Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dimension And Ramsey Results In Partially Ordered Sets., Sida Wan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, there are two major parts. One is the dimension results on different classes of partially ordered sets. We developed new tools and theorems to solve the bounds on interval orders using different number of lengths. We also discussed the dimension of interval orders that have a representation with interval lengths in a certain range. We further discussed the interval dimension and semi dimension for posets. In the second part, we discussed several related results on the Ramsey theory of grids, the results involve the application of Product Ramsey Theorem and Partition Ramsey Theorem

Local-Global Results On Discrete Structures, Alexander Lewis Stevens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Local-global arguments, or those which glean global insights from local information, are central ideas in many areas of mathematics and computer science. For instance, in computer science a greedy algorithm makes locally optimal choices that are guaranteed to be consistent with a globally optimal solution. On the mathematical end, global information on Riemannian manifolds is often implied by (local) curvature lower bounds. Discrete notions of graph curvature have recently emerged, allowing ideas pioneered in Riemannian geometry to be extended to the discrete setting. Bakry- Émery curvature has been one such successful notion of curvature. In this thesis we use combinatorial …

Trees With Unique Italian Dominating Functions Of Minimum Weight, Alyssa England

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An Italian dominating function, abbreviated IDF, of $G$ is a function $f \colon V(G) \rightarrow \{0, 1, 2\}$ satisfying the condition that for every vertex $v \in V(G)$ with $f(v)=0$, we have $\sum_{u \in N(v)} f(u) \ge 2$. That is, either $v$ is adjacent to at least one vertex $u$ with $f(u) = 2$, or to at least two vertices $x$ and $y$ with $f(x) = f(y) = 1$. The Italian domination number, denoted $\gamma_I$(G), is the minimum weight of an IDF in $G$. In this thesis, we use operations that join two trees with a single edge in order …

Roman Domination Cover Rubbling, Nicholas Carney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we introduce Roman domination cover rubbling as an extension of domination cover rubbling. We define a parameter on a graph $G$ called the \textit{Roman domination cover rubbling number}, denoted $\rho_{R}(G)$, as the smallest number of pebbles, so that from any initial configuration of those pebbles on $G$, it is possible to obtain a configuration which is Roman dominating after some sequence of pebbling and rubbling moves. We begin by characterizing graphs $G$ having small $\rho_{R}(G)$ value. Among other things, we also obtain the Roman domination cover rubbling number for paths and give an upper bound for the …

Conflict Free Connectivity And The Conflict-Free-Connection Number Of Graphs, Travis D. Wehmeier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We explore a relatively new concept in edge-colored graphs called conflict-free connectivity. A conflict-free path is a (edge-) colored path that has an edge with a color that appears only once. Conflict-free connectivity is the maximal number of internally disjoint conflict-free paths between all pairs of vertices in a graph. We also define the c-conflict-free-connection of a graph G. This is the maximum conflict-free connectivity of G over all c-colorings of the edges of G. In this paper we will briefly survey the works related to conflict-free connectivity. In addition, we will use the probabilistic method to achieve a bound …

Italian Domination On Ladders And Related Products, Bradley Gardner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An Italian dominating function on a graph $G = (V,E)$ is a function such that $f : V \to \{0,1,2\}$, and for each vertex $v \in V$ for which $f(v) = 0$, we have $\sum_{u\in N(v)}f(u) \geq 2$. The weight of an Italian dominating function is $f(V) = \sum_{v\in V(G)}f(v)$. The minimum weight of all such functions on a graph $G$ is called the Italian domination number of $G$. In this thesis, we will consider Italian domination in various types of products of a graph $G$ with the complete graph $K_2$. We will find the value of the Italian domination …

Italian Domination In Complementary Prisms, Haley D. Russell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Let $G$ be any graph and let $\overline{G}$ be its complement. The complementary prism of $G$ is formed from the disjoint union of a graph $G$ and its complement $\overline{G}$ by adding the edges of a perfect matching between the corresponding vertices of $G$ and $\overline{G}$. An Italian dominating function on a graph $G$ is a function such that $f \, : \, V \to \{ 0,1,2 \}$ and for each vertex $v \in V$ for which $f(v)=0$, it holds that $\sum_{u \in N(v)} f(u) \geq 2$. The weight of an Italian dominating function is the value $f(V)=\sum_{u \in V(G)}f(u)$. …

