Congressus Numerantium

ISSN: 0384-9864

Congressus Numerantium, established in 1970, is one of the oldest international journals devoted to high-quality research in combinatorics and related areas. Over the decades, it has published numerous fully refereed research papers as well as conference proceedings from prestigious international meetings, making it a cornerstone of the combinatorics community.
Open Access: The journal now follows the Diamond Open Access model—completely free for both authors and readers, with no APCs
Publication Frequency: From 2024 onward, Congressus Numerantium publishes two volumes annually—released in June and December
Scope: The journal welcomes original research papers and survey articles in pure and applied combinatorics. It also invites special issues dedicated to conferences, workshops, or selected topics of current interest, carrying forward its tradition of serving the global combinatorial mathematics community.
Indexing & Abstracting: Indexed in MathSciNet and zbMATH, ensuring strong visibility and recognition in the international mathematical sciences community.
Rapid Publication: Manuscripts are handled efficiently, with accepted papers prepared and published promptly in the upcoming issue to ensure timely dissemination of research.
Print & Online Editions: Congressus Numerantium is published in both print and online formats.

Elizabeth Newman1, Bianca Reilly1, John T. Saccoman1
1DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE Seton Hall University South Orange, NJ 07079, U.S.A.
Abstract:

A split graph is a graph whose vertices can be partitioned into a clique and an independent set. Most results in spectral graph theory do not address multigraph concerns. Exceptions are [2] and [4], but these papers present results involving a special class of underlying split graphs, threshold graphs, in which all pairs of nodes exhibit neighborhood nesting, and all multiple edges are confined to the clique.

We present formulas for the eigenvalues of some infinite families of regular split multigraphs in which all multiple edges occur between the clique nodes and cone nodes, with multiplicity of multiple edges \( \mu > 1 \) fixed, and which have integer eigenvalues for the adjacency, Laplacian, and signless Laplacian matrices.

Hayden Hunter1, NataSa Jonoska1, Masahico Saito1
1Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of South Florida
Abstract:

A rigid vertex is a vertex with a prescribed cyclic order of its incident edges. An embedding of a rigid vertex graph preserves such a cyclic order in the surface at every vertex. A cellular embedding of a graph has the complementary regions homeomorphic to open disks.

The genus range of a \( 4 \)-regular rigid vertex graph \( \Gamma \) is the set of genera of closed surfaces that \( \Gamma \) can be cellularly embedded into. Inspired by models of DNA rearrangements, we study the change in the genus range of a graph \( \Gamma \) after the insertion of subgraph structures that correspond to intertwining two edges. We show that such insertions can increase the genus at most by \( 2 \) and decrease by at most \( 1 \), regardless of the number of new vertices inserted.

M. R. Emamy-K.1, R. Arce-Nazario2, L. J. Uribe3
1 Dept. of Mathematics, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras,PR, USA
2Dept. of Computer Science, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras,PR, USA
3Dept. of Edu. Technology, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
Abstract:

The hypercube cut number \( S(d) \) is the minimum number of hyperplanes in the \( d \)-dimensional Euclidean space \( \mathbb{R}^d \) that slice all the edges of the \( d \)-cube. The problem was originally posed by P. O’Neil in 1971. B. Grünbaum, V. Klee, M. Saks, and Z. Füredi have raised the problem in various contexts.

The identity \( S(d) = d \) has been well-known for \( d \leq 4 \) since 1986. However, it was only until the year 2000 that Sohler and Ziegler obtained a computational proof for \( S(5) = 5 \). Nevertheless, finding a short proof for the problem, independent of computer computations, remains a challenging task.

We present a short proof for the result presented by Emamy-Uribe-Tomassini in Hypercube 2002 based on Tomassini’s Thesis. The proof here is substantially shorter than the original proof of 60 pages.

John C. Wierman1
1Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics Johns Hopkins University
Abstract:

Percolation models are infinite random graph models which have applications to phase transitions and critical phenomena. In the site percolation model, each vertex in an infinite graph \( G \) is retained independently with probability \( p \) and deleted otherwise. The percolation threshold is the critical probability \( p_c(G) \) such that if \( p > p_c(G) \), there is positive probability that the random subgraph induced by the retained vertices has an infinite connected component, while the probability that all of its components are finite is one if \( p < p_c(G) \).

There are few lattice graphs for which the site percolation threshold is exactly known, and rigorous bounds for unsolved lattices are very imprecise. The substitution method for computing bounds for the more common class of bond percolation models must be modified to apply to site models. Some modifications will be illustrated with an application to the \( (4,8^2) \) Archimedean lattice, which is a vertex-transitive tiling of the plane by squares and regular octagons. An improved upper bound, \( p_c^{site}(4,8^2) < 0.785661 \), is obtained.

