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We explore the question asking for graphs $G$ for which the total distance decreases, possibly by a fixed constant $k$, upon the removal of any of its vertices. We obtain results leading to intuition and doubts for the \v{S}olt\'es' problem ($k=0$) and its conjectures., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

More than $30$ years ago, \v{S}olt\'es observed that the total distance of the graph $C_{11}$ does not change by deleting a vertex, and wondered about the existence of other such graphs, called \v{S}olt\'es graphs. We extend the definition of \v{S}olt\'es' graphs to \v{S}olt\'es' hypergraphs, determine all orders for which a \v{S}olt\'es' hypergraph exists, observe infinitely many uniform \v{S}olt\'es' hypergraphs, and find the \v{S}olt\'es' hypergraph with minimum size (spoiler: it is not $C_{11}$)., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

One of Thomassen's classical results is that every planar graph of girth at least $5$ is 3-choosable. One can wonder if for a planar graph $G$ of girth sufficiently large and a $3$-list-assignment $L$, one can do even better. Can one find $3$ disjoint $L$-colorings (a packing), or $2$ disjoint $L$-colorings, or a collection of $L$-colorings that to every vertex assigns every color on average in one third of the cases (a fractional packing)? We prove that the packing is impossible, but two disjoint $L$-colorings are guaranteed if the girth is at least $8$, and a fractional packing exists when the girth is at least $6.$ For a graph $G$, the least $k$ such that there are always $k$ disjoint proper list-colorings whenever we have lists all of size $k$ associated to the vertices is called the list packing number of $G$. We lower the two-times-degeneracy upper bound for the list packing number of planar graphs of girth $3,4$ or $5$. As immediate corollaries, we improve bounds for $\epsilon$-flexibility of classes of planar graphs with a given girth. For instance, where previously Dvo\v{r}\'{a}k et al. proved that planar graphs of girth $6$ are (weighted) $\epsilon$-flexibly $3$-choosable for an extremely small value of $\epsilon$, we obtain the optimal value $\epsilon=\frac{1}{3}$. Finally, we completely determine and show interesting behavior on the packing numbers for $H$-minor-free graphs for some small graphs $H.$, Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures

The occupancy fraction of a graph is a (normalized) measure on the size of independent sets under the hard-core model, depending on a variable (fugacity) $\lambda.$ We present a criterion for finding the graph with minimum occupancy fraction among graphs with a fixed order, and disprove five conjectures on the extremes of the occupancy fraction and (normalized) independence polynomial for certain graph classes of regular graphs with a given girth., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

We make some fundamental observations and conjectures on the number of connected sets $N(G)$ in $d$-regular graphs $G$. We improve the best known lower bounds on the exponential behavior of the maximum of $N(G)$ for regular graphs by considering a different construction of a family of graphs (depending on smaller base graphs) and improve the upper bounds conditional on one of our conjectures. The lower bounds are estimated using combinatorial reductions and linear algebra. We also determine the exact maxima of $N(G)$ for cubic and quartic graphs with small order., Comment: 17 Pages, 8 figures, 4 tables

For a $k$-tree $T$, we prove that the maximum local mean order is attained in a $k$-clique of degree $1$ and that it is not more than twice the global mean order. We also bound the global mean order if $T$ has no $k$-cliques of degree $2$ and prove that for large order, the $k$-star attains the minimum global mean order. These results solve the remaining problems of Stephens and Oellermann [J. Graph Theory 88 (2018), 61-79] concerning the mean order of sub-$k$-trees of $k$-trees., Comment: 20 Pages, 6 Figures

In the original article ``Wiener index of Eulerian graphs'' [Discrete Applied Mathematics Volume 162, 10 January 2014, Pages 247-250], the authors state that the Wiener index (total distance) of an Eulerian graph is maximized by the cycle. We explain that the initial proof contains a flaw and note that it is a corollary of a result by Plesn\'ik, since an Eulerian graph is $2$-edge-connected. The same incorrect proof is used in two referencing papers, ``Zagreb Indices and Multiplicative Zagreb Indices of Eulerian Graphs'' [Bull. Malays. Math. Sci. Soc. (2019) 42:67-78] and ``Harary index of Eulerian graphs'' [J. Math. Chem., 59(5):1378-1394, 2021]. We give proofs of the main results of those papers and the $2$-edge-connected analogues., Comment: 5 Pages, 1 Figure Corrigendum of 3 papers, whose titles are combined

