Papers

An edge card of a graph is obtained by deleting one edge, and a class edge-reconstruction number asks for the fewest carefully selected cards that identify the graph when its class is known. We determine the sharp universal bound for maximal planar graphs. Two selected cards always suffice, and the octahedral graph shows that two can be necessary; some maximal planar graphs are already identified by one card. The argument exploits the fact that deleting a flippable edge leaves a single quadrilateral whose two diagonals give the only possible maximal-planar completions. Degree information then rules out the competing completion, with a separate argument for graphs containing a vertex of degree three. This settles a problem posed in a 2010 survey on reconstruction numbers.

The cycle space of a directed graph is generated by a cycle basis, where, in general, cycles are allowed to have both forward and backward arcs. In a forward cycle, all arcs must follow the given direction. Several open questions remain regarding the complexity of the minimum cycle basis problem, in particular the minimum-weight integral cycle basis problem, and the minimum-weight weakly and strictly fundamental forward cycle basis problems. In this paper, we address these open questions. First, we study the existence, structure, and computational complexity of minimum-weight forward cycle bases. We give a complete structural characterization of digraphs that admit weakly fundamental (and hence integral) forward cycle bases. We further provide a characterization when a strongly connected digraph admits a forward fundamental cycle basis, proving that such a basis exists if and only if the set of directed cycles has cardinality equal to the cycle rank; in this case, the basis is unique. Lastly, we show that while minimum-weight forward fundamental cycle bases can be found in polynomial time whenever they exist, the minimum-weight forward weakly fundamental cycle basis problem is APX-hard via an L-reduction from the minimum-weight weakly fundamental cycle basis problem on digraphs with metric weights. Second, we introduce opt-in graphs, i.e., the family of graphs for which minimum cycle bases are integral for any weight function. We show that this family is minor-closed and hence, by the Robertson-Seymour theorem, is characterized by a finite set of forbidden minors, so that the opt-in recognition problem is solvable in polynomial time. Lastly, we present an algorithm to check whether a graph is opt-in, and if not, to identify which of its minors belong to the set of forbidden minors. Applying this algorithm, we show that the complete graph $K_n$ is opt-in if and only if $n \leq 7$.

Cycles $C_1,\ldots,C_k$ in a graph are called nested without geometric crossings if they are pairwise edge-disjoint, $V(C_k)\subseteq\cdots\subseteq V(C_1)$, and each pair of consecutive cycles induces the same cyclic order on the vertices of the inner cycle, up to reversal. Let $f_k(n)$ be the least number of edges that forces such a family in every $n$-vertex graph. Gil Fernández, Kim, Kim and Liu proved that $f_2(n)=O(n)$, answering a question of Erdős, and asked whether $f_k(n)=O_k(n)$ for every fixed $k$. We prove this for all $k$. The proof selects the inner cycles together with a disjoint subgraph that supplies their external neighbours. A reselection argument gives disjoint paths from every inner-cycle vertex to any sufficiently large target set. Sublinear expansion and a rooted clique minor then allow the vertices to be joined in the required cyclic order.

Let $0 < \alpha \leq 1/2$. We say that a finite point set $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is $\alpha$-split by a hyperplane $h$ if each of the closed half-spaces determined by $h$, contains at least $\alpha |P|$ of the points of $P$. We further say $P$ is $\alpha$-split by a $k$-dimensional flat $\tau$ if $P$ is $\alpha$-split by any hyperplane through $\tau$. In the standard notation (which coincides with Tukey depth for $k= 0$), the $k$-flat $\tau$ has depth $\alpha$ with respect to $P$. We establish interesting Helly-type theorems for splitting families of finite point sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$. Unlike the classical sufficient Helly-type criteria for transversals to families of compact convex sets, which exist only for point and hyperplanes, our results extend to splitting families of point sets by collections of $k$-flats of arbitrary dimensionality $ 0 \leq k \leq d-1$.