Quantifying The Structure Of Misfolded Proteins Using Graph Theory, Walter G. Witt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The structure of a protein molecule is highly correlated to its function. Some diseases such as cystic fibrosis are the result of a change in the structure of a protein so that this change interferes or inhibits its function. Often these changes in structure are caused by a misfolding of the protein molecule. To assist computational biologists, there is a database of proteins together with their misfolded versions, called decoys, that can be used to test the accuracy of protein structure prediction algorithms. In our work we use a nested graph model to quantify a selected set of proteins that …

On T-Restricted Optimal Rubbling Of Graphs, Kyle Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For a graph G = (V;E), a pebble distribution is defined as a mapping of the vertex set in to the integers, where each vertex begins with f(v) pebbles. A pebbling move takes two pebbles from some vertex adjacent to v and places one pebble on v. A rubbling move takes one pebble from each of two vertices that are adjacent to v and places one pebble on v. A vertex x is reachable under a pebbling distribution f if there exists some sequence of rubbling and pebbling moves that places a pebble on x. A pebbling distribution where every …

Global Supply Sets In Graphs, Christian G. Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For a graph G=(V,E), a set S⊆V is a global supply set if every vertex v∈V\S has at least one neighbor, say u, in S such that u has at least as many neighbors in S as v has in V \S. The global supply number is the minimum cardinality of a global supply set, denoted γgs (G). We introduce global supply sets and determine the global supply number for selected families of graphs. Also, we give bounds on the global supply number for general graphs, trees, and grid graphs.

Neighborhood-Restricted Achromatic Colorings Of Graphs, James D. Chandler Sr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A (closed) neighborhood-restricted 2-achromatic-coloring of a graph G is an assignment of colors to the vertices of G such that no more than two colors are assigned in any closed neighborhood. In other words, for every vertex v in G, the vertex v and its neighbors are in at most two different color classes. The 2-achromatic number is defined as the maximum number of colors in any 2-achromatic-coloring of G. We study the 2-achromatic number. In particular, we improve a known upper bound and characterize the extremal graphs for some other known bounds.

On Properties Of RW-Regular Graphs, Franklina Samani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

If every vertex in a graph G has the same degree, then the graph is called a regular graph. That is, if deg(v) = r for all vertices in the graph, then it is denoted as an r-regular graph. A graph G is said to be vertex-weighted if all of the vertices are assigned weights. A generalized definition for degree regularity for vertex-weighted graphs can be stated as follows: A vertex-weighted graph is said to be r_w-regular if the sum of the weights in the neighborhood of every vertex is r_w. If all vertices are assigned …

The Apprentices' Tower Of Hanoi, Cory Bh Ball

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Apprentices' Tower of Hanoi is introduced in this thesis. Several bounds are found in regards to optimal algorithms which solve the puzzle. Graph theoretic properties of the associated state graphs are explored. A brief summary of other Tower of Hanoi variants is also presented.

Properties Of Small Ordered Graphs Whose Vertices Are Weighted By Their Degree, Constance M. Blalock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Graphs can effectively model biomolecules, computer systems, and other applications. A weighted graph is a graph in which values or labels are assigned to the edges of the graph. However, in this thesis, we assign values to the vertices of the graph rather than the edges and we modify several standard graphical measures to incorporate these vertex weights. In particular, we designate the degree of each vertex as its weight. Previous research has not investigated weighting vertices by degree. We find the vertex weighted domination number in connected graphs, beginning with trees, and we define how weighted vertices can affect …

Bipartitions Based On Degree Constraints, Pamela I. Delgado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For a graph G = (V,E), we consider a bipartition {V₁,V₂} of the vertex set V by placing constraints on the vertices as follows. For every vertex v in V_i, we place a constraint on the number of neighbors v has in V_i and a constraint on the number of neighbors it has in V_3-i. Using three values, namely 0 (no neighbors are allowed), 1 (at least one neighbor is required), and X (any number of neighbors are allowed) for each of the four constraints, results in 27 distinct types of …