Given a bipartite graph $H=(V=V_A\cup V_B,E)$ in which any vertex in $V_A$ (resp.~$V_B$) has degree at most $D_A$ (resp.~$D_B$), suppose there is a partition of $V$ that is a refinement of the bipartition $V_A\cup V_B$ such that the parts in $V_A$ (resp.~$V_B$) have size at least $k_A$ (resp.~$k_B$). We prove that the condition $D_A/k_B+D_B/k_A\le 1$ is sufficient for the existence of an independent set of vertices of $H$ that is simultaneously transversal to the partition, and show moreover that this condition is sharp. This result is a bipartite refinement of two well-known results on independent transversals, one due to the second author and the other due to Szab\'o and Tardos., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; v2 is AAM accepted to SIDMA after incorporating minor corrections

The mean subtree order of a given graph $G$, denoted $\mu(G)$, is the average number of vertices in a subtree of $G$. Let $G$ be a connected graph. Chin, Gordon, MacPhee, and Vincent [J. Graph Theory, 89(4): 413-438, 2018] conjectured that if $H$ is a proper spanning supergraph of $G$, then $\mu(H) > \mu(G)$. Cameron and Mol [J. Graph Theory, 96(3): 403-413, 2021] disproved this conjecture by showing that there are infinitely many pairs of graphs $H$ and $G$ with $H\supset G$, $V(H)=V(G)$ and $|E(H)|= |E(G)|+1$ such that $\mu(H) < \mu(G)$. They also conjectured that for every positive integer $k$, there exists a pair of graphs $G$ and $H$ with $H\supset G$, $V(H)=V(G)$ and $|E(H)| = |E(G)| +k$ such that $\mu(H) < \mu(G)$. Furthermore, they proposed that $\mu(K_m+nK_1) < \mu(K_{m, n})$ provided $n\gg m$. In this note, we confirm these two conjectures., Comment: 11 Pages, 5 Figures Paper identical to JGT submission

We prove the following variant of the Erd\H{o}s distinct subset sums problem. Given $t \ge 0$ and sufficiently large $n$, every $n$-element set $A$ whose subset sums are distinct modulo $N=2^n+t$ satisfies $$\max A \ge \Big(\frac{1}{3}-o(1)\Big)N.$$ Furthermore, we provide examples showing that the constant $\frac 13$ is best possible. For small values of $t$, we characterise the structure of all sumset-distinct sets modulo $N=2^n+t$ of cardinality $n$., Comment: 12 Pages

Mathematicians had little idea whether the easy-to-state union-closed conjecture was true or false even after $40$ years. However, last winter saw a surge of interest in the conjecture and its variants, initiated by the contribution of a researcher at Google. Justin Gilmer [arXiv:2211.09055] made a significant breakthrough by discovering a first constant lower bound for the proportion of the most common element in a union-closed family., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

Applications of graph colouring often involve taking restrictions into account, and it is desirable to have multiple (disjoint) solutions. In the optimal case, where there is a partition into disjoint colourings, we speak of a packing. However, even for complete bipartite graphs, the list chromatic number can be arbitrarily large, and its exact determination is generally difficult. For the packing variant, this question becomes even harder. In this paper, we study the correspondence- and list packing numbers of (asymmetric) complete bipartite graphs. In the most asymmetric cases, Latin squares come into play. Our results show that every $z \in \mathbb Z^+ \setminus {3}$ can be equal to the correspondence packing number of a graph. Additionally, we disprove a recent conjecture that relates the list packing number and the list flexibility number., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures

We investigate the list packing number of a graph, the least $k$ such that there are always $k$ disjoint proper list-colourings whenever we have lists all of size $k$ associated to the vertices. We are curious how the behaviour of the list packing number contrasts with that of the list chromatic number, particularly in the context of bounded degree graphs. The main question we pursue is whether every graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ has list packing number at most $\Delta+1$. Our results highlight the subtleties of list packing and the barriers to, for example, pursuing a Brooks'-type theorem for the list packing number., Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

The Wiener index of a (hyper)graph is calculated by summing up the distances between all pairs of vertices. We determine the maximum possible Wiener index of a connected $n$-vertex $k$-uniform hypergraph and characterize for every~$n$ all hypergraphs attaining the maximum Wiener index.

