International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences
Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 947151, 7 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/947151
Research Article

An Intermediate Value Theorem for the Arboricities

1Department of Mathematics, School of Science, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
2Department of Mathematics, Srinakharinwirot University, Sukhumvit 23, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

Received 26 October 2010; Accepted 29 April 2011

Academic Editor: Aloys Krieg

Copyright © 2011 Avapa Chantasartrassmee and Narong Punnim. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Let 𝐺 be a graph. The vertex (edge) arboricity of 𝐺 denoted by 𝚊 ( 𝐺 ) ( 𝚊 1 ( 𝐺 ) ) is the minimum number of subsets into which the vertex (edge) set of 𝐺 can be partitioned so that each subset induces an acyclic subgraph. Let 𝐝 be a graphical sequence and let ( 𝐝 ) be the class of realizations of 𝐝 . We prove that if 𝜋 { 𝚊 , 𝚊 1 } , then there exist integers 𝑥 ( 𝜋 ) and 𝑦 ( 𝜋 ) such that 𝐝 has a realization 𝐺 with 𝜋 ( 𝐺 ) = 𝑧 if and only if 𝑧 is an integer satisfying 𝑥 ( 𝜋 ) 𝑧 𝑦 ( 𝜋 ) . Thus, for an arbitrary graphical sequence 𝐝 and 𝜋 { 𝚊 , 𝚊 1 } , the two invariants 𝑥 ( 𝜋 ) = m i n ( 𝜋 , 𝐝 ) = m i n { 𝜋 ( 𝐺 ) 𝐺 ( 𝐝 ) } and   𝑦 ( 𝜋 ) = m a x ( 𝜋 , 𝐝 ) = m a x { 𝜋 ( 𝐺 ) 𝐺 ( 𝐝 ) } naturally arise and hence 𝜋 ( 𝐝 ) = { 𝜋 ( 𝐺 ) 𝐺 ( 𝐝 ) } = { 𝑧 𝑥 ( 𝜋 ) 𝑧 𝑦 ( 𝜋 ) } . We write 𝐝 = 𝑟 𝑛 = ( 𝑟 , 𝑟 , , 𝑟 ) for the degree sequence of an 𝑟 -regular graph of order 𝑛 . We prove that 𝚊 1 ( 𝑟 𝑛 ) = { ( 𝑟 + 1 ) / 2 } . We consider the corresponding extremal problem on vertex arboricity and obtain m i n ( 𝚊 , 𝑟 𝑛 ) in all situations and m a x ( 𝚊 , 𝑟 𝑛 ) for all 𝑛 2 𝑟 + 2 .