Jochen Pascal Gollin

• Dr. rer. nat.
• Institute for Basic Science

For ${n \in \mathbb{N}}$, the $n$-truncation of a matroid $M$ of rank at least $n$ is the matroid whose bases are the $n$-element independent sets of $M$. One can extend this definition to negative integers by letting the $(-n)$-truncation be the matroid whose bases are all the sets that can be obtained by deleting $n$ elements of a base of $M$. If...

Treewidth and Hadwiger number are two of the most important parameters in structural graph theory. This paper studies graph classes in which large treewidth implies the existence of a large complete graph minor. To formalise this, we say that a graph class $\mathcal{G}$ is (tw,had)-bounded if there is a function $f$ (called the (tw,had)-bounding fu...

A colouring of a graph $G$ has clustering $k$ if the maximum number of vertices in a monochromatic component equals $k$. Motivated by recent results showing that many natural graph classes are subgraphs of the strong product of a graph with bounded treewidth and a path, this paper studies clustered colouring of strong products of two bounded treewi...

An \emph{induced packing} of cycles in a graph is a set of vertex-disjoint cycles with no edges between them. We generalise the classic Erd\H{o}s-P\'osa theorem to induced packings of cycles. More specifically, we show that there exists a function ${f(k) = \mathcal{O}(k \log k)}$ such that for every positive integer ${k}$, every graph $G$ contains...

For a finite (not necessarily Abelian) group $(\Gamma,\cdot)$, let $n(\Gamma) \in \mathbb{N}$ denote the smallest positive integer $n$ such that for every labelling of the arcs of the complete digraph of order $n$ using elements from $\Gamma$, there exists a directed cycle such that the arc-labels along the cycle multiply to the identity. Alon and...

Motivated by the analysis of consensus formation in the Deffuant model for social interaction, we consider the following procedure on a graph $G$. Initially, there is one unit of tea at a fixed vertex $r \in V(G)$, and all other vertices have no tea. At any time in the procedure, we can choose a connected subset of vertices $T$ and equalize the amo...

Erdős and Pósa proved in 1965 that there is a duality between the maximum size of a packing of cycles and the minimum size of a vertex set hitting all cycles. Such a duality does not hold if we restrict to odd cycles. However, in 1999, Reed proved an analogue for odd cycles by relaxing packing to half‐integral packing. We prove a far‐reaching gener...

We show that many graphs with bounded treewidth can be described as subgraphs of the strong product of a graph with smaller treewidth and a bounded-size complete graph. To this end, define the underlying treewidth of a graph class $\mathcal{G}$ to be the minimum non-negative integer $c$ such that, for some function $f$, for every graph $G \in \math...

A graph class $\mathcal{G}$ has linear growth if, for each graph $G \in \mathcal{G}$ and every positive integer $r$, every subgraph of $G$ with radius at most $r$ contains $O(r)$ vertices. In this paper, we show that every graph class with linear growth has bounded treewidth.

Given a graph class~$\mathcal{C}$, the $\mathcal{C}$-blind-treewidth of a graph~$G$ is the smallest integer~$k$ such that~$G$ has a tree-decomposition where every bag whose torso does not belong to~$\mathcal{C}$ has size at most~$k$. In this paper we focus on the class~$\mathcal{B}$ of bipartite graphs and the class~$\mathcal{P}$ of planar graphs t...

The problem of maximising the number of cliques among n-vertex graphs from various graph classes has received considerable attention. We investigate this problem for the class of 1-planar graphs where we determine precisely the maximum total number of cliques as well as the maximum number of cliques of any fixed size. We also precisely characterise...

A graph G $G$ is said to be ≼ $\preccurlyeq $‐ubiquitous, where ≼ $\preccurlyeq $ is the minor relation between graphs, if whenever Γ ${\rm{\Gamma }}$ is a graph with nG≼Γ $nG\preccurlyeq {\rm{\Gamma }}$ for all n∈N $n\in {\mathbb{N}}$, then one also has ℵ0G≼Γ ${\aleph }_{0}G\preccurlyeq {\rm{\Gamma }}$, where αG $\alpha G$ is the disjoint union of...

A fundamental result in linear algebra states that if a homogenous linear equation system has only the trivial solution, then there are at most as many variables as equations. We prove the following generalisation of this phenomenon. If a possibly infinite homogenous linear equation system with finitely many variables in each equation has only the...

A fundamental result in linear algebra states that if a homogenous linear equation system has only the trivial solution, then there are at most as many variables as equations. We prove the following generalisation of this phenomenon. If a possibly infinite homogenous linear equation system with finitely many variables in each equation has only the...

