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.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 169-180
- Published: 30/06/1990
Let \(G\) be a graph. A labelling \(f: V(G) \to \{0,1\}\) is called a binary labelling of \(G\). A binary labelling \(f\) of \(G\) induces an edge labelling \(\lambda\) of \(G\) as follows:
\[\lambda(u,v) = |f(u) – f(v)|\] \quad for every edge \(uv \in E(G)\).
Let \(v_f(0)\) and \(v_f(1)\) be the number of vertices of \(G\) labelled with \(0\) and \(1\) under \(f\), and \(e_0(0)\) and \(e_1(1)\) be the number of edges labelled with \(0\) and \(1\) under \(\lambda\), respectively. Then the binary labelling \(f\) of \(G\) is said to be cordial if
\[|v_f(0) – v_f(1)| \leq 1 \quad {and} \quad |e_f(0) – e_f(1)| \leq 1.\]
A graph \(G\) is cordial if it admits a cordial labelling.
In this paper, we shall give a sufficient condition for the Cartesian product \(G \times H\) of two graphs \(G\) and \(H\) to be cordial. The Cartesian product of two cordial graphs of even sizes is then shown to be cordial. We show that the Cartesian products \(P_n \times P_n\) for all \(n \geq 2\) and \(P_n \times C_{4m}\) for all \(m\) and all odd \(n\) are cordial. The Cartesian product of two even trees of equal order such that one of them has a \(2\)-tail is shown to be cordial. We shall also prove that the composition \(C_n[K_2]\) for \(n \geq 4\) is cordial if and only if \(n \not = 2 \pmod{4}\). The cordiality of compositions involving trees, unicyclic graphs, and some other graphs are also investigated.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 161-167
- Published: 30/06/1990
A \(KS_2(v;1,\lambda)\) is called indecomposable if it is not isomorphic to the direct sum of a \(KS_2(v;1,\lambda_1)\) with a \(KS_2(v ;1,\lambda_2)\) for some \(\lambda_1\) and \(\lambda_2\) which add to \(\lambda\). In this note, we show that there exists an indecomposable \(KS_2(v;1,\lambda)\) for \(v \equiv 0 \pmod{2}\), \(v \geq 4\), and \(\lambda \geq 2\).
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 149-160
- Published: 30/06/1990
A graph \(G\) is said to be \(m\)-neighbour-connected if the neighbour-connectivity of the graph, \(K(G) = m\). A graph \(G\) is said to be critically \(m\)-neighbour-connected if it is \(m\)-neighbour-connected and the removal of the closed neighbourhood of any one vertex yields an \((m-1)\)-neighbour-connected subgraph. In this paper, we give some upper bounds of the minimum size of the critically \(m\)-neighbour-connected graphs of any fixed order \(v\), and show that the number of edges in a minimum critically \(m\)-neighbour-connected graph with order \(v\) (a multiple of \(m\)) is \(\left\lceil\frac{1}{2}mv\right\rceil\).
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 143-148
- Published: 30/06/1990
We classify the finite partially ordered sets which satisfy certain homogeneity conditions. One of the conditions considered is that the automorphism group of the partially ordered set acts multiply transitively on the set of elements of the same height.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 129-141
- Published: 30/06/1990
Let \(G = (V, E)\) be a graph or digraph, and let \(r\) and \(s\) be two positive integers. A subset \(U\) of \(V\) is called an \((r, s)\) dominating set if for any \(v \in V – U\), there exists \(u \in U\) such that \(d(u,v) \leq r\) and for any \(u \in U\) there exists \(u’ \in U\) (\(u’ \neq u\)) for which \(d(u’,u) \leq s\). For graphs, a \((1,1)\)-dominating set is the same as a total dominating set. The \((r, s)\)-domination number \(\delta_{r,s}(G)\) of a graph or digraph \(G\) is the cardinality of a smallest \((r,s)\)-dominating set of \(G\). Various bounds on \(\delta_{r,s}(G)\) are established including that, for an arbitrary connected graph of order \(n \geq 2\), if \(s \leq r+1\) then \(\delta_{r,s}(G) \leq \max\left(\frac{2n}{r+s+1},2\right)\), and if \(s \geq r+1\) then \(\delta_{r,s}(G) < \max\left(\frac{n}{r+1},2\right)\). Both bounds are sharp.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 117-128
- Published: 30/06/1990
Adjusted orthogonal row-column designs have certain desirable properties. In this paper we give a definition of adjusted orthogonal row-column designs, summarise the known designs, give some construction methods and indicate some open problems. We briefly consider the relationship between adjusted orthogonal row-column designs and orthogonal main effects block designs.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 107-116
- Published: 30/06/1990
The Pfaffian of the symbols \(a_{ij}\) with \(i<j\) has a combinatorial interpretation as the signed weight generating function of perfect matchings in the complete graph. By properly specializing the variables, this generating function reduces to the signed weight generating function for the perfect matchings in an arbitrary simple graph. We construct a weight and sign preserving bijection between two appropriately constructed spaces of permutations: permutations with even cycles and pairs of involutions without fixed points. This bijection gives a purely combinatorial proof that the determinant of a zero axial skew-symmetric matrix is equal to the square of the Pfaffian.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 97-105
- Published: 30/06/1990
We construct nilpotent \(SQS\)-skeins of class \(n\), for any positive integer \(n\). These \(SQS\)-skeins are all subdirectly irreducible algebras. The nilpotent \(SQS\)-skeins of class \(n\), which are constructed in this paper, are also solvable of order \( \leq \frac{n+1}{2} \) if \(n\) is odd, and of order \(\leq 1+\frac{1}{2}n\) if \(n\) is even.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 87-95
- Published: 30/06/1990
We employ a well-known class of designs to give a complete solution to the problem of determining the spectrum of uniform semiframes with block size two. As a corollary we prove that the complete graph \(K_{gu}\), admits a one-factorization with an orthogonal set of \(u\) disjoint sub-one-factorizations of \(K_g\) if and only if \(g\) is even and \(u\geq3\).
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 029
- Pages: 73-86
- Published: 30/06/1990
This paper concerns the existence of graphs and digraphs with prescribed mean distance and the existence of graphs with prescribed mean local connectivity.
Call for papers
- Proceedings of International Conference on Discrete Mathematics (ICDM 2025) – Submissions are closed
- Proceedings of International Conference on Graph Theory and its Applications (ICGTA 2026)
- Special Issue of Ars Combinatoria on Graph Theory and its Applications (ICGTA 2025)
- MWTA 2025 – Proceedings in Ars Combinatoria




