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.

Jobby Jacob1, Renu Laskar2, John Villalpando3
1School of Mathematical Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623.
2Department of Mathematical Sciences Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634.
3Department of Mathematical Sciences Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258.
Abstract:

The channel assignment problem is the problem of assigning radio frequencies to transmitters while avoiding interference. This problem can be modeled and examined using graphs and graph colorings. \( L(2,1) \) coloring was first studied by Griggs and Yeh [6] as a model of a variation of the channel assignment problem. A no-hole coloring, introduced in [4], is defined to be an \( L(2,1) \) coloring of a graph which uses all the colors \(\{0,1,\ldots,k\}\) for some integer \(k\). An \( L(2,1) \) coloring is irreducible, introduced in [3], if no vertex labels in the graph can be decreased and yield another \( L(2,1) \) coloring. A graph \(G\) is inh-colorable if there exists an irreducible no-hole coloring on \(G\).

We consider the inh-colorability of bipartite graphs and Cartesian products. We obtain some sufficient conditions for bipartite graphs to be inh-colorable. We also find the optimal inh-coloring for some Cartesian products, including grid graphs and the rook’s graph.

Futaba Fujie-Okamoto1, Jianwei Lin2, Ping Zhang2
1Mathematics Department University of Wisconsin La Crosse La Crosse, WI 54601
2Department of Mathematics Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Abstract:

Let \( G \) be a nontrivial connected graph of order \( n \) and \( k \) an integer with \( 2 \leq k \leq n \). For a set \( S \) of \( k \) vertices of \( G \), let \( \kappa(S) \) denote the maximum number \( \ell \) of pairwise edge-disjoint trees \( T_1, T_2, \ldots, T_\ell \) in \( G \) such that \( V(T_i) \cap V(T_j) = S \) for every pair \( i, j \) of distinct integers with \( 1 \leq i, j \leq \ell \). A collection \( \{T_1, T_2, \ldots, T_\ell\} \) of trees in \( G \) with this property is called a set of internally disjoint trees connecting \( S \). The \( k \)-connectivity \( \kappa_k(G) \) of \( G \) is defined as \( \kappa_k(G) = \text{min}\{\kappa(S)\} \), where the minimum is taken over all \( k \)-element subsets \( S \) of \( V(G) \). Thus \( \kappa_2(G) \) is the connectivity \( \kappa(G) \) of \( G \). In an edge-colored graph \( G \) in which adjacent edges may be colored the same, a tree \( T \) is a rainbow tree in \( G \) if no two edges of \( T \) are colored the same. For each integer \( \ell \) with \( 1 \leq \ell \leq \kappa_k(G) \), a \( (k, \ell) \)-rainbow coloring of \( G \) is an edge coloring of \( G \) (in which adjacent

Simon R. Blackburn1, Maura B. Paterson2, Douglas R. Stinson3
1Royal Holloway, University of London Egham, Surrey TW20 OTN, United Kingdom
2Birkbeck College, University of London Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom
3David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
Abstract:

Given a right-angled triangle of squares in a grid whose horizontal and vertical sides are \( n \) squares long, let \( N(n) \) denote the maximum number of dots that can be placed into the cells of the triangle such that each row, each column, and each diagonal parallel to the long side of the triangle contains at most one dot. It has been proven that \( N_f(n) = \lfloor \frac{2n+1}{3} \rfloor \). In this note, we give a new proof of the upper bound \( N_f(n) \leq \lfloor \frac{2n+1}{3} \rfloor \) using linear programming techniques.

David Leach1, Matthew Walsh2
1Department of Mathematics, University of West Georgia Carrollton, GA 30118 USA
2Department of Mathematical Sciences, Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, IN 46805 USA
Abstract:

In 1975, Leech introduced the problem of labeling the edges of a tree with distinct positive integers so that the sums along distinct paths in the tree were distinct, and the set of such path-sums were consecutive starting with one. We generalize this problem to labelings from arbitrary finite Abelian groups, with a particular focus on direct products of the additive group of \( \mathbb{Z}_2 \).

Harris Kwong 1, Sin-Min Lee2, Yung-Chin Wang 3
1Dept. of Math. Sci. SUNY Fredonia Fredonia, NY 14063, USA San Jose, CA 95192, USA
2Dept. of Comp. Sci. San Jose State University San Jose, CA 95192, USA
3Dept. of Physical Therapy Tzu-Hui Institute of Tech. Taiwan, Republic of China
Abstract:

Let \( G \) be a simple graph. Any vertex labeling \( f: V(G) \to \mathbb{Z}_2 \) induces an edge labeling \( f^*: E(G) \to \mathbb{Z}_2 \) according to \( f^*(xy) = f(x) + f(y) \). For each \( i \in \mathbb{Z}_2 \), define \( v_f(i) = |\{v \in V(G) : f(v) = i\}| \), and \( e_f(i) = |\{e \in E(G) : f^*(e) = i\}| \). The friendly index set of the graph \( G \) is defined as \( \{|e_f(0) – e_f(1)| : |v_f(0) – v_f(1)| \leq 1\} \). We determine the friendly index sets of connected \( (p, p+1) \)-graphs with minimum degree \( 2 \). Many of them form arithmetic progressions. Those that are not miss only the second terms of the progressions.