The basis number $bn(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum edge-congestion of a basis of its cycle space. We prove that every finite $n$-vertex multigraph satisfies $bn(G)=O(\log n)$, resolving, for simple graphs, a question of Bazargani, Biedl, Bose, Maheshwari and Miraftab, subsequently stated as a conjecture by Miraftab, Morin and Yuditsky. The argument also yields the cycle-rank refinement $bn(G)=O(\log \beta(G))$, where $\beta(G)$ is the dimension of the cycle space, and a reduction of Lehner and Miraftab, based on a theorem of Richter and Shank, then gives $bn(G)=O(\log g)$ for graphs of Euler genus $g$. For regular matroids we prove the ground-set bound $bn(M)=O(\log m)$, where $m=|E(M)|$, and logarithmic bounds in both the rank $r(M)$ and the cycle-space dimension $d$. All these orders are best possible.

We present a new upper bound on the defect of the Mondrian Art Problem. The Mondrian Art Problem asks for a partition of an $n \times n$ square with rectangles of distinct dimensions such that the difference (defect) between the largest and smallest rectangle areas is minimized. We prove that for any $n \times n$ square, there exists a partition with defect $O(n^{5/6})$, improving upon the previously conjectured $O (n/\log n)$ upper bound. We also implement an algorithm that provides empirical evidence supporting our theoretical bound.

For a finite simple graph $G$ with at least one edge, the bondage number $b(G)$ is the least number of edges whose deletion increases the domination number $\gamma(G)$. Teschner conjectured that $b(G)\le \tfrac32\Delta(G)$ for every graph $G$. We disprove this conjecture by giving a connected cubic bipartite graph on eighteen vertices with \[ \gamma(G)=6 \qquad\text{and}\qquad b(G)=5. \] The domination number is established by a complete counting argument across the bipartition. An explicit five-edge deletion raises the domination number from six to seven. For the matching lower bound, we give an exact finite certificate: the graph has 297 minimum dominating sets, and deleting any one of its $\binom{27}{4}=17{,}550$ four-edge subsets leaves at least one of those sets dominating. The enumeration is deterministic, uses only exact integer and set operations, and is reproduced by the complete standard-library verifier included in the appendix.

Albertson's conjecture states that every graph of chromatic number r has crossing number at least that of the complete graph K_r. We prove the conjecture for all r. The proof combines new clique-sensitive edge bounds for critical graphs, maximum-clique sampling, and a reserved immersion construction. For graphs of order close to r, we construct edge-disjoint routes while preserving a complete bipartite subgraph whose forced crossings compensate for those introduced when the immersion is smoothed into a drawing. For larger orders, we derive explicit edge bounds using independent-triple deletion and structural properties of critical graphs, then combine them with sampling inequalities that account for crossings within a maximum clique. The remaining numerical inequalities are certified using exact rational arithmetic, with a reproducible certificate and standalone Python verifier.

In Lazy Cops and Robbers, at most one cop moves on each cop turn. We study the lazy cop number of the generalized hypercube $Q(n,m)$, whose vertex set is ${\{0,1,\ldots,m\}}^n$. For each fixed integer $m\geq2$, we prove the asymptotic upper bound $$c_{\mathrm{L}}(Q(n,m))=O\!\left(\frac{{(m+1)}^n}{n^{3/2}}\right).$$ This result improves the upper bound of Sim, Tan, and Wong by a factor of $\log n$. The proof combines a moving dominating-set argument with an explicit dominating-set construction inside the support classes of each level. As a separate domination result, we show that, for fixed integers $m\geq2$ and $d\geq1$, the Hamming graph $K_m^{\square k}$ has a distance-$d$ dominating set of asymptotic size $O(m^k/k^d)$. This order is optimal up to a constant factor.

Pseudosimilar vertices are vertices in distinct automorphism orbits whose deletions produce isomorphic graphs. Classical work has studied the existence, group-theoretic origin, and construction of large sets of such vertices. We ask a different recursive question: how long can one repeatedly delete a vertex that is pseudosimilar at the moment of deletion? We define the pseudosimilarity depth of a graph and construct connected graphs in which this process continues through all but a sublinear number of vertices. A two-clock construction gives a square-root deficit uniformly in the order, while a Chinese-remainder construction with many cyclic clocks yields an infinite family of asymmetric graphs with only a polylogarithmic number of vertices left outside the active chain. The mechanism realizes pseudosimilarity by breaking a long hidden automorphism orbit and enlarging the break one vertex at a time. Thus pseudosimilarity can persist through an asymptotically full sequence of vertex deletions, even though every graph encountered in the main construction is asymmetric.

