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.

S. Ramachandran1, S. Monikandan1
1Department of Mathematics, Vivekananda College, Agasieeswaram-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 some classes of separable graphs with a unique endvertex are set reconstructible and show that all graphs are set reconstructible if all \(2\)-connected graphs are set reconstructible.

Arie Bialostocki1, David J.Grynkiewicz2
1300 Brink Hall, University of Idaho, P.O. Box 441103, Moscow, ID 83844-1103,
2Mathematics 253-37, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125
Abstract:

We prove the following extension of the Erdős-Ginzburg-Ziv Theorem. Let \(m\) be a positive integer. For every sequence \(\{a_i\}_{i\in I}\) of elements from the cyclic group \(\mathbb{Z}_m\), where \(|I| = 4m – 5\) (where \(|I| = 4m – 3\)), there exist two subsets \(A, B \subseteq I\) such that \(|A \cap B| = 2\) (such that \(|A \cap B| = 1\)), \(|A| = |B| = m\), and \(\sum\limits_{i\in b} a_i = \sum\limits_{i\in b} b_i = 0\).

Jun-Ming Xu1, Min Lu1, Ying-Mei Fan2
1Department of Mathematics University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China
2College of Mathematics and Information Science Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530004, China
Abstract:

A connected graph is said to be super edge-connected if every minimum edge-cut isolates a vertex. The restricted edge-connectivity \(\lambda’\) of a connected graph is the minimum number of edges whose deletion results in a disconnected graph such that each component has at least two vertices. It has been shown by A. H. Esfahanian and S. L. Hakimi (On computing a conditional edge-connectivity of a graph. Information Processing Letters, 27(1988), 195-199] that \(\lambda'(G) \leq \xi(G)\) for any graph of order at least four that is not a star, where \(\xi(G) = \min\{d_G(u) + d_G(v) – 2: uv \text{ is an edge in } G\}\). A graph \(G\) is called \(\lambda’\)-optimal if \(\lambda'(G) = \xi(G)\). This paper proves that the de Bruijn undirected graph \(UB(d,n)\) is \(\lambda’\)-optimal except \(UB(2,1)\), \(UB(3,1)\), and \(UB(2,3)\), and hence, is super edge-connected for \(n\geq 1\) and \(d\geq 2\).

Alka V.Kanetkar1, S.S. Sane2
1Department of Mathematics Mithibai College Vile Parle (W), Mumbai – 400056
2Department of Mathematics University of Mumbai Vidyanagari, Santacruz (East)
Abstract:

The problem of graceful labeling of a particular class of trees called quasistars is considered. Such a quasistar is a tree \(Q\) with \(k\) distinct paths with lengths \(1, d+1, 2d+1, \ldots, (k-1)d+1\) joined at a unique vertex \(\theta\).

Thus, \(Q\) has \(1 + [1 + (d+1) + (2d+1) + \ldots + (k-1)d+1)] = 1+k +\frac{k(k-1)d}{2}\) vertices. The \(k\) paths of \(Q\) have lengths in arithmetic progression with common difference \(d\). It is shown that \(Q\) has a graceful labeling for all \(k \leq 6\) and all values of \(d\).

P. Dankelmann1, L. Volkmann2
1School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
2Lehrstuhl II fiir Mathematik RWTH-Aachen, Germany
Abstract:

The average distance \(\mu(D)\) of a strong digraph \(D\) is the average of the distances between all ordered pairs of distinct vertices of \(D\). Plesnik \([3]\) proved that if \(D\) is a strong tournament of order \(n\), then \(\mu(D) \leq \frac{n+4}{6} + \frac{1}{n}\). In this paper we show that, asymptotically, the same inequality holds for strong bipartite tournaments. We also give an improved upper bound on the average distance of a \(k\)-connected bipartite tournament.

Jun-Ming Xu1, Tao Zhou1, Ye Du2, Jun Yan2
1Department of Mathematics University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China
2Department of Computer Science and Technology University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China
Abstract:

To measure the efficiency of a routing in network, Chung et al. [The forwarding index of communication networks. IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 33 (2) (1987), 224-232] proposed the notion of forwarding index and established an upper bound \((n – 1)(n – 2)\) of this parameter for a connected graph of order \(n\). This note improves this bound as \((n – 1)(n – 2) – (2n – 2 – \Delta\lfloor1+\frac{n-1}{\Delta}\rfloor)\) \(\lfloor \frac{n-1}{\Delta}\rfloor\) , where \(\Delta\) is the maximum degree of the graph \(G\). This bound is best possible in the sense that there is a graph \(G\) attaining it.