Sarmad Abbasi1
1Department of Computer Science Sukkur Institute of Business Administration Airport Road Sukkur 65200 Sindh, Pakistan
Abstract:

Let \(T_n\) denote a complete binary tree of depth \(n\). Each internal node \(v\) of \(T_n\) has two children denoted by \(\text{left}(v)\) and \(\text{right}(v)\). Let \(f\) be a function mapping each internal node \(v\) to \(\{\text{left}(v), \text{right}(v)\}\). This naturally defines a path from the root, \(\lambda\), of \(T_n\) to one of its leaves given by

\[\lambda, f(\lambda), f^2(\lambda), \ldots f^n(\lambda).\]

We consider the problem of finding this path via a deterministic algorithm that probes the values of \(f\) in parallel. We show that any algorithm that probes \(k\) values of \(f\) in one round requires \(\frac{n}{\lfloor \log(k+1) \rfloor}\) rounds in the worst case. This indicates that the amount of information that can be extracted in parallel is, at times, strictly less than the amount of information that can be extracted sequentially.

Jiansheng Cai1, Liansheng Ge2, Xia Zhang3, Guizhen Liu2
1School of Mathematics and Information Sciences Weifang University, Weifang, 261061, P.R.China.
2School of Mathematics, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, P.R.China.
3College of Mathematics Sciences, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, P.R.China.
Abstract:

A graph \(G\) is edge-\(L\)-colorable, if for a given edge assignment \(L = \{L(e) : e \in E(G)\}\), there exists a proper edge-coloring \(\phi\) of \(G\) such that \(\phi(e) \in L(e)\) for all \(e \in E(G)\). If \(G\) is edge-\(L\)-colorable for every edge assignment \(L\) with \(|L(e)| \geq k\) for \(e \in E(G)\), then \(G\) is said to be edge-\(k\)-choosable. In this paper, we prove that if \(G\) is a planar graph without chordal \(7\)-cycles, then \(G\) is edge-\(k\)-choosable, where \(k = \max\{8, \Delta(G) + 1\}\).

Sei-Ichiro Ueki1
1FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, IBARAKI UNIVERSITY, HITACH! 316 – 8511, JAPAN
Abstract:

In this note, we study some properties of the composition operator \(C_\varphi\) on the Fock space \(\mathcal{F}_X^2\) of \(X\)-valued analytic functions in \(\mathbb{C}\). We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a bounded operator on \(\mathcal{F}_X^2\) to be a composition operator and for the adjoint operator of a composition operator to be also a composition operator on \(\mathcal{F}_X^2\). We also give characterizations of normal, unitary, and co-isometric composition operators on \(\mathcal{F}_X^2\).

Boram Park1, Yoshio Sano2
1Department of Mathematics Education Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
2Pohang Mathematics Institute POSTECH, Pohang 790-784, Korea
Abstract:

The competition hypergraph \(C\mathcal{H}(D)\) of a digraph \(D\) is the hypergraph such that the vertex set is the same as \(D\) and \(e \subseteq V(D)\) is a hyperedge if and only if \(e\) contains at least \(2\) vertices and \(e\) coincides with the in-neighborhood of some vertex \(v\) in the digraph \(D\). Any hypergraph with sufficiently many isolated vertices is the competition hypergraph of an acyclic digraph. The hypercompetition number \(hk(\mathcal{H})\) of a hypergraph \(\mathcal{H}\) is defined to be the smallest number of such isolated vertices.

In this paper, we study the hypercompetition numbers of hypergraphs. First, we give two lower bounds for the hypercompetition numbers which hold for any hypergraphs. And then, by using these results, we give the exact hypercompetition numbers for some family of uniform hypergraphs. In particular, we give the exact value of the hypercompetition number of a connected graph.

Chuan-Min Lee1
1Department of Computer and Communication Engineering Ming Chuan University 5 De Ming Rd., Guishan District, Taoyuan County 333, Taiwan.
Abstract:

In this paper, we study the signed and minus total domination problems for two subclasses of bipartite graphs: biconvex bipartite graphs and planar bipartite graphs. We present a unified method to solve the signed and minus total domination problems for biconvex bipartite graphs in \(O(n + m)\) time. We also prove that the decision problem corresponding to the signed (respectively, minus) total domination problem is NP-complete for planar bipartite graphs of maximum degree \(3\) (respectively, maximum degree \(4\)).

Special Issues

The Combinatorial Press Editorial Office routinely extends invitations to scholars for the guest editing of Special Issues, focusing on topics of interest to the scientific community. We actively encourage proposals from our readers and authors, directly submitted to us, encompassing subjects within their respective fields of expertise. The Editorial Team, in conjunction with the Editor-in-Chief, will supervise the appointment of Guest Editors and scrutinize Special Issue proposals to ensure content relevance and appropriateness for the journal. To propose a Special Issue, kindly complete all required information for submission;