Growth: A Journal of Mathematics and Mathematics Education
ISSN: xxxx-xxxx
Growth: A Journal of Mathematics and Mathematics Education aims to provide a publication platform for high quality undergraduate research in mathematics and in mathematical pedagogy. The technical scope of the journal is combinatorial mathematics, broadly interpreted—the editorial board will consider all submissions in their areas of interest. All submitted articles must have an undergraduate research component and must be certified by a senior researcher. All submissions will be peer reviewed according to standard practices in academic mathematics. Precise editorial policies are set by the editorial board.
- Research article
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- Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing
- Volume 087
- Pages: 21-32
- Published: 30/04/2013
Let \(\lambda K_v\) be the complete multigraph of order \(v\) and index \(\lambda\), where any two distinct vertices \(x\) and \(y\) are joined exactly by \(\lambda\) edges \(\{x,y\}\). Let \(G\) be a finite simple graph. A \(G\)-design of \(\lambda K_v\), denoted by \((v,G,\lambda)\)-GD, is a pair \((X, \mathcal{B})\), where \(X\) is the vertex set of \(K_v\), and \(\mathcal{B}\) is a collection of subgraphs of \(\lambda K_v\), called blocks, such that each block is isomorphic to \(G\) and any two distinct vertices in \(K_v\) are joined in exactly \(\lambda\) blocks of \(\mathcal{B}\). There are four graphs which are a 6-circle with two pendant edges, denoted by \(G_i\), \(i = 1,2,3,4\). In [9], we have solved the existence problems of \((v, G_i, 1)\)-GD. In this paper, we obtain the existence spectrum of \((v, G_i, \lambda)\)-GD for any \(\lambda > 1\).
- Research article
- Full Text
- Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing
- Volume 087
- Pages: 3-19
- Published: 30/11/2013
The decycling index of a digraph is the minimum number of arcs whose removal yields an acyclic digraph. The maximum arc decycling number \(\overline{\nabla}'(m,n)\) is the maximum decycling index among all \(m\times n\) bipartite tournaments. Recently, R.C. Vandell determined the numbers \(\overline{\nabla}'(2,n)\), \(\overline{\nabla}'(3,n)\), and \(\overline{\nabla}'(4,n)\) for all positive integers \(n\), as well as \(\overline{\nabla}'(5,5)\). In this work, we use a computer program to obtain \(\overline{\nabla}'(5,6)\), \(\overline{\nabla}'(6,6)\), and \(\overline{\nabla}'(5,7)\), as well as some results on \(\overline{\nabla}'(6,7)\) and \(\overline{\nabla}'(5,8)\). In particular, \(\overline{\nabla}'(6,6) = 10\), and this confirms a conjecture of Vandell.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing
- Volume 087
- Pages: 181-190
- Published: 30/04/2013
Let \( G = (V, E) \) be a graph. A function \( f: V \to \{-1, 1\} \) is called a signed dominating function on \( G \) if \( \sum_{u \in N_G[v]} f(u) \geq 1 \) for each \( v \in V \), where \( N_G[v] \) is the closed neighborhood of \( v \). A set \( \{f_1, f_2, \ldots, f_d\} \) of signed dominating functions on \( G \) is called a signed dominating family (of functions) on \( G \) if \( \sum_{i=1}^d f_i(v) \leq 1 \) for each \( v \in V \). The signed domatic number of \( G \) is the maximum number of functions in a signed dominating family on \( G \). The signed total domatic number is defined similarly, by replacing the closed neighborhood \( N_G[v] \) with the open neighborhood \( N_G(v) \) in the definition. In this paper, we prove that the problems of computing the signed domatic number and the signed total domatic number of a given graph are both NP-hard, even if the graph has bounded maximum degree. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first NP-hardness results for these two variants of the domatic number.
- Research article
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- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 112
- Pages: 503-515
- Published: 31/10/2013
Consider the following problem: Given a transitive tournament \(T\) of order \(n \geq 3\) and an integer \(k\) with \(1 \leq k \leq \binom{n}{2}\), which \(k\) ares in \(T\) should be reversed so that the resulting tournament has the largest number of spanning cycles? In this note, we solve the problem when \(7\) is sufficiently large compared to \(k\).
- Research article
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- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 112
- Pages: 493-502
- Published: 31/10/2013
The bondage number \(b(G)\) of a graph \(G\) is the smallest number of edges whose removal results in a graph with domination number greater than the domination number of \(G\). Kang and Yuan [Bondage number of planar graphs. Discrete Math. \(222 (2000), 191-198]\) proved \(b(G) \leq \min\{8, \Delta + 2\}\) for every connected planar graph \(G\), where \(\Delta\) is the maximum degree of \(G\). Later Carlson and Develin [On the bondage number of planar and directed graphs. Discrete Math. \(306 (8-9) (2006), 820-826]\) presented a method to give a short proof for this result. This paper applies this technique to generalize the result of Kang and Yuan to any connected graph with crossing number less than four.
- Research article
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- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 112
- Pages: 479-492
- Published: 31/10/2013
A \({Roman \;domination \;function}\) on a graph \(G = (V, E)\) is a function \(f: V(G) \to \{0, 1, 2\}\) satisfying the condition that every vertex \(u\) with \(f(u) = 0\) is adjacent to at least one vertex \(v\) with \(f(v) = 2\). The \({weight}\) of a Roman domination function \(f\) is the value \(f(V(G)) = \sum_{u \in V(G)} f(u)\). The minimum weight of a Roman dominating function on a graph \(G\) is called the \({Roman \;domination \;number}\) of \(G\), denoted by \(\gamma_R(G)\). In this paper, we study the Roman domination number of generalized Petersen graphs \(P(n, 2)\) and prove that \(\gamma_R(P(n, 2)) = \left\lceil \frac{8n}{7} \right\rceil (n\geq5)\).
- Research article
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- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 112
- Pages: 471-478
- Published: 31/10/2013
Let \(G = (V, E)\) be a simple undirected graph. For an edge \(e\) of \(G\), the \({closed\; edge-neighborhood}\) of \(e\) is the set \(N[e] = \{e’ \in E \mid e’ \text{ is adjacent to } e\} \cup \{e\}\). A function \(f: E \to \{1, -1\}\) is called a signed edge domination function (SEDF) of \(G\) if \(\sum_{e’ \in N[e]} f(e’) > 1\) for every edge \(e\) of \(G\). The signed edge domination number of \(G\) is defined as \(\gamma’_s(G) = \min \left\{ \sum_{e \in E} |f(e)| \mid f \text{ is an SEDF of } G \right\}\). In this paper, we determine the signed edge domination numbers of all complete bipartite graphs \(K_{m,n}\), and therefore determine the signed domination numbers of \(K_m \times K_n\).
- Research article
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- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 112
- Pages: 459-469
- Published: 31/10/2013
We discuss the primality of some corona graphs and some families of graphs.
- Research article
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- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 112
- Pages: 449-457
- Published: 31/10/2013
An injective coloring of a graph \(G\) is an assignment of colors to the vertices of \(G\) so that any two vertices with a common neighbor receive distinct colors. A graph \(G\) is said to be injectively \(k\)-choosable if any list \(L(v)\) of size at least \(k\) for every vertex \(v\) allows an injective coloring \(\phi(v)\) such that \(\phi(v) \in L(v)\) for every \(v \in V(G)\). The least \(k\) for which \(G\) is injectively \(k\)-choosable is the injective choosability number of \(G\), denoted by \(\chi_i^l(G)\). In this paper, we obtain new sufficient conditions to ensure \(\chi_i^l(G) \leq \Delta(G) + 1\). We prove that if \(mad(G) \leq \frac{12k}{4k+3}\), then \(\chi_i^l(G) = \Delta(G) + 1\) where \(k = \Delta(G)\) and \(k \geq 4\). Typically, proofs using the discharging technique are different depending on maximum average degree \(mad(G)\) or maximum degree \(\Delta(G)\). The main objective of this paper is finding a function \(f(\Delta(G))\) such that \(\chi_i^l(G) \leq \Delta(G) + 1\) if \(mad(G) < f(\Delta(G))\), which can be applied to every \(\Delta(G)\).
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 112
- Pages: 433-448
- Published: 31/10/2013
The traditional parameter used as a measure of vulnerability of a network modeled by a graph with perfect nodes and edges that may fail is edge connectivity \(\lambda\). For the complete bipartite graph \(K_{p,q}\), where \(1 \leq p \leq q\), \(\lambda(K_{p,q}) = p\). In this case, failure of the network means that the surviving subgraph becomes disconnected upon the failure of individual edges. If, instead, failure of the network is defined to mean that the surviving subgraph has no component of order greater than or equal to some preassigned number \(k\), then the associated vulnerability parameter, the component order edge connectivity \(\lambda_c^{(k)}\), is the minimum number of edges required to fail so that the surviving subgraph is in a failure state. We determine the value of \(\lambda_c^{(k)}(K_{p,q})\) for arbitrary \(1 \leq p \leq q\) and \(4 \leq k \leq p+q\). As it happens, the situation is relatively simple when \(p\) is small and more involved when \(p\) is large.