Anton Betten1
1Department of Mathematics Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523-1874, U.S
Abstract:

In a finite projective plane \( \text{PG}(2, q) \), a set of \( k \) points is called a \( (k, n) \)-arc if the following two properties hold:
1. Every line intersects it in at most \( n \) points.
2. There exists a line which intersects it in exactly \( n \) points.

We are interested in determining, for each \( q \) and each \( n \), the largest value of \( k \) for which a \( (k, n) \)-arc exists in \( \text{PG}(2, q) \). If possible, we would like to classify those arcs up to isomorphism. We look at the problem for \( q = 11 \).

Neil P. Carnes1, Brittian L. Qualls1
1Department of Mathematical Sciences McNeese State University Lake Charles, LA 70609-2340
Abstract:

A cyclic triple, \( (a, b, c) \), is defined to be the set \( \{(a, b), (b, c), (c, a)\} \) of ordered pairs. A Mendelsohn triple system of order \( v \), or MTS\( (v) \), is a pair \( (M, \beta) \), where \( M \) is a set of \( v \) points and \( \beta \) is a collection of cyclic triples, each containing pairwise distinct points of \( M \) such that every ordered pair of distinct points of \( M \) exists in exactly one cyclic triple of \( \beta \). An antiautomorphism of a Mendelsohn triple system \( (M, \beta) \) is a permutation of \( M \) which maps \( \beta \) to \( \beta^{-1} \), where \( \beta^{-1} = \{(c, b, a) \mid (a, b, c) \in \beta\} \). Necessary conditions for the existence of an MTS\( (v) \) admitting an antiautomorphism consisting of two cycles of lengths \( M \) and \( N \), where \( 1 < M \leq N \), have been shown, and for the cases of \( N = M \) and \( N = 2M \), sufficiency has been shown. We show sufficiency for the cases in which \( M = 13 \) and \( N = 78, 390, \) and \( 702 \).

Moisés Delgado, H Janwa, Moises Delgado1, Heeralal Janwa2
1Department of Mathematics University of Puerto Rico — Cayey Campus Cayey, Puerto Rico, 00727 USA
2Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences University of Puerto Rico ~ Rio Piedras Campus San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00931 USA
Abstract:

The study of the generalized Fermat variety

\[
\phi_j = \frac{x^j + y^j + z^j + (x+y+z)^j}{(x+y)(x+z)(y+z)}
\]

defined over a finite field \( L = \mathbb{F}_q \), where \( q = 2^n \) for some positive integer \( n \), plays an important role in the study of (APN) functions and exceptional APN functions. This study arose after a characterization by Rodier that relates these functions with the number of rational points of \( \phi_j = (x,y,z) \). The most studied cases are when \( j = 2^k + 1 \) and \( j = 2^{2k} – 2^{k} + 1 \), the Gold and Kasami-Welch numbers. In this article, we make a claim about the decomposition of \( \phi_j \) into absolutely irreducible components. If these components intersect transversally at a particular point, then the corresponding Kasami-Welch polynomial is absolutely irreducible. This implies that the function is not exceptional APN, thus helping us make progress on the stated conjecture.

Ralph P. Grimaldi1
1Mathematics Department Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, Indiana 47803 US.A.
Abstract:

For \( n \geq 1 \), let \( a_n \) count the number of strings \( s_1 s_2 s_3 \ldots s_n \), where
(i) \( s_1 = 0 \);
(ii) \( s_i \in \{0, 1, 2\} \) for \( 2 \leq i \leq n \);
(iii) \( |s_i – s_{i-1}| \leq 1 \) for \( 2 \leq i \leq n \).

Then \( a_1 = 1 \), \( a_2 = 2 \), \( a_3 = 5 \), \( a_4 = 12 \), and \( a_5 = 29 \).

In general, for \( n \geq 3 \), \( a_n = 2a_{n-1} + a_{n-2} \), and \( a_n \) equals \( P_n \), the \( n \)th \emph{Pell} number.

For these \( P_n \) strings of length \( n \), we count
(i) The number of occurrences of each symbol \( 0, 1, 2 \);
(ii) The number of times each symbol \( 0, 1, 2 \) occurs in an even or odd position;
(iii) The number of levels, rises, and descents within the strings;
(iv) The number of runs that occur within the strings;
(v) The sum of all strings considered as base \( 3 \) integers;
(vi) The number of inversions and coinversions within the strings; and
(vii) The sum of the major indices for the strings.

Abstract:

A family of graphs, called Generalized Johnson graphs, provides an abstraction of both Kneser and Johnson graphs.
Given the symmetric nature of Generalized Johnson graphs, we provide various decompositions of these graphs and demonstrate non-trivial instances of the impossibility of decomposing such graphs into triples.

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