A set of vertices in a graph is a Hamiltonian subset if it induces a subgraph containing a Hamiltonian cycle. Kim, Liu, Sharifzadeh and Staden proved that among all graphs with minimum degree $d$, $K_{d+1}$ minimises the number of Hamiltonian subsets. We prove a near optimal lower bound that takes also the order and the structure of a graph into account. For many natural graph classes, it provides a much better bound than the extremal one ($\approx 2^{d+1}$). Among others, our bound implies that an $n$-vertex $C_4$-free graphs with minimum degree $d$ contains at least $n2^{d^{2-o(1)}}$ Hamiltonian subsets., Comment: 11 pages

We improve the best known constant $\frac{3-\sqrt 5}{2}$ for which the union-closed conjecture is known to be true, by using dependent samples as suggested by Sawin and the entropy approach on this problem initiated by Gilmer. Meanwhile, we focus on the intuition behind this entropy approach and its boundaries., Comment: 10 pages Comments welcome

The problem of determining the maximum number of maximal independent sets in certain graph classes dates back to a paper of Miller and Muller and a question of Erd\H{o}s and Moser from the 1960s. The minimum was always considered to be less interesting due to simple examples such as stars. In this paper we show that the problem becomes interesting when restricted to twin-free graphs, where no two vertices have the same open neighbourhood. We consider the question for arbitrary graphs, bipartite graphs and trees. The minimum number of maximal independent sets turns out to be logarithmic in the number of vertices for arbitrary graphs, linear for bipartite graphs and exponential for trees. In the latter case, the minimum and the extremal graphs have been determined earlier by Taletski\u{\i} and Malyshev, but we present a shorter proof., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables

We present equivalent formulations for concepts related to set families for which every subfamily with empty intersection has a bounded sub-collection with empty intersection. Hereby, we summarize the progress on the related questions about the maximum size of such families. In this work we solve a boundary case of a problem of Tuza for non-trivial $q$-Helly families, by applying Karamata's inequality and determining the minimum size of a $2$-self-centered graph for which the common neighborhood of every pair of vertices contains a clique of size $q-2$., Comment: 14 Pages, 2 figures

We define the average $k$-TSP distance $\mu_{tsp,k}$ of a graph $G$ as the average length of a shortest walk visiting $k$ vertices, i.e. the expected length of the solution for a random TSP instance with $k$ uniformly random chosen vertices. We prove relations with the average $k$-Steiner distance and characterize the cases where equality occurs. We also give sharp bounds for $\mu_{tsp,k}(G)$ given the order of the graph., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

We characterize the extremal trees that maximize the number of almost-perfect matchings, which are matchings covering all but one or two vertices, and those that maximize the number of strong almost-perfect matchings, which are matchings missing only one or two leaves. We also determine the trees that minimize the number of maximal matchings. We apply these results to extremal problems on the weighted Hosoya index for several choices of vertex-degree-based weight function., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures

We define the Wiener-entropy, which is together with the eccentricity-entropy one of the most natural distance-based graph entropies. By deriving the (asymptotic) extremal behaviour, we conclude that the Wiener-entropy of graphs of a given order is more spread than is the case for the eccentricity-entropy. We solve $3$ conjectures on the eccentricity-entropy and give a conjecture on the Wiener-entropy related to some surprising behaviour on the graph minimizing it., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables v2: computer verifications have been added

The Sudoku number has been defined under various names, indicating it is a natural concept. There are four variants of this parameter, that can be related to the maximum and minimum size of a critical set in a graph colouring problem. For each of these four related parameters, we present some simple characterizations of the graphs attaining the maximum possible values. As a main result, we answer a question by Cooper and Kirkpatrick, showing that there is monotone behaviour in the number of colours for only two of the four parameters. We investigate the monotone behaviour for the subgraph-order as well. For Latin squares and the Sudoku, we solve some variants for hypergraph colouring., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