Let ⊲ be a relation between graphs. We say a graph G is ⊲-ubiquitous if whenever Γ is a graph with nG⊲Γ for all n∈N, then one also has ℵ0G⊲Γ, where αG is the disjoint union of α many copies of G. The Ubiquity Conjecture of Andreae, a well-known open problem in the theory of infinite graphs, asserts that every locally finite connected graph is ubiqu...

A k-connected set in an infinite graph, where k>0 is an integer, is a set of vertices such that any two of its subsets of the same size ℓ≤k can be connected by ℓ disjoint paths in the whole graph. We characterise the existence of k-connected sets of arbitrary but fixed infinite cardinality via the existence of certain minors and topological minors....

A graph class $\mathcal{G}$ has linear growth if, for each graph $G \in \mathcal{G}$ and every positive integer $r$, every subgraph of $G$ with radius at most $r$ contains $O(r)$ vertices. In this paper, we show that every graph class with linear growth has bounded treewidth.

A dicut in a directed graph is a cut for which all of its edges are directed to a common side of the cut. A famous theorem of Lucchesi and Younger states that in every finite digraph the least size of a set of edges meeting every non-empty dicut equals the maximum number of disjoint dicuts in that digraph. Such sets are called dijoins. Woodall conj...

In 1965, Erd\H{o}s and P\'{o}sa proved that there is a duality between the maximum size of a packing of cycles and the minimum size of a vertex set hitting all cycles. Such a duality does not hold for odd cycles, and Dejter and Neumann-Lara asked in 1988 to find all pairs ${(\ell, z)}$ of integers where such a duality holds for the family of cycles...

We show that many graphs with bounded treewidth can be described as subgraphs of the strong product of a graph with smaller treewidth and a bounded-size complete graph. To this end, define the "underlying treewidth" of a graph class $\mathcal{G}$ to be the minimum non-negative integer $c$ such that, for some function $f$, for every graph ${G \in \m...

A rooted digraph is a vertex-flame if for every vertex v there is a set of internally disjoint directed paths from the root to v whose set of terminal edges covers all ingoing edges of v. It was shown by Lovász that every finite rooted digraph admits a spanning subdigraph which is a vertex-flame and large, where the latter means that it preserves t...

A dicut in a directed graph is a cut for which all of its edges are directed to a common side of the cut. A famous theorem of Lucchesi and Younger states that in every finite digraph the least size of a set of edges meeting every non-empty dicut equals the maximum number of disjoint dicuts in that digraph. Such sets are called dijoins. Woodall conj...

The problem of maximising the number of cliques among $n$-vertex graphs from various graph classes has received considerable attention. We investigate this problem for the class of $1$-planar graphs where we determine precisely the maximum total number of cliques as well as the maximum number of cliques of any fixed size. We also precisely characte...

We show that if a graph admits a packing and a covering both consisting of λ many spanning trees, where λ is some infinite cardinal, then the graph also admits a decomposition into λ many spanning trees. For finite λ the analogous question remains open, however, a slightly weaker statement is proved.

DeVos, Kwon, and Oum introduced the concept of branch-depth of matroids as a natural analogue of tree-depth of graphs. They conjectured that a matroid of sufficiently large branch-depth contains the uniform matroid Un;2n or the cycle matroid of a large fan graph as a minor. We prove that matroids with sufficiently large branch-depth either contain...

A dicut in a directed graph is a cut for which all of its edges are directed to a common side of the cut. A famous theorem of Lucchesi and Younger states that in every finite digraph the least size of an edge set meeting every dicut equals the maximum number of disjoint dicuts in that digraph. In this first paper out of a series of two papers, we c...

Tree sets are abstract structures that can be used to model various tree-shaped objects in combinatorics. Finite tree sets can be represented by finite graph-theoretical trees. We extend this representation theory to infinite tree sets. First we characterise those tree sets that can be represented by tree sets arising from infinite trees; these are...

Erd\H{o}s and P\'{o}sa proved in 1965 that there is a duality between the maximum size of a packing of cycles and the minimum size of a vertex set hitting all cycles. Such a duality does not hold if we restrict to odd cycles. However, in 1999, Reed proved an analogue for odd cycles by relaxing packing to half-integral packing. We prove a far-reachi...

We extend Edmonds’ Branching Theorem to locally finite infinite digraphs. As examples of Oxley or Aharoni and Thomassen show, this cannot be done using ordinary arborescences, whose underlying graphs are trees. Instead we introduce the notion of pseudo-arborescences and prove a corresponding packing result. Finally, we verify some tree-like propert...