Friedgut conjectured that an increasing family in the $p$-biased discrete cube with bounded relative boundary can be approximated arbitrarily well by one whose minimal elements have bounded size, with a bound independent of the dimension and the bias (J. Amer. Math. Soc. 12 (1999)). We prove this conjecture by showing that, for $0<p\leq 1/2$, every increasing Boolean function with total resampling influence at most $K$ is $\varepsilon$-close under $\mu_p^n$ to a monotone DNF of width $\exp(O((K+1)^2/\varepsilon^2))$. A separate high-bias argument completes the proof for all $p\in(0,1)$. Our proof builds on Hatami's pseudo-junta theorem (Ann. of Math. 176 (2012)). Tracking Hatami's construction isolates an adaptive representation with increasing local activations and dimension-free arity and multiplicity-counted load bounds. Our main new ingredient is a bias-matched randomized shifting procedure that converts the pseudo-junta approximator into an increasing function while retaining exact measurability with respect to a controlled forced refinement of its adaptive representation. From the resulting monotone adaptive representation, we extract positive certificates and truncate them to obtain the required narrow DNF.

A finite connected graph is rarely a Cayley graph. We measure how far it is from being one: given $G$ with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, how few edges must be added, or added and deleted, before the result is a Cayley graph of an abelian group of order $n$ on the same vertex set? This defines two invariants, the completion number $\gamma^{+}$ (additions only) and the Cayley edit distance $\gamma_{\triangle}$ (both), each normalized by $m$. We show that deciding the edit version is NP-complete already for a fixed cyclic host, by a reduction from Hamiltonian Cycle in which the edit cost of a labeling is $n+m-2k$ when it realizes a longest path with $k$ edges; the optimal cost is $m-n+2pp(G)$, bounded in polynomial time by the matching number. We prove that irregularity alone forces $\gamma^{+}(G)\ge n\Delta^{*}/(2m)-1$, where $\Delta^{*}$ is the least $d\ge\Delta$ with $nd$ even, computable in linear time from the degree sequence; we characterize equality exactly. It is attained on the star, where $\gamma^{+}(K_{1,q})=(q-1)/2$ and the star maximizes $\gamma^{+}$, while $\gamma_{\triangle}$ stays bounded by an absolute constant. We determine paths and grids exactly, $\gamma^{+}(P_n)=\gamma^{+}(P_n\,\square\,P_n)=1/(n-1)$, and show $\gamma_{\triangle}(K_{1,q})\to 2$, not the $3/2$ suggested by the additive case. We report an exhaustive certified census of all $995$ connected graphs on at most seven vertices. The degree bound is attained on $89.4\%$ and the two invariants separate strictly on $84.7\%$, though both rates vary sharply with order: attainment $100\%,100\%,84.8\%,89.7\%$ and separation $0\%,61.9\%,73.2\%,87.7\%$ for $n=4,5,6,7$, dominated by the $853$ graphs on seven vertices. The star uniquely maximizes both. Edit count and the bi-Lipschitz distortion of the completed host are independent, moving oppositely on stars and paths.Data and certificates at doi:10.5281/zenodo.21852006.