We characterize the bipartite graphs that minimize the (first-degree based) entropy, among all bipartite graphs of given size, or given size and (upper bound on the) order. The extremal graphs turn out to be complete bipartite graphs, or nearly complete bipartite. Here we make use of an equivalent representation of bipartite graphs by means of Young tableaux, which make it easier to compare the entropy of related graphs. We conclude that the general characterization of the extremal graphs is a difficult problem, due to its connections with number theory, but they are easy to find for specific values of the order $n$ and size $m$. We also give a direct argument to characterize the graphs maximizing the entropy given order and size. We indicate that some of our ideas extend to other degree-based topological indices as well., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

The first degree-based entropy of a graph is the Shannon entropy of its degree sequence normalized by the degree sum. In this paper, we characterize the connected graphs with given order $n$ and size $m$ that minimize the first degree-based entropy whenever $n-1 \le m \le 2n-3,$ thus extending and proving a conjecture by Yan., Comment: 11 pages, 1 table (containing 5 figures)

The first degree-based entropy of a graph is the Shannon entropy of its degree sequence normalized by the degree sum. Its correct interpretation as a measure of uniformity of the degree sequence requires the determination of its extremal values given natural constraints. In this paper, we prove that the graphs with given size that minimize the first degree-based entropy are the colex graphs., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures

The reconfiguration graph $\mathcal{C}_k(G)$ for the $k$-colourings of a graph $G$ has a vertex for each proper $k$-colouring of $G$, and two vertices of $\mathcal{C}_k(G)$ are adjacent precisely when those $k$-colourings differ on a single vertex of $G$. Much work has focused on bounding the maximum value of ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_k(G)$ over all $n$-vertex graphs $G$. We consider the analogous problems for list colourings and for correspondence colourings. We conjecture that if $L$ is a list-assignment for a graph $G$ with $|L(v)|\ge d(v)+2$ for all $v\in V(G)$, then ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_L(G)\le n(G)+\mu(G)$. We also conjecture that if $(L,H)$ is a correspondence cover for a graph $G$ with $|L(v)|\ge d(v)+2$ for all $v\in V(G)$, then ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_{(L,H)}(G)\le n(G)+\tau(G)$. (Here $\mu(G)$ and $\tau(G)$ denote the matching number and vertex cover number of $G$.) For every graph $G$, we give constructions showing that both conjectures are best possible. Our first main result proves the upper bounds (for the list and correspondence versions, respectively) ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_L(G)\le n(G)+2\mu(G)$ and ${\rm{diam}}~\mathcal{C}_{(L,H)}(G)\le n(G)+2\tau(G)$. Our second main result proves that both conjectured bounds hold, whenever all $v$ satisfy $|L(v)|\ge 2d(v)+1$. We conclude by proving one or both conjectures for various classes of graphs such as complete bipartite graphs, subcubic graphs, cactuses, and graphs with bounded maximum average degree., Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures; to appear in European J. Combinatorics

How large must the chromatic number of a graph be, in terms of the graph's maximum degree, to ensure that the most efficient way to reduce the chromatic number by removing vertices is to remove an independent set? By a reduction to a powerful, known stability form of Brooks' theorem, we answer this question precisely, determining the threshold to within two values (and indeed sometimes a unique value) for graphs of sufficiently large maximum degree., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures; v2 is AAM to appear in European Journal of Combinatorics

The families $\mathcal F_0,\ldots,\mathcal F_s$ of $k$-element subsets of $[n]:=\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ are called cross-union if there is no choice of $F_0\in \mathcal F_0, \ldots, F_s\in \mathcal F_s$ such that $F_0\cup\ldots\cup F_s=[n]$. A natural generalization of the celebrated Erd\H{o}s--Ko--Rado theorem, due to Frankl and Tokushige, states that for $n\le (s+1)k$ the geometric mean of $\lvert \mathcal F_i\rvert$ is at most $\binom{n-1}{k}$. Frankl conjectured that the same should hold for the arithmetic mean under some mild conditions. We prove Frankl's conjecture in a strong form by showing that the unique (up to isomorphism) maximizer for the arithmetic mean of cross-union families is the natural one $\mathcal F_0=\ldots=\mathcal F_s={[n-1]\choose k}$., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure Accepted at Combinatorial Theory

