Matroid Minor
In the mathematical theory of matroids, a minor of a matroid ''M'' is another matroid ''N'' that is obtained from ''M'' by a sequence of restriction and contraction operations. Matroid minors are closely related to graph minors, and the restriction and contraction operations by which they are formed correspond to edge deletion and edge contraction operations in graphs. The theory of matroid minors leads to structural decompositions of matroids, and characterizations of matroid families by forbidden minors, analogous to the corresponding theory in graphs. Definitions If ''M'' is a matroid on the set ''E'' and ''S'' is a subset of ''E'', then the restriction of ''M'' to ''S'', written ''M'' , ''S'', is the matroid on the set ''S'' whose independent sets are the independent sets of ''M'' that are contained in ''S''. Its circuits are the circuits of ''M'' that are contained in ''S'' and its rank function is that of ''M'' restricted to subsets of ''S''. If ''T'' is an independent ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Matroid
In combinatorics, a branch of mathematics, a matroid is a structure that abstracts and generalizes the notion of linear independence in vector spaces. There are many equivalent ways to define a matroid axiomatically, the most significant being in terms of: independent sets; bases or circuits; rank functions; closure operators; and closed sets or flats. In the language of partially ordered sets, a finite matroid is equivalent to a geometric lattice. Matroid theory borrows extensively from the terminology of both linear algebra and graph theory, largely because it is the abstraction of various notions of central importance in these fields. Matroids have found applications in geometry, topology, combinatorial optimization, network theory and coding theory. Definition There are many equivalent ( cryptomorphic) ways to define a (finite) matroid.A standard source for basic definitions and results about matroids is Oxley (1992). An older standard source is Welsh (1976). See Brylawsk ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Real Number
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a ''continuous'' one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small variations. Every real number can be almost uniquely represented by an infinite decimal expansion. The real numbers are fundamental in calculus (and more generally in all mathematics), in particular by their role in the classical definitions of limits, continuity and derivatives. The set of real numbers is denoted or \mathbb and is sometimes called "the reals". The adjective ''real'' in this context was introduced in the 17th century by René Descartes to distinguish real numbers, associated with physical reality, from imaginary numbers (such as the square roots of ), which seemed like a theoretical contrivance unrelated to physical reality. The real numbers include the rational numbers, such as the integer and the fraction . The rest of the real number ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parameterized Complexity
In computer science, parameterized complexity is a branch of computational complexity theory that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty with respect to ''multiple'' parameters of the input or output. The complexity of a problem is then measured as a function of those parameters. This allows the classification of NP-hard problems on a finer scale than in the classical setting, where the complexity of a problem is only measured as a function of the number of bits in the input. The first systematic work on parameterized complexity was done by . Under the assumption that P ≠ NP, there exist many natural problems that require superpolynomial running time when complexity is measured in terms of the input size only, but that are computable in a time that is polynomial in the input size and exponential or worse in a parameter . Hence, if is fixed at a small value and the growth of the function over is relatively small then such p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Minimum Spanning Tree
A minimum spanning tree (MST) or minimum weight spanning tree is a subset of the edges of a connected, edge-weighted undirected graph that connects all the vertices together, without any cycles and with the minimum possible total edge weight. That is, it is a spanning tree whose sum of edge weights is as small as possible. More generally, any edge-weighted undirected graph (not necessarily connected) has a minimum spanning forest, which is a union of the minimum spanning trees for its connected components. There are many use cases for minimum spanning trees. One example is a telecommunications company trying to lay cable in a new neighborhood. If it is constrained to bury the cable only along certain paths (e.g. roads), then there would be a graph containing the points (e.g. houses) connected by those paths. Some of the paths might be more expensive, because they are longer, or require the cable to be buried deeper; these paths would be represented by edges with larger weights ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Linear Program
Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements are represented by linear relationships. Linear programming is a special case of mathematical programming (also known as mathematical optimization). More formally, linear programming is a technique for the optimization of a linear objective function, subject to linear equality and linear inequality constraints. Its feasible region is a convex polytope, which is a set defined as the intersection of finitely many half spaces, each of which is defined by a linear inequality. Its objective function is a real-valued affine (linear) function defined on this polyhedron. A linear programming algorithm finds a point in the polytope where this function has the smallest (or largest) value if such a point exists. Linear programs are problems that can be expressed in canonical form as : \begin & \text && \ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Seymour's Decomposition Theorem
