Connected τ -critical hypergraphs of minimal size

Stehlík, Matěj

Discrete mathematics & theoretical computer science, DMTCS Proceedings vol. AE, European Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory and Applications (EuroComb '05), DMTCS Proceedings vol. AE, European Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory and Applications (EuroComb '05) (2005).

Résumé

A hypergraph $\mathscr{H}$ is $τ$ -critical if $τ (\mathscr{H}-E) < τ (\mathscr{H})$ for every edge $E ∈\mathscr{H}$, where $τ (\mathscr{H})$ denotes the transversal number of $\mathscr{H}$. It can be shown that a connected $τ$ -critical hypergraph $\mathscr{H}$ has at least $2τ (\mathscr{H})-1$ edges; this generalises a classical theorem of Gallai on $χ$ -vertex-critical graphs with connected complements. In this paper we study connected $τ$ -critical hypergraphs $\mathscr{H}$ with exactly $2τ (\mathscr{H)}-1$ edges. We prove that such hypergraphs have at least $2τ (\mathscr{H})-1$ vertices, and characterise those with $2τ (\mathscr{H})-1$ vertices using a directed odd ear decomposition of an associated digraph. Using Seymour's characterisation of $χ$ -critical 3-chromatic square hypergraphs, we also show that a connected square hypergraph $\mathscr{H}$ with fewer than $2τ (\mathscr{H})$ edges is $τ$ -critical if and only if it is $χ$ -critical 3-chromatic. Finally, we deduce some new results on $χ$ -vertex-critical graphs with connected complements.

Détail

DOI : 10.46298/dmtcs.3397