A graph $G$ is said to be ubiquitous, if every graph $\Gamma$ that contains arbitrarily many disjoint $G$-minors automatically contains infinitely many disjoint $G$-minors. The well-known Ubiquity conjecture of Andreae says that every locally finite graph is ubiquitous. In this paper we show that locally finite graphs admitting a certain type of tr...

Let M = (Mi: i ∈ K) be a finite or infinite family consisting of matroids on a common ground set E each of which may be finitary or cofinitary. We prove the following Cantor-Bernstein-type result: If there is a collection of bases, one for each Mi, which covers the set E, and also a collection of bases which are pairwise disjoint, then there is a c...

DeVos, Kwon, and Oum introduced the concept of branch-depth of matroids as a natural analogue of tree-depth of graphs. They conjectured that a matroid of sufficiently large branch-depth contains the uniform matroid $U_{n,2n}$ or the cycle matroid of a large fan graph as a minor. We prove that matroids with sufficiently large branch-depth either con...

A rooted digraph is a vertex-flame if for every vertex $v$ there is a set of internally disjoint directed paths from the root to $v$ whose set of terminal edges covers all ingoing edges of $v$. It was shown by Lov\'{a}sz that every finite rooted digraph admits a spanning subdigraph which is a vertex-flame and large, where the latter means that it p...

Let ${\mathcal{M} = (M_i \colon i<\lambda)}$ be a family consisting of finitary and cofinitary matroids on a common ground set $E$, where $\lambda$ is a finite or infinite cardinal. We prove the following Cantor-Bernstein-type result: if $E$ can be covered by sets ${(B_i \colon i<\lambda)}$ which are bases in the corresponding matroids and there ar...

A dicut in a directed graph is a cut for which all of its edges are directed to a common side of the cut. A famous theorem of Lucchesi and Younger states that in every finite digraph the least size of an edge set meeting every dicut equals the maximum number of disjoint dicuts in that digraph. In this first paper out of a series of two papers, we c...

Tree sets are abstract structures that can be used to model various tree-shaped objects in combinatorics. Finite tree sets can be represented by finite graph-theoretical trees. We extend this representation theory to infinite tree sets. First we characterise those tree sets that can be represented by tree sets arising from infinite trees; these are...

We show that if a graph admits a packing and a covering both consisting of $\lambda$ many spanning trees, where $\lambda$ is some infinite cardinal, then the graph also admits a decomposition into $\lambda$ many spanning trees. For finite $\lambda$ the analogous question remains open, however, a slightly weaker statement is proved.

A $k$-connected set in an infinite graph, where $k > 0$ is an integer, is a set of vertices such that any two of its subsets of the same size $\ell \leq k$ can be connected by $\ell$ disjoint paths in the whole graph. We characterise the existence of $k$-connected sets of arbitrary but fixed infinite cardinality via the existence of certain minors...

A graph $G$ is said to be \emph{$\preceq$-ubiquitous}, where $\preceq$ is the minor relation between graphs, if whenever $\Gamma$ is a graph with $nG \preceq \Gamma$ for all $n \in \mathbb{N}$, then one also has $\aleph_0 G \preceq \Gamma$, where $\alpha G$ is the disjoint union of $\alpha$ many copies of $G$. A well-known conjecture of Andreae is...

Let $\triangleleft$ be a relation between graphs. We say a graph $G$ is \emph{$\triangleleft$-ubiquitous} if whenever $\Gamma$ is a graph with $nG \triangleleft \Gamma$ for all $n \in \mathbb{N}$, then one also has $\aleph_0 G \triangleleft \Gamma$, where $\alpha G$ is the disjoint union of $\alpha$ many copies of $G$. The \emph{Ubiquity Conjecture...

We extend Edmonds' Branching Theorem to locally finite infinite digraphs. As examples of Oxley or Aharoni and Thomassen show, this cannot be done using ordinary arborescences, whose underlying graphs are trees. Instead we introduce the notion of pseudo-arborescences and prove a corresponding packing result. Finally, we verify some tree-like propert...

We prove that every end of a graph contains either uncountably many disjoint rays or a set of disjoint rays that meet all rays of the end and start at any prescribed feasible set of start vertices. This confirms a conjecture of Georgakopoulos.

We prove that every end of a graph contains either uncountably many disjoint rays or a set of disjoint rays that meet all rays of the end and start at any prescribed feasible set of start vertices. This confirms a conjecture of Georgakopoulos.

A $k$-block in a graph $G$ is a maximal set of at least $k$ vertices no two of which can be separated in $G$ by removing less than $k$ vertices. It is separable if there exists a tree-decomposition of adhesion less than $k$ of $G$ in which this $k$-block appears as a part. Carmesin, Diestel, Hamann, Hundertmark and Stein proved that every finite gr...