetic number is \(g^-(G) = \min S(G)\) and the upper geodetic number is \(g^+(G) = \max S(G)\). The main purpose of this paper is to investigate lower and upper geodetic numbers of graphs. Our main results in this paper are:

  1. For every spanning tree \(T\) of a connected graph \(G\), \(g^-(G) \leq \ell(T)\), where \(\ell(T)\) is the number of leaves of \(T\).
  2. The conjecture \(g^+(G) \geq g(G)\) is true for chordal graphs, triangle-free graphs and \(4\)-colorable graphs.
Stevo Stevic1
1Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Science, Knez Mihailova 36/III, 11000 Beograd, Serbia
Abstract:

We estimate the essential norm of the weighted composition operator \(uC_{\varphi}\) from the weighted Bergman space \(A^{p}_{\alpha}(\mathbb{B})\) to the weighted space \(H^{\infty}_{\mu}(\mathbb{B})\) on the unit ball \(\mathbb{B}\), when \(p > 1\) and \(\alpha \geq -1\) (for \(\alpha = -1\), \(A^{p}_{\alpha}\) is the Hardy space \(H^{p}(\mathbb{B})\)). We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for the operator \(uC_{\varphi} : A^{p}_{\alpha}(\mathbb{B}) \to H^{\infty}_{\mu}(B)\) to be compact, and for the operator \(uC_{\varphi} : A^{p}_{\alpha}(\mathbb{B}) \to H^{\infty}_{\mu,0}(\mathbb{B})\) to be bounded or compact, when \(p > 0\), \(\alpha \geq -1\).

Mingjing Gao1,2, Erfang Shan3
1Depart. of Math., Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, Hebei, China
2‘Depart. of Math., Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
3Depart. of Math., Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Abstract:

Let \(G = (V,E)\) be a graph. A set \(S \subseteq V\) is called a restrained dominating set of \(G\) if every vertex not in \(S\) is adjacent to a vertex in \(S\) and to a vertex in \(V – S\). The restrained domination number of \(G\), denoted by \(\gamma_r(G)\), is the minimum cardinality of a restrained dominating set of \(G\). In this paper, we establish an upper bound on \(\gamma_r(G)\) for a connected graph \(G\) by the probabilistic method.

Harris Kwong1
1Dept. of Math. Sci. SUNY at Fredonia Fredonia, NY 14063, USA
Abstract:

Any vertex labeling \(f: V \to \{0,1\}\) of the graph \(G = (V,E)\) induces a partial edge labeling \(f^*: E \to \{0,1\}\) defined by \(f^*(uv) = f(u)\) if and only if \(f(u) = f(v)\). The balance index set of \(G\) is defined as \(\{|f^{*{-1}}(0) – f^{*{-1}}(1)|: |f^{-1}(0) – f^{-1}(1)| \leq 1\}\). In this paper, we first determine the balance index sets of rooted trees of height not exceeding two, thereby completely settling the problem for trees with diameter at most four. Next we show how to extend the technique to rooted trees of any height, which allows us to derive a method for determining the balance index set of any tree.

J.D. Key1, J. Moori2, B.G. Rodrigues3
1Department of Mathematical Sciences Clemson University Clemson SC 29634, U.S.A.
2School of Mathematical Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa
3School of Mathematical Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal Durban 4041, South Africa
Abstract:

We show that partial permutation decoding can be used, and give explicit \(s\)-PD-sets in the symmetric group, where \(s\) is less than the full error-correction capability of the code, for some classes of binary codes obtained from the adjacency matrices of the graphs with vertices the \(\binom{n}{3}\) \(3\)-subsets of a set of size \(n\) with adjacency defined by the vertices as \(3\)-sets being adjacent if they have a fixed number of elements in common.