In graph theory, a branch of mathematics, a clique-sum is a way of combining two graphs by gluing them together at a clique, analogous to the connected sum operation in topology. If two graphs ''G'' and ''H'' each contain cliques of equal size, the clique-sum of ''G'' and ''H'' is formed from their disjoint union by identifying pairs of vertices in these two cliques to form a single shared clique, and then possibly deleting some of the clique edges. A ''k''-clique-sum is a clique-sum in which both cliques have at most ''k'' vertices. One may also form clique-sums and ''k''-clique-sums of more than two graphs, by repeated application of the two-graph clique-sum operation. Different sources disagree on which edges should be removed as part of a clique-sum operation. In some contexts, such as the decomposition of chordal graphs or strangulated graphs, no edges should be removed. In other contexts, such as the SPQR-tree decomposition of graphs into their 3-vertex-connected components, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Clique-sum
In graph theory, a branch of mathematics, a clique-sum is a way of combining two graphs by gluing them together at a clique, analogous to the connected sum operation in topology. If two graphs ''G'' and ''H'' each contain cliques of equal size, the clique-sum of ''G'' and ''H'' is formed from their disjoint union by identifying pairs of vertices in these two cliques to form a single shared clique, and then possibly deleting some of the clique edges. A ''k''-clique-sum is a clique-sum in which both cliques have at most ''k'' vertices. One may also form clique-sums and ''k''-clique-sums of more than two graphs, by repeated application of the two-graph clique-sum operation. Different sources disagree on which edges should be removed as part of a clique-sum operation. In some contexts, such as the decomposition of chordal graphs or strangulated graphs, no edges should be removed. In other contexts, such as the SPQR-tree decomposition of graphs into their 3-vertex-connected components, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Graph Structure Theorem
In mathematics, the graph structure theorem is a major result in the area of graph theory. The result establishes a deep and fundamental connection between the theory of graph minors and topological embeddings. The theorem is stated in the seventeenth of a series of 23 papers by Neil Robertson and Paul Seymour. Its proof is very long and involved. and are surveys accessible to nonspecialists, describing the theorem and its consequences. Setup and motivation for the theorem A minor of a graph is any graph that is isomorphic to a graph that can be obtained from a subgraph of by contracting some edges. If does ''not'' have a graph as a minor, then we say that is -free. Let be a fixed graph. Intuitively, if is a huge -free graph, then there ought to be a "good reason" for this. The graph structure theorem provides such a "good reason" in the form of a rough description of the structure of . In essence, every -free graph suffers from one of two structural deficie ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Well-quasi-ordering
In mathematics, specifically order theory, a well-quasi-ordering or wqo is a quasi-ordering such that any infinite sequence of elements x_0, x_1, x_2, \ldots from X contains an increasing pair x_i \leq x_j with i x_2> \cdots) nor infinite sequences of ''pairwise incomparable'' elements. Hence a quasi-order (''X'', ≤) is wqo if and only if (''X'', <) is and has no infinite s. Examples [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Partial Order
In mathematics, especially order theory, a partially ordered set (also poset) formalizes and generalizes the intuitive concept of an ordering, sequencing, or arrangement of the elements of a set. A poset consists of a set together with a binary relation indicating that, for certain pairs of elements in the set, one of the elements precedes the other in the ordering. The relation itself is called a "partial order." The word ''partial'' in the names "partial order" and "partially ordered set" is used as an indication that not every pair of elements needs to be comparable. That is, there may be pairs of elements for which neither element precedes the other in the poset. Partial orders thus generalize total orders, in which every pair is comparable. Informal definition A partial order defines a notion of comparison. Two elements ''x'' and ''y'' may stand in any of four mutually exclusive relationships to each other: either ''x'' ''y'', or ''x'' and ''y'' are ''incompar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Treewidth
In graph theory, the treewidth of an undirected graph is an integer number which specifies, informally, how far the graph is from being a tree. The smallest treewidth is 1; the graphs with treewidth 1 are exactly the trees and the forests. The graphs with treewidth at most 2 are the series–parallel graphs. The maximal graphs with treewidth exactly are called '' -trees'', and the graphs with treewidth at most are called '' partial -trees''. Many other well-studied graph families also have bounded treewidth. Treewidth may be formally defined in several equivalent ways: in terms of the size of the largest vertex set in a tree decomposition of the graph, in terms of the size of the largest clique in a chordal completion of the graph, in terms of the maximum order of a haven describing a strategy for a pursuit–evasion game on the graph, or in terms of the maximum order of a bramble, a collection of connected subgraphs that all touch each other. Treewidth is commonly used as a pa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Star (graph Theory)
In graph theory, a star is the complete bipartite graph a tree with one internal node and leaves (but no internal nodes and leaves when ). Alternatively, some authors define to be the tree of order with maximum diameter 2; in which case a star of has leaves. A star with 3 edges is called a claw. The star is edge-graceful when is even and not when is odd. It is an edge-transitive matchstick graph, and has diameter 2 (when ), girth ∞ (it has no cycles), chromatic index , and chromatic number 2 (when ). Additionally, the star has large automorphism group, namely, the symmetric group on letters. Stars may also be described as the only connected graphs in which at most one vertex has degree greater than one. Relation to other graph families Claws are notable in the definition of claw-free graphs, graphs that do not have any claw as an induced subgraph. They are also one of the exceptional cases of the Whitney graph isomorphism theorem: in general, graphs with isomor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |