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
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 289-304
- Published: 31/01/2012
The Randić index of an organic molecule whose molecular graph is \(G\) is the sum of the weights \((d(u)d(v))^{1/2}\) of all edges \(uv\) of \(G\), where \(d(u)\) denotes the degree of the vertex \(u\) of the molecular graph \(G\). Among all trees with \(n\) vertices and \(k\) pendant vertices, the extremal trees with the minimum, the second minimum, and the third minimum Randić index were characterized by Hansen, Li, and Wu \(et al\)., respectively. In this paper, we further investigate some small Randić index properties and give other elements of small Randić index ordering of trees with \(k\) pendant vertices.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 279-288
- Published: 31/01/2012
Consider a complete graph of multiplicity \(2\), where between every pair of vertices there is one red and one blue edge. Can the edge set of such a graph be decomposed into isomorphic copies of a \(2\)-coloured path of length \(2k\) that contains \(k\) red and\(k\) blue edges? A necessary condition for this to be true is \(n(n-1) \equiv 0 \mod k\). We show that this is sufficient for \(k \leqq 3\).
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 257-277
- Published: 31/01/2012
In this paper, we investigate super-simple cyclic \((v, k, \lambda)\)-BIBDs (SCBIBs). Some general constructions for SCBIBs are given. The spectrum of super-simple cyclic \((v, 3, \lambda)\) is completely determined for \(\lambda = 2, 3\) and \(v – 2\). From that, some new optical orthogonal codes are obtained.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 239-256
- Published: 31/01/2012
The cycle structure of a Latin square autotopism \(\Theta = (\alpha, \beta, \gamma)\) is the triple \((I_\alpha,I_\beta, I_\gamma)\), where \(I_\delta\) is the cycle structure of \(\delta\), for all \(\delta \in \{\alpha, \beta, \gamma\}\). In this paper, we study some properties of these cycle structures and, as a consequence, we give a classification of all autotopisms of the Latin squares of order up to \(11\).
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 233-238
- Published: 31/01/2012
This work presents explicit expressions of the \(3\)-restricted edge connectivity of Cartesian product graphs, which yields some sufficient conditions for the product graphs to be maximally \(3\)-restricted edge connected.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 225-232
- Published: 31/01/2012
Dirac characterized chordal graphs by every minimal \((2\)-)vertex separator inducing a complete subgraph. This generalizes to \(k\)-vertex separators and to a characterization of the class of \(\{P_5, 2P_3\}\)-free chordal graphs. The correspondence between minimal \(2\)-vertex separators of chordal graphs and the edges of their clique trees parallels a correspondence between minimal \(k\)-vertex separators of \(\{P_5, 2P_3\}\)-free chordal graphs and certain \((k-1)\)-edge substars of their clique trees.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 205-224
- Published: 31/01/2012
It is well known that the Petersen graph does not contain a Hamilton cycle. In \(1983\), Alspach completely determined which Generalized Petersen graphs are Hamiltonian \([1]\). In this paper, we define a larger class of graphs which includes the Generalized Petersen graphs as a special case, and determine which graphs in this larger class are Hamiltonian, and which are \(1\)-factorable. We call this larger class spoked Cayley graphs.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 193-203
- Published: 31/01/2012
Let \(K_v\) be the complete graph with \(v\) vertices, where any two distinct vertices \(x\) and \(y\) are joined by exactly one edge \(\{x,y\}\). Let \(G\) be a finite simple graph. A \(G\)-design of \(K_v\), denoted by \((v,G,1)\)-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 \(K_v\), called blocks, such that each block is isomorphic to \(G\) and any two distinct vertices in \(K_v\) are joined in exactly one block of \(\mathcal{B}\). In this paper, the discussed graphs are \(G_i\), \(i = 1,2,3,4\), where \(G_i\) are the four graphs with 7 points, 7 edges, and a 5-cycle. We obtain the existence spectrum of \((v, G_i,1)\)-GD.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 181-191
- Published: 31/01/2012
Let \(\text{ASG}(2v,\mathbb{F}_q)\) be the \(2v\)-dimensional affine-symplectic space over the finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\), and let \(\text{ASp}_{2v}(\mathbb{F}_q)\) be the affine-symplectic group of degree \(2v\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\). For any two orbits \(M’\) and \(M”\) of flats under \(\text{ASp}_{2v}(\mathbb{F}_q)\), let \(\mathcal{L}’\) (resp. \(\mathcal{L}”\)) be the set of all flats which are joins (resp. intersections) of flats in \(M’\) (resp. \(M”\)) such that \(M” \subseteq L’\) (resp. \(M’ \subseteq \mathcal{L}”\)) and assume the join (resp. intersection) of the empty set of flats in \(\text{ASG}(2v,\mathbb{F}_q)\) is \(\emptyset\) (resp. \(\mathbb{F}_q^{(2v)}\)). Let \(\mathcal{L} =\mathcal{L}’ \cap \mathcal{L}”\). By ordering \(\mathcal{L}’,\mathcal{L}”, \mathcal{L}\) by ordinary or reverse inclusion, six lattices are obtained. This article discusses the relations between different lattices, and computes their characteristic polynomial.
- Research article
- Full Text
- Ars Combinatoria
- Volume 103
- Pages: 175-179
- Published: 31/01/2012
In this paper, we calculate the number of fuzzy subgroups of a special class of non-abelian groups of order \(p^3\).