Extremal Results For Peg Solitaire On Graphs, Aaron D. Gray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a 2011 paper by Beeler and Hoilman, the game of peg solitaire is generalized to arbitrary boards. These boards are treated as graphs in the combinatorial sense. An open problem from that paper is to determine the minimum number of edges necessary for a graph with a fixed number of vertices to be solvable. This thesis provides new bounds on this number. It also provides necessary and sufficient conditions for two families of graphs to be solvable, along with criticality results, and the maximum number of pegs that can be left in each of the two graph families.

Packings And Coverings Of Complete Graphs With A Hole With The 4-Cycle With A Pendant Edge, Yan Xia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we consider packings and coverings of various complete graphs with the 4-cycle with a pendant edge. We consider both restricted and unrestricted coverings. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for such structures for (1) complete graphs K_v, (2) complete bipartite graphs K_m,n, and (3) complete graphs with a hole K(v,w).

Peg Solitaire On Trees With Diameter Four, Clayton A. Walvoort

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a paper by Beeler and Hoilman, the traditional game of peg solitaire is generalized to graphs in the combinatorial sense. One of the important open problems in this paper was to classify solvable trees. In this thesis, we will give necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability for all trees with diameter four. We also give the maximum number of pegs that can be left on such a graph under the restriction that we jump whenever possible.

Nested (2,R)-Regular Graphs And Their Network Properties., Josh Daniel Brooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A graph G is a (t, r)-regular graph if every collection of t independent vertices is collectively adjacent to exactly r vertices. If a graph G is (2, r)-regular where p, s, and m are positive integers, and m ≥ 2, then when n is sufficiently large, then G is isomorphic to G = K_s+mK_p, where 2(p-1)+s = r. A nested (2,r)-regular graph is constructed by replacing selected cliques with a (2,r)-regular graph and joining the vertices of the peripheral cliques. For …

Liar's Domination In Grid Graphs, Christopher Kent Sterling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As introduced by Slater in 2008, liar's domination provides a way of modeling protection devices where one may be faulty. Assume each vertex of a graph G is the possible location for an intruder such as a thief. A protection device at a vertex v is assumed to be able to detect the intruder at any vertex in its closed neighborhood N[v] and identify at which vertex in N[v] the intruder is located. A dominating set is required to identify any intruder's location in the graph G, and if any one device can fail to …

Universal Hypergraphs., Michael Deren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we study universal hypergraphs. What are these? Let us start with defining a universal graph as a graph on n vertices that contains each of the many possible graphs of a smaller size k < n as an induced subgraph. A hypergraph is a discrete structure on n vertices in which edges can be of any size, unlike graphs, where the edge size is always two. If all edges are of size three, then the hypergraph is said to be 3-uniform. If a 3-uniform hypergraph can have edges colored one of a colors, then it is called a …

A Predictive Model Which Uses Descriptors Of Rna Secondary Structures Derived From Graph Theory., Alissa Ann Rockney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The secondary structures of ribonucleic acid (RNA) have been successfully modeled with graph-theoretic structures. Often, simple graphs are used to represent secondary RNA structures; however, in this research, a multigraph representation of RNA is used, in which vertices represent stems and edges represent the internal motifs. Any type of RNA secondary structure may be represented by a graph in this manner. We define novel graphical invariants to quantify the multigraphs and obtain characteristic descriptors of the secondary structures. These descriptors are used to train an artificial neural network (ANN) to recognize the characteristics of secondary RNA structure. Using the ANN, …

Hückel Energy Of A Graph: Its Evolution From Quantum Chemistry To Mathematics, Steven Zimmerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The energy of a graph began with German physicist, Erich H¨uckel’s 1931 paper, Quantenttheoretische Beitr¨age zum Benzolproblem. His work developed a method for computing the binding energy of the π-electrons for a certain class of organic molecules. The vertices of the graph represented the carbon atoms while the single edge between each pair of distinct vertices represented the hydrogen bonds between the carbon atoms. In turn, the chemical graphs were represented by an n × n matrix used in solving Schr¨odinger’s eigenvalue/eigenvector equation. The sum of the absolute values of these graph eigenvalues represented the total π-electron energy. The criteria …