In 1984, Plesn\'{i}k determined the minimum total distance for given order and diameter and characterized the extremal graphs and digraphs. We prove the analog for given order and radius, when the order is sufficiently large compared to the radius. This confirms asymptotically a conjecture of Chen et al. We also state an analog of the conjecture of Chen et al for digraphs and prove it for sufficiently large order., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, this paper is an extended version of a first part of arXiv:1903.01358, mainly clarifying the content of sections 3 and 4 Figure 2 has been corrected, an Open access statement and a missing part of the introduction have been added

In $1967$, Vizing determined the maximum size of a graph with given order and radius. In $1973$, Fridman answered the same question for digraphs with given order and outradius. We investigate that question when restricting to biconnected digraphs. Biconnected digraphs are the digraphs with a finite total distance and hence the interesting ones, as we want to note a connection between minimizing the total distance and maximizing the size under the same constraints. We characterize the extremal digraphs maximizing the size among all biconnected digraphs of order $n$ and outradius $3$, as well as when the order is sufficiently large compared to the outradius. As such, we solve a problem of Dankelmann asymptotically. We also consider these questions for bipartite digraphs and solve a second problem of Dankelmann partially., Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, this paper is an extended version of a second part of arXiv:1903.01358, mainly clarifying the content of section 5, where the bipartite cases are considered as well. Furthermore a foreword and table with figures of the extremal (di)graphs has been added for clarification

List colouring is an influential and classic topic in graph theory. We initiate the study of a natural strengthening of this problem, where instead of one list-colouring, we seek many in parallel. Our explorations have uncovered a potentially rich seam of interesting problems spanning chromatic graph theory. Given a $k$-list-assignment $L$ of a graph $G$, which is the assignment of a list $L(v)$ of $k$ colours to each vertex $v\in V(G)$, we study the existence of $k$ pairwise-disjoint proper colourings of $G$ using colours from these lists. We may refer to this as a \emph{list-packing}. Using a mix of combinatorial and probabilistic methods, we set out some basic upper bounds on the smallest $k$ for which such a list-packing is always guaranteed, in terms of the number of vertices, the degeneracy, the maximum degree, or the (list) chromatic number of $G$. (The reader might already find it interesting that such a minimal $k$ is well defined.) We also pursue a more focused study of the case when $G$ is a bipartite graph. Our results do not yet rule out the tantalising prospect that the minimal $k$ above is not too much larger than the list chromatic number. Our study has taken inspiration from study of the strong chromatic number, and we also explore generalisations of the problem above in the same spirit., Comment: 32 pages, 2 tables; v2 accepted to Random Structures & Algorithms

The largest known reset thresholds for DFAs are equal to $(n-1)^2$, where $n$ is the number of states. This is conjectured to be the maximum possible. PFAs (with partial transition function) can have exponentially large reset thresholds. This is still true if we restrict to binary PFAs. However, asymptotics do not give conclusions for fixed $n$. We prove that the maximal reset threshold for binary PFAs is strictly greater than $(n-1)^2$ if and only if $n\geq 6$. These results are mostly based on the analysis of synchronizing word lengths for a certain family of binary PFAs. This family has the following properties: it contains the well-known \v{C}ern\'y automata; for $n\leq 10$ it contains a binary PFA with maximal possible reset threshold; for all $n\geq 6$ it contains a PFA with reset threshold larger than the maximum known for DFAs. Analysis of this family reveals remarkable patterns involving the Fibonacci numbers and related sequences such as the Padovan sequence. We derive explicit formulas for the reset thresholds in terms of these recurrent sequences. Asymptotically the \v{C}ern\'y family gives reset thresholds of polynomial order. We prove that PFAs in the family are not extremal for $n\geq 41$. For that purpose, we present an improvement of Martyugin's prime number construction of binary PFAs., Comment: Even more extended than the IJFCS publication referenced below, which is an extended version of a publication in the proceedings of DLT 2021 titled 'Extremal Binary PFAs in a Cerny Family'