Every fixed first-order sentence $\varphi$ determines an enumerative sequence $n\mapsto\mathrm{FOMC}(\varphi,n)$, counting its models on the labeled domain $[n]$. We study the complexity of these sequences when logical specifications may use genuine unary function symbols and hence nested terms $x,f(x),f^2(x),\ldots$. We first prove that, for every fixed sentence $\varphi\in\mathrm{C}^1_{=}[f]$, with one unary function and an arbitrary finite relational vocabulary, $\mathrm{FOMC}(\varphi,n)$ is computable in time polynomial in $n$. By contrast, permitting either a second variable or a second unary function already yields hardness. Without counting quantifiers, there is a fixed sentence in $\mathrm{FO}^2_{=}[f]$ whose model-counting function is $\#\mathrm{P}_1$-complete. With one variable and two unary functions, there is a fixed constant-free universal sentence in $\mathrm{FO}^1_{=}[f,g]$, using only unary predicates besides $f$ and $g$, whose model-counting function is again $\#\mathrm{P}_1$-complete. We also relate labeled and unlabeled enumeration exactly. For every relational sentence $\varphi$, we construct an extension $\varphi_{\mathrm{aut}}$ in which a unary function records an automorphism and $\mathrm{FOMC}(\varphi_{\mathrm{aut}},n)=n!\cdot\mathrm{UFOMC}(\varphi,n)$, where $\mathrm{UFOMC}(\varphi,n)$ denotes the number of $n$-element models of $\varphi$ up to isomorphism. Thus automorphism marking gives a one-query exact reduction from unlabeled to labeled model counting at the same domain size. Over relational vocabularies of maximum arity at most $k$, where $k\geq2$, eliminating the auxiliary function yields single-query reductions from unlabeled $\mathrm{FO}^k_{=}$ and $\mathrm{C}^k$ model counting to labeled $\mathrm{FO}^{k+1}_{=}$ and $\mathrm{C}^{k+1}$ model counting, respectively.

Smith's conjecture asserts that in every $k$-connected graph with $k\geq 2$, any two longest cycles intersect in at least $k$ vertices. In this work, we establish an $\Omega(k^{8/11})$ bound for this conjecture, improving upon the $\Omega(k^{2/3})$ bound of Ma and Zhao. Our proof combines a Ramsey theoretic refinement of the traditional Turán-type approach with computer search.

In this paper, we study fair division problems in which resources are structured as graphs and agents must receive connected bundles. This connectivity requirement fundamentally alters the problem, making it significantly more challenging than its classical counterpart. We focus on the fairness notion of $\mathrm{EF1}_{\mathrm{outer}}$, where envy can be eliminated by removing at most one vertex whose deletion does not disconnect the bundle – a critical constraint for applications such as land division and network allocation. Our first result extends prior work by establishing the existence of $\mathrm{EF1}_{\mathrm{outer}}$ allocations for an infinite family of non-traceable graphs (that is, graphs that do not admit a Hamiltonian path), answering a central open question and generalizing Bilò et al.'s result for traceable graphs. We then make progress on a conjecture concerning the $\mathrm{EF1}_{\mathrm{outer}}$ spectrum of trees due to Chen and Zwicker. Finally, we complement our structural results with algorithmic insights, showing that deciding the existence of an $\mathrm{EF1}_{\mathrm{outer}}$ allocation is NP-complete even for binary additive valuations, thereby resolving an open complexity question. Taken together, our results deepen the connection between graph theory and fair division, and offer new tools for studying fairness in structured resource environments.

The average performance of FirstFit online coloring on trees in the random order model is completely determined in recent works of Frei et al. and Bosek et al., showing $\Theta(\log n /\log\log n)$ number of colors, improving the $\Theta(\log n)$ colors in the adversarial model. We provide a few further results on slightly more general graph classes. Firstly, we extend their method to obtain a simple path-counting principle for sparse graph classes, which immediately yields for example that cactus graphs and uniform hypertrees exhibit a similar improvement. We then show that FirstFit uses only $O(1)$ colors on crown graphs, a standard example where adversarial arrival forces $\Theta(n)$ colors. We further show that density alone (even linear minimum degree) is insufficient to guarantee $O(1)$ colors even on bipartite graphs. Finally, we identify graph classes, including unit interval graphs and some graphs of high chromatic number, for which random arrival provides only limited improvement. We end with some open problems.