Finding Dud Vertices In Defensive Alliances And Secure Sets Using Computational Tools, George Worley Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Defensive alliances are a way of using graphs to model the defense of resources (people, buildings, countries, etc.) against attacks where the number of potential attackers against each resource is known. The initial study of defensive alliances focused on questions of minimal defensive alliances in a graph and the minimum possible size of a defensive alliance in a graph, but in order to apply defensive alliances in modeling real-world situations, additional considerations are important. In particular, since each vertex in a defensive alliance represents some real-world object that has a cost associated with remaining in the defensive alliance, it is …

A Predictive Model For Secondary Rna Structure Using Graph Theory And A Neural Network., Denise Renee Koessler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this work we use a graph-theoretic representation of secondary RNA structure found in the database RAG: RNA-As-Graphs. We model the bonding of two RNA secondary structures to form a larger structure with a graph operation called merge. The resulting data from each tree merge operation is summarized and represented by a vector. We use these vectors as input values for a neural network and train the network to recognize a tree as RNA-like or not based on the merge data vector.

The network correctly assigned a high probability of RNA-likeness to trees identified as RNA-like in the RAG database, …

Cyclic, F-Cyclic, And Bicyclic Decompositions Of The Complete Graph Into The 4-Cycle With A Pendant Edge., Daniel Shelton Cantrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, we consider decompositions of the complete graph on v vertices into 4-cycles with a pendant edge. In part, we will consider decompositions which admit automorphisms consisting of:

(1) a single cycle of length v,

(2) f fixed points and a cycle of length v − f, or

(3) two disjoint cycles.

The purpose of this thesis is to give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of cyclic, f-cyclic, and bicyclic Q-decompositions of K_v.

Decompositions Of Mixed Graphs With Partial Orientations Of The P4., Adam M. Meadows

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A decomposition D of a graph H by a graph G is a partition of the edge set of H such that the subgraph induced by the edges in each part of the partition is isomorphic to G. A mixed graph on V vertices is an ordered pair (V,C), where V is a set of vertices, |V| = v, and C is a set of ordered and unordered pairs, denoted (x, y) and [x, y] respectively, of elements of V [8]. An ordered pair (x …

Alliances In Graphs: Parameterized Algorithms And On Partitioning Series-Parallel Graphs, Rosa Enciso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alliances are used to denote agreements between members of a group with similar interests. Alliances can occur between nations, biological sequences, business cartels, and other entities. The notion of alliances in graphs was first introduced by Kristiansen, Hedetniemi, and Hedetniemi in . A defensive alliance in a graph G = (V, E) is a non empty set S ⊆ V where, for all x ∈ S, |N[x] ∩ S| ≥ |N[x] − S|. Consequently, every vertex that is a member of a defensive alliance has at least as many vertices defending it as there are vertices attacking it. Alliances can …

Restrained And Other Domination Parameters In Complementary Prisms., Wyatt Jules Desormeaux

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we will study several domination parameters of a family of graphs known as complementary prisms. We will first present the basic terminology and definitions necessary to understand the topic. Then, we will examine the known results addressing the domination number and the total domination number of complementary prisms. After this, we will present our main results, namely, results on the restrained domination number of complementary prisms. Subsequently results on the distance - k domination number, 2-step domination number and stratification of complementary prisms will be presented. Then, we will characterize when a complementary prism is Eulerian or …

Double Domination Of Complementary Prisms., Lamont D. Vaughan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The complementary prism of a graph G is obtained from a copy of G and its complement G̅ by adding a perfect matching between the corresponding vertices of G and G̅. For any graph G, a set D ⊆ V (G) is a double dominating set (DDS) if that set dominates every vertex of G twice. The double domination number, denoted γ_×2(G), is the cardinality of a minimum double dominating set of G. We have proven results on graphs of small order, specific families and lower bounds on γ_{×2 …}