The theory of graph coloring has existed for more than 150 years. Historically, graph coloring involved finding the minimum number of colors to be assigned to the vertices so that adjacent vertices would have different colors. From this modest beginning, the theory has become central in discrete mathematics with many contemporary generalizations and applications. Generalization of graph coloring-type problems to mixed hypergraphs brings many new dimensions to the theory ofcolorings. A main feature of this book is that in the case of hypergraphs, there exist problems on both the minimum and the maximum number of colors. This feature pervades the theory, methods, algorithms, and applications of mixed hypergraph coloring. The book has broad appeal. It will be of interest to bothpure and applied mathematicians, particularly those in the areas of discrete mathematics, combinatorial optimization, operations research, computer science, software engineering, molecular biology, and related businesses and industries. It also makes a nice supplementary text for courses in graph theory and discrete mathematics. This is especially useful for students in combinatorics and optimization. Since the area is new, students will have the chance at this stage to obtain results that maybecome classic in the future.

A lively invitation to the flavor, elegance, and power of graph theory This mathematically rigorous introduction is tempered and enlivened by numerous illustrations, revealing examples, seductive applications, and historical references. An award-winning teacher, Russ Merris has crafted a book designed to attract and engage through its spirited exposition, a rich assortment of well-chosen exercises, and a selection of topics that emphasizes the kinds of things that can be manipulated, counted, and pictured. Intended neither to be a comprehensive overview nor an encyclopedic reference, this focused treatment goes deeply enough into a sufficiently wide variety of topics to illustrate the flavor, elegance, and power of graph theory. Another unique feature of the book is its user-friendly modular format. Following a basic foundation in Chapters 1-3, the remainder of the book is organized into four strands that can be explored independently of each other. These strands center, respectively, around matching theory; planar graphs and hamiltonian cycles; topics involving chordal graphs and oriented graphs that naturally emerge from recent developments in the theory of graphic sequences; and an edge coloring strand that embraces both Ramsey theory and a self-contained introduction to Pólya's enumeration of nonisomorphic graphs. In the edge coloring strand, the reader is presumed to be familiar with the disjoint cycle factorization of a permutation. Otherwise, all prerequisites for the book can be found in a standard sophomore course in linear algebra. The independence of strands also makes Graph Theory an excellent resource for mathematicians who require access to specific topics without wanting to read an entire book on the subject.

In this second edition, the following recent papers have been added: “Gauss Codes, Quantum Groups and Ribbon Hopf Algebras”, “Spin Networks, Topology and Discrete Physics”, “Link Polynomials and a Graphical Calculus” and “Knots Tangles and Electrical Networks”. An appendix with a discussion on invariants of embedded graphs and Vassiliev invariants has also been included.This book is an introduction to knot and link invariants as generalized amplitudes (vacuum-vacuum amplitudes) for a quasi-physical process. The demands of knot theory, coupled with a quantum statistical framework, create a context that naturally and powerfully includes an extraordinary range of interrelated topics in topology and mathematical physics. The author takes a primarily combinatorial stance toward knot theory and its relations with these subjects. This has the advantage of providing very direct access to the algebra and to the combinatorial topology, as well as the physical ideas. This book is divided into 2 parts: Part I of the book is a systematic course in knots and physics starting from the ground up. Part II is a set of lectures on various topics related to and sometimes based on Part I. Part II also explores some side-topics such as frictional properties of knots, relations with combinatorics and knots in dynamical systems.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 31st International Workshop on Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science, WG 2005, held in Metz, France in June 2005. The 38 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully selected from 125 submissions. The papers provide a wealth of new results for various classes of graphs, graph computations, graph algorithms, and graph-theoretical applications in various fields. The workshop aims at uniting theory and practice by demonstrating how graph-theoretic concepts can be applied to various areas in Computer Science, or by extracting new problems from applications. The goal is to present recent research results and to identify and explore directions of future research.

The Handbook of Graph Theory is the most comprehensive single-source guide to graph theory ever published. Best-selling authors Jonathan Gross and Jay Yellen assembled an outstanding team of experts to contribute overviews of more than 50 of the most significant topics in graph theory-including those related to algorithmic and optimization approach

This volume explains the general theory of hypergraphs and presents in-depth coverage of fundamental and advanced topics: fractional matching, fractional coloring, fractional edge coloring, fractional arboricity via matroid methods, fractional isomorphism, and more. 1997 edition.