Function correcting codes (FCCs) are designed to protect a specified function evaluation of messages at a higher level than the level of protection for messages, against errors while reducing the redundancy required for reliable communication. FCCs have thus far been studied for channels matched to various distances, including the Hamming and Lee distances. Every function partitions the message space into preimage sets corresponding to its distinct function values. Existing Plotkin-type bounds on the optimal redundancy of FCCs under the studied distances, applicable to arbitrary functions on the message space, depend on the pairwise distances among all the message vectors. This makes these bounds difficult to compute. We derive a general Plotkin-type bound on the optimal redundancy of FCCs under Wyner Graham distances, which include the Hamming and Lee distances as special cases. Our bound depends only on the cardinalities of the preimage sets and the sum of pairwise distances only among vectors within each preimage set. This approach significantly reduces the computations required to evaluate the existing Plotkin-type bounds and yields simplified bounds that are easier to compute for specific functions. We obtain simplified Plotkin-type bound for linear functions under the Wyner-Graham distance. Furthermore, the existing simplified bounds for linear functions under the Hamming and Lee distances are recovered as special cases of the proposed bound. We also obtain simplified bounds for several important classes of functions, including the Hamming weight function, the Hamming weight distribution function, the monomial functions under the Hamming distance, and the modular sum function, the Lee weight function, and the Lee weight distribution function under the Lee distance.

We show that Partizan Arc Kayles (PArcK), a generalization of Domineering to graphs, is PSPACE-complete via a reduction from Positive CNF and with recently-discovered techniques for creating PArcK positions with high temperature. The reduction uses only red and blue edges.

In this paper, we consider an easy greedy approximation algorithm, the good-bad algorithm, introduced by Couëtoux for finding a minimum-cost set of edges such that every connected component has at least $k$ vertices. Couëtoux proves that the good-bad algorithm achieves a $3/2$-approximation for this problem. Davis and Williamson extend this result to the more general problem of finding a minimum-cost edge set that contains at least one edge from every cut $S\subseteq V$ satisfying $h(S) = 1$ where $h:2^V \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ is downward monotone; that is, $h(S) = 1$ implies $h(T) = 1$ for every nonempty subset $T \subseteq S$. The original problem corresponds to $h(S) =1$ when $|S|<k$. We give a simplified analysis of the good-bad algorithm for downward monotone functions.

A conjecture of Komlós states that the combinatorial discrepancy of any matrix $A\in\mathbb R^{m\times n}$ whose columns have Euclidean norm at most one is bounded by a universal constant. We prove that the combinatorial discrepancy of every such matrix is at most $O((\log n)^{1/4}(\log\log n)^{7/4})$. This is the first asymptotic improvement over the $O(\sqrt{\log n})$ bound established by Banaszczyk [Banaszczyk, Random Struct.\ Algorithms, 1998], and it refutes a conjecture of Hajela [Hajela, European J.\ Combin., 1988] that a lower bound of order $\Omega(\sqrt{\log n})$ should hold.

We study the combinatorial (red-blue) discrepancy of finite point sets with respect to hyperplanes and, more generally, bounded-complexity affine algebraic sets. We prove that every $n$-point set in a real Euclidean space admits a red-blue coloring for which every affine algebraic set of dimension at most $D$ and degree at most $k$ has discrepancy at most $n^{\frac12-\frac{1}{2(D+1)}-\varepsilon}$ for some $\varepsilon=\varepsilon(D,k)>0$. This gives a polynomial improvement over the straightforward VC-dimension bound $\tilde O(n^{\frac12-\frac{1}{2(D+1)}})$. In the opposite direction, we construct $n$-point sets in $\mathbb R^d$ whose discrepancy with respect to hyperplanes is $\tilde\Omega(n^{\frac12-\frac{1}{d+1}}),$ extending the point-line discrepancy lower bound of Chazelle and Lvov. We present further applications of our methods in communication complexity, concerning separation between randomized communication cost and deterministic communication cost with access to equality oracle.

Matching Vector families (MVFs) are defined by two ordered lists of vectors in $\mathbb{Z}_m^n$ whose inner products satisfy specific residue patterns modulo an integer $m$. Most famously, restricted MVFs are used to construct the best-known constant-query Locally Decodable codes (LDCs). We prove an upper bound of $2^{O\left(\sqrt{n\log n \log m}\right)}$ on the size of $3$-restricted MVFs in $\mathbb{Z}_m^n$ for $m \leq \sqrt{n}$, substantially improving on the previous best bound of $2^{O(n/\log n)}$ by Bhowmick, Dvir and Lovett (STOC'13, SICOMP'14). Our proof relies on a new polynomial method argument that controls collisions in sumsets of matching vectors.

We study path-width and the closely related parameter line-width in countably infinite graphs. Our first result characterises the graphs of finite path-width: they are the graphs that do not have infinitely many vertices of infinite degree, do not have infinitely many pairwise disjoint infinite paths, and contain no subdivision of some finite tree of maximum degree 3. We then investigate universality under the subgraph relation for graphs of bounded path-width or line-width. In particular, we prove that there exists a universal graph with line-width $\mathcal{O}(k^2)$ for the class of graphs with line-width at most $k$. In contrast, we show that no graph of finite path-width is universal for the class of locally finite graphs with path-width $1$. Finally, we show that for each $k\geq 2$, every universal graph for the class of graphs with path-width at most $k$ has line-width at least $k + 1$.

A graphical design is a subset of vertices of a graph, along with a weight for each chosen vertex, that can perfectly average chosen subspaces of functions on the graph. A design is uniformly weighted if all the weights are equal, and several well-known combinatorial objects such as orthogonal arrays, combinatorial block designs and t-wise permutations are uniformly weighted graphical designs. While one might expect to see uniformly weighted designs in structured graphs, they do not always exist. In this paper we characterize the existence of uniformly weighted graphical designs, and use our result to provide several families of graphs that have, and do not have, such designs. Our results offer a polyhedral view of the structures that control the existence and cardinalities of these designs. In particular, we characterize all uniformly weighted designs of threshold graphs, and provide a geometric proof of the duality of linear codes and linear orthogonal arrays. We also provide a novel construction for graphs whose Laplacian characteristic polynomials are almost irreducible, to produce families without uniformly weighted designs.

The Non-Cancelling Intersections (NCI) conjecture of Amarilli, Monet and Suciu [arXiv:2401.16210] states that the union of a finite family of sets can always be built from its algebraically non-cancelling intersections using only disjoint unions and subset complements. In Wilhelm [arXiv:2608.19414] the conjecture was shown to fail when the witnessing dot-algebra expression is required to be left-linear. Here we remove that restriction and show that the conjecture is false in general: there is a finite lattice admitting no dot-algebra representation of its top element whatsoever. The counterexample is a lattice $P_{p,\mathfrak{m}}$ as in Wilhelm [arXiv:2608.19414], and the argument differs in only two ways. First, we replace the sequential "toggle game" of Wilhelm [arXiv:2608.19414] by a corresponding tree-shaped object, the plane tree, which stands to dot-algebra trees as the toggle game stands to left-linear ones. Second, we use a marked plane in which there is no admissible set of any size between $2p$ and $4p$, which also removes the need for the Erdős–Beck theorem and for the arithmetic Nullstellensatz. Consequently $p$ need not be astronomically large: every prime $p \ge 10^{5}$ works.

Large-scale projects are frequently delayed by correlated disruptions: when a shared input such as a common supplier, a specialized team, or a supporting platform degrades, all dependent activities are slowed down simultaneously. This paper introduces delay groups to capture such disruptions: a delay group is a set of activities whose delays stem from a common cause, described jointly by an uncertainty set. Our model takes the perspective of an interdictor that, subject to a budget of $k$ groups, selects which groups to disrupt so as to maximize the project makespan. The interdictor can extend activity durations within each disrupted group by delays from a group-specific uncertainty set, while non-disrupted activities keep their nominal duration. We study the complexity of the resulting Project Scheduling Interdiction Problem with Delay Groups (PSIP-DG), which provides a worst-case stress test of the schedule. The problem is computationally intractable ($N\!P$-hard) for general polyhedral uncertainty sets, even for a single delay group with a continuous knapsack constraint. For budgeted uncertainty sets, we prove $N\!P$-hardness both when all activities of a disrupted group are delayed and when only one activity per group may be delayed, and derive an inapproximability bound of $1-1/e+\epsilon$ for the former case. We further develop a greedy heuristic with approximation guarantee $k$ and two structure-based heuristics with initializations and neighborhoods from tractable special cases. Experiments on $5{,}000$-activity networks show that the heuristics match the solution quality of an exact solver at substantially lower running times, in some cases finding strictly better solutions.