Shu-Guang Guo1
1Department of Mathematics, Yancheng Teachers College, Yancheng 224002, Jiangsu, P. R. China
Abstract:

We study the spectral radius of unicyclic graphs with \(n\) vertices and edge independence number \(q\). In this paper, we show that of all unicyclic graphs with \(n\) vertices and edge independence number \(q\), the maximal spectral radius is obtained uniquely at \(\Delta_n(q)\), where \(\Delta_n(q)\) is a graph on \(n\) vertices obtained from the cycle \(C_3\) by attaching \(n – 2q + 1\) pendant edges and \(q – 2\) paths of length \(2\) at one vertex.

Anuradha Sharma1, Gurmeet K.Bakshi1, Madhu Raka1
1Centre for Advanced Study in Mathematics Panjab University Chandigarh – 160014 INDIA
Abstract:

Let \(q\) be an odd prime power and \(p\) be an odd prime with \(gcd(p, g) = 1\). Let the order of \(g\) modulo \(p\) be \(f\) and \(gcd(\frac{p-1}{f}, q) = 1\). Here explicit expressions for all the primitive idempotents in the ring \(R_{2p^n} = GF(q)[x]/(x^{2p^n} – 1)\), for any positive integer \(n\), are obtained in terms of cyclotomic numbers, provided \(p\) does not divide \(\frac{q^f-1}{2p}\), if \(n \geq 2\). Some lower bounds on the minimum distances of irreducible cyclic codes of length \(2p^n\) over \(GF(q)\) are also obtained.

Shailesh K.Tipnis1, Michael J.Plantholt1
1Department of Mathematics Illinois State University Normal, IL 61790-4520 USA
Abstract:

Let \(G\) be a connected multigraph with an even number of edges and suppose that the degree of each vertex of \(G\) is even. Let \((uv, G)\) denote the multiplicity of edge \((u,v)\) in \(G\). It is well known that we can obtain a halving of \(G\) into two halves \(G_1\) and \(G_2\), i.e. that \(G\) can be decomposed into multigraphs \(G_1\) and \(G_2\), where for each vertex \(v\), \(\deg(v, G_1) = \deg(v, G_2) = \frac{1}{2}\deg(v,G)\). It is also easy to see that if the edges with odd multiplicity in \(G\) induce no components with an odd number of edges, then we can obtain such a halving of \(G\) into two halves \(G_1\) and \(G_2\) that is well-spread, i.e. for each edge \((u,v)\) of \(G\), \(|\mu(uv, G_1) – \mu(uv, G_2)| \leq 1\). We show that if \(G\) is a \(\Delta\)-regular multigraph with an even number of vertices and with \(\Delta\) being even, then even if the edges with odd multiplicity in \(G\) induce components with an odd number of edges, we can still obtain a well-spread halving of \(G\) provided that we allow the addition/removal of a Hamilton cycle to/from \(G\). We give an application of this result to obtaining sports schedules such that multiple encounters between teams are well-spread throughout the season.

Jihui Wang1,2, Guizhen Liu3
1School of Mathematics and System Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100, P.R.China
2 School of Science, Jinan University, Jinan, Shandong 250022, P.R.China
3 School of Mathematics and System Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100, P.R.China
Abstract:

A fractional edge coloring of graph \(G\) is an assignment of a nonnegative weight \(w_M\) to each matching \(M\) of \(G\) such that for each edge \(e\) we have \(\sum_{M\ni e} w_M \geq 1\). The fractional edge coloring chromatic number of a graph \(G\), denoted by \(\chi’_f(G)\), is the minimum value of \(\sum_{M} w_M\) (where the minimum is over all fractional edge colorings \(w\)). It is known that for any simple graph \(G\) with maximum degree \(\Delta\), \(\Delta < \chi'_f(G) \leq \Delta+1\). And \(\chi'_f(G) = \Delta+1\) if and only if \(G\) is \(K_{2n+1}\). In this paper, we give some sufficient conditions for a graph \(G\) to have \(\chi'_f(G) = \Delta\). Furthermore, we show that the results in this paper are the best possible.