Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2504.17387

Graph covers and semi-covers: Who is stronger?

Jan Kratochvil·Roman Nedela
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The notion of graph cover, also known as locally bijective homomorphism, is a discretization of covering spaces known from general topology. It is a pair of incidence-preserving vertex- and edge-mappings between two graphs, the edge-component being bijective on the edge-neighborhoods of every vertex and its image. In line with the current trends in topological graph theory and its applications in mathematical physics, graphs are considered in the most relaxed form and as such they may contain multiple edges, loops and semi-edges. Nevertheless, simple graphs (binary structures without multiple edges, loops, or semi-edges) play an important role. It has been conjectured in [Bok et al.: List covering of regular multigraphs, Proceedings IWOCA 2022, LNCS 13270, pp. 228--242] that for every fixed graph $H$, deciding if a graph covers $H$ is either polynomial time solvable for arbitrary input graphs, or NP-complete for simple ones. A graph $A$ is called stronger than a graph $B$ if every simple graph that covers $A$ also covers $B$. This notion was defined and found useful for NP-hardness reductions for disconnected graphs in [Bok et al.: Computational complexity of covering disconnected multigraphs, Proceedings FCT 2022, LNCS 12867, pp. 85--99]. It was conjectured in [Kratochv\'ıl: Towards strong dichotomy of graphs covers, GROW 2022 - Book of open problems, p. 10, {\tt https://grow.famnit.upr.si/GROW-BOP.pdf}] that if $A$ has no semi-edges, then $A$ is stronger than $B$ if and only if $A$ covers $B$. We prove this conjecture for cubic one-vertex graphs, and we also justify it for all cubic graphs $A$ with at most 4 vertices.

Explore related subjects

math.CO

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Jan Kratochvil, Roman Nedela. 2025-04-24. Graph covers and semi-covers: Who is stronger?. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17387

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Adjunctions, Box Products, and Forcing Families

Sidorenko's conjecture states that the number of copies of any given bipartite graph in another graph of given density is asymptotically minimized by a random graph. For bipartite graphs containing a cycle, the forcing conjecture further asserts that asymptotic equality characterizes quasi-random graphs. We establish an adjoint identity for a general class of graph-substitution operators and use it to obtain Sidorenko and forcing results for balanced blow-ups, subdivisions, Cartesian products, and strong products.

math.CO↗
arXiv2026

On the Cost Number of Graphs with Determining Number Two

A distinguishing vertex coloring of a graph $G$ is a vertex coloring such that only the identity automorphism of $G$ preserves the coloring. A graph is $2$-distinguishable if it admits a distinguishing vertex coloring with two colors, and its cost $ρ(G)$ is the minimum size of a color class in such a coloring. The determining number of a graph $G$, denoted by $Det(G)$, is the minimum size of a subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ such that only the trivial automorphism fixes every element of $S$ pointwise. Boutin (J. Combin. Math. Combin. Comput. 85: 161-171, 2013) asked if $ρ(G)$ and $Det(G)$ can be arbitrarily far apart. While the case for $Det(G) = 1$ is trivial, the answer remained unknown for $Det(G) \ge 2$. In this manuscript, we show that if $Det(G)=2$ then not only is $ρ(G)$ bounded, but in fact $ρ(G) \leq 4$. This is the first resolution of Boutin's question for any nontrivial fixed determining number. Moreover, for every fixed $Det(G)= n$, we construct examples giving a lower bound on any possible upper bound for $ρ(G)$ in terms of $n$.

math.CO↗