The zero divisor graph $\Gamma(R)$ of a finite commutative ring $R$ has as vertices the non-zero zero divisors of $R$, with an edge between two elements exactly when their product is zero. We determine the boxicity and threshold dimension of $\Gamma(R)$ for two classes of finite commutative rings: reduced rings and quotients of principal ideal domains. Our proofs use a new combinatorial gadget, the integral covering graph, that captures the structure shared by both ring families and generalizes the disjointness graph on subsets of $[n]$, where two subsets are adjacent if and only if they are disjoint. In doing so, we answer two questions recently posed by L.~Sunil Chandran and Suraj Kumar Sahoo in Boxicity of Zero Divisor Graphs, Discrete Applied Mathematics 391 (2026).

In this paper, we establish a structural compatibility between the Kronecker product of bipartite graphs that admit polarity and their polarity quotient, and provide a sharp upper bound on the diameter of these graphs. For certain factor graphs, the diameter of the Kronecker product meets the upper bound on diameter, among them the generalized polygons. Generalized polygons with their polarity quotients have been notably used in the past to construct very large graphs. We apply the structural theorems in the paper to generalized polygons $\mathbb{G}_n(q,q)$ used as factor graphs, and build three new families of graphs of large order covering an infinite but sparse set of degrees, one of diameter $2$, one of diameter $3$ and one of diameter $5$. These asymptotically approach a theoretical upper bound on graph size as orders $q$ and $r$ of the generalized polygon factors increase. As an example, we develop one such family, derived from generalized quadrangles, and construct new diameter-$3$ graphs of low degree that are larger than any previously known at their degrees.

For a graph \(G\) admitting a real symmetric realization with exactly two distinct eigenvalues, \(MB(G)\) is the minimum, over all such realizations, of the smaller of the two eigenvalue multiplicities. Adm, Fallat, Meagher, Nasserasr, Plosker, and Yang asked for this parameter for the complement of a path on at least eight vertices. We answer their question completely by proving $$ MB(\overline{P_n})=3 \qquad (n\ge 6). $$ In particular, this resolves the previously unresolved orders \(n\ge 9\) divisible by three. The proof is exact and constructive. We exhibit six vectors in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) whose mutual inner products vanish exactly for consecutive indices, whose rank-one outer products form a basis of \(\mathbb{S}^3\), and which admit a strictly positive Parseval scaling. An elementary absorption lemma then permits any finite faithful orthogonal extension of this vector chain to be added with small positive weights while the six original weights are corrected to retain the Parseval identity. The resulting Gram matrix is a rank-three orthogonal projection in \(\mathcal{S}(\overline{P_n})\). A local two-dimensional orthogonality obstruction gives the matching lower bound. For completeness, we include self-contained proofs of the exceptional small orders: \(MB(\overline{P_3})=1\), whereas \(q(\overline{P_4})=4\) and \(q(\overline{P_5})=3\).

In this paper, we resolve a 30-year-old conjecture of Spielman and Teng concerning the performance of the spectral partitioning method on graphs embeddable on an orientable surface of genus $g\ge 1$. In particular, for such a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices and maximum degree $\Delta$, we show that the second-smallest eigenvalue of its Laplacian matrix satisfies $\lambda_2(L_G)\lesssim\Delta\frac g n$. We also obtain an improved eigenvalue bound for $K_h$-minor-free graphs of $\lambda_2(L_G)\lesssim\Delta\frac{h^2(\log h)^2}n$. In fact, our results directly prove much stronger results for reweighted eigenvalues, including higher reweighted eigenvalues. As a consequence, we obtain bounds not just on Laplacian eigenvalues, but also on normalized Laplacian eigenvalues and Steklov eigenvalues. Our results for genus-$g$ graphs are optimal for all of these kinds of eigenvalues, while our results for $K_h$-minor-free graphs are optimal up to $\log(h)$ factors. Our techniques for genus-$g$ graphs bootstrap bounded-degree bounds of normalized eigenvalues for entire classes to bounds for reweighted eigenvalues for the same classes without the bounded-degree limitation, while our techniques for $K_h$-minor-free graphs generalize an argument of Korhonen and Lokshtanov, making use of the Lovász local lemma.