One of the most important open problems in the field of graph colouring or even graph theory is the conjecture of Hadwiger. This conjecture was the inspiration for many mathematical works, one of them being the work of F\"uredi, Gy\'arf\'as and Simonyi in which they "risked" to conjecture the precise bound for a graph with independence number $2$ to contain a certain connected matching. We prove that their conjecture would be a corollary of Hadwiger's conjecture or equivalently if their risky conjecture would be false, then Hadwiger's conjecture would be false as well., Comment: 4 Pages

We resolve two conjectures of Hri\v{n}\'{a}kov\'{a}, Knor and \v{S}krekovski (2019) concerning the relationship between the variable Wiener index and variable Szeged index for a connected, non-complete graph, one of which would imply the other. The strong conjecture is that for any such graph there is a critical exponent in $(0,1]$, below which the variable Wiener index is larger and above which the variable Szeged index is larger. The weak conjecture is that the variable Szeged index is always larger for any exponent exceeding $1$. They proved the weak conjecture for bipartite graphs, and the strong conjecture for trees. In this note we disprove the strong conjecture, although we show that it is true for almost all graphs, and for bipartite and block graphs. We also show that the weak conjecture holds for all graphs by proving a majorization relationship., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Added a reference. Final version, to appear in Applied Mathematics and Computation

We wish to bring attention to a natural but slightly hidden problem, posed by Erd\H{o}s and Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il in the late 1980s, an edge version of the degree--diameter problem. Our main result is that, for any graph of maximum degree $\Delta$ with more than $1.5 \Delta^t$ edges, its line graph must have diameter larger than $t$. In the case where the graph contains no cycle of length $2t+1$, we can improve the bound on the number of edges to one that is exact for $t\in\{1,2,3,4,6\}$. In the case $\Delta=3$ and $t=3$, we obtain an exact bound. Our results also have implications for the related problem of bounding the distance-$t$ chromatic index, $t>2$; in particular, for this we obtain an upper bound of $1.941\Delta^t$ for graphs of large enough maximum degree $\Delta$, markedly improving upon earlier bounds for this parameter., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; v2 accepted to SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics

A subtree of a tree is any induced subgraph that is again a tree (i.e., connected). The mean subtree order of a tree is the average number of vertices of its subtrees. This invariant was first analyzed in the 1980s by Jamison. An intriguing open question raised by Jamison asks whether the maximum of the mean subtree order, given the order of the tree, is always attained by some caterpillar. While we do not completely resolve this conjecture, we find some evidence in its favor by proving different features of trees that attain the maximum. For example, we show that the diameter of a tree of order $n$ with maximum mean subtree order must be very close to $n$. Moreover, we show that the maximum mean subtree order is equal to $n - 2\log_2 n + O(1)$. For the local mean subtree order, which is the average order of all subtrees containing a fixed vertex, we can be even more precise: we show that its maximum is always attained by a broom and that it is equal to $n - \log_2 n + O(1)$., Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures

Suppose $G$ and $H$ are bipartite graphs and $L: V(G)\to 2^{V(H)}$ induces a partition of $V(H)$ such that the subgraph of $H$ induced between $L(v)$ and $L(v')$ is a matching whenever $vv'\in E(G)$. We show for each $\varepsilon>0$ that, if $H$ has maximum degree $D$ and $|L(v)| \ge (1+\varepsilon)D/\log D$ for all $v\in V(G)$, then $H$ admits an independent transversal with respect to $L$, provided $D$ is sufficiently large. This bound on the part sizes is asymptotically sharp up to a factor $2$. We also show some asymmetric variants of this result., Comment: 14 pages; v2 added asymmetric version of Haxell's theorem, accepted to Canadian Mathematical Bulletin

In this paper, we prove a collection of results on graphical indices. We determine the extremal graphs attaining the maximal generalized Wiener index (e.g. the hyper-Wiener index) among all graphs with given matching number or independence number. This generalizes some work of Dankelmann, as well as some work of Chung. We also show alternative proofs for two recents results on maximizing the Wiener index and external Wiener index by deriving it from earlier results. We end with proving two conjectures. We prove that the maximum for the difference of the Wiener index and the eccentricity is attained by the path if the order $n$ is at least $9$ and that the maximum weighted Szeged index of graphs of given order is attained by the balanced complete bipartite graphs., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures

Given a bipartite graph with parts $A$ and $B$ having maximum degrees at most $\Delta_A$ and $\Delta_B$, respectively, consider a list assignment such that every vertex in $A$ or $B$ is given a list of colours of size $k_A$ or $k_B$, respectively. We prove some general sufficient conditions in terms of $\Delta_A$, $\Delta_B$, $k_A$, $k_B$ to be guaranteed a proper colouring such that each vertex is coloured using only a colour from its list. These are asymptotically nearly sharp in the very asymmetric cases. We establish one sufficient condition in particular, where $\Delta_A=\Delta_B=\Delta$, $k_A=\log \Delta$ and $k_B=(1+o(1))\Delta/\log\Delta$ as $\Delta\to\infty$. This amounts to partial progress towards a conjecture from 1998 of Krivelevich and the first author. We also derive some necessary conditions through an intriguing connection between the complete case and the extremal size of approximate Steiner systems. We show that for complete bipartite graphs these conditions are asymptotically nearly sharp in a large part of the parameter space. This has provoked the following. In the setup above, we conjecture that a proper list colouring is always guaranteed * if $k_A \ge \Delta_A^\varepsilon$ and $k_B \ge \Delta_B^\varepsilon$ for any $\varepsilon>0$ provided $\Delta_A$ and $\Delta_B$ are large enough; * if $k_A \ge C \log\Delta_B$ and $k_B \ge C \log\Delta_A$ for some absolute constant $C>1$; or * if $\Delta_A=\Delta_B = \Delta$ and $ k_B \ge C (\Delta/\log\Delta)^{1/k_A}\log \Delta$ for some absolute constant $C>0$. These are asymmetric generalisations of the above-mentioned conjecture of Krivelevich and the first author, and if true are close to best possible. Our general sufficient conditions provide partial progress towards these conjectures., Comment: 20 pages; minor corrections in v2, to appear in Annals of Combinatorics

Motivated by a recent conjecture of the first author, we prove that every properly coloured triangle-free graph of chromatic number $\chi$ contains a rainbow independent set of size $\lceil\frac12\chi\rceil$. This is sharp up to a factor $2$. This result and its short proof have implications for the related notion of chromatic discrepancy. Drawing inspiration from both structural and extremal graph theory, we conjecture that every triangle-free graph of chromatic number $\chi$ contains an induced cycle of length $\Omega(\chi\log\chi)$ as $\chi\to\infty$. Even if one only demands an induced path of length $\Omega(\chi\log\chi)$, the conclusion would be sharp up to a constant multiple. We prove it for regular girth $5$ graphs and for girth $21$ graphs. As a common strengthening of the induced paths form of this conjecture and of Johansson's theorem (1996), we posit the existence of some $c >0$ such that for every forest $H$ on $D$ vertices, every triangle-free and induced $H$-free graph has chromatic number at most $c D/\log D$. We prove this assertion with `triangle-free' replaced by `regular girth $5$'., Comment: 12 pages; in v2 one section was removed due to a subtle error

Motivated by a Gan-Loh-Sudakov-type problem, we introduce the regular Tur\'an numbers, a natural variation on the classical Tur\'an numbers for which the host graph is required to be regular. Among other results, we prove a striking supersaturation version of Mantel's theorem in the case of a regular host graph of odd order. We also characterise the graphs for which the regular Tur\'an numbers behave classically or otherwise., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, 1 table

In 1984, Plesn\'{i}k determined the minimum total distance for given order and diameter and characterized the extremal graphs and digraphs. We prove the analog for given order and radius, when the order is sufficiently large compared to the radius. This confirms asymptotically a conjecture of Chen et al. We show the connection between minimizing the total distance and maximizing the size under the same conditions. We also prove some asymptotically optimal bounds for the maximum total distance., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures

Fix $d \ge 3$. We show the existence of a constant $c>0$ such that any graph of diameter at most $d$ has average distance at most $d-c \frac{d^{3/2}}{\sqrt n}$, where $n$ is the number of vertices. Moreover, we exhibit graphs certifying sharpness of this bound up to the choice of $c$. This constitutes an asymptotic solution to a longstanding open problem of Plesn\'{i}k. Furthermore we solve the problem exactly for digraphs if the order is large compared with the diameter., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures revised version as accepted at JCTB