An example showing that Schrijver's $\vartheta$-function need not upper bound the Shannon capacity of a graph

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Main Author: Sason, Igal
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Published: 2025
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author Sason, Igal
author_facet Sason, Igal
contents This letter addresses an open question concerning a variant of the Lovász $\vartheta$ function, which was introduced by Schrijver and independently by McEliece et al. (1978). The question of whether this variant provides an upper bound on the Shannon capacity of a graph was explicitly stated by Bi and Tang (2019). This letter presents an explicit example of a Tanner graph on 32 vertices, which shows that, in contrast to the Lovász $\vartheta$ function, this variant does not necessarily upper bound the Shannon capacity of a graph. The example, previously outlined by the author in a recent paper (2024), is presented here in full detail, making it easy to follow and verify. By resolving this question, the note clarifies a subtle but significant distinction between these two closely related graph invariants.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_07778
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An example showing that Schrijver's $\vartheta$-function need not upper bound the Shannon capacity of a graph
Sason, Igal
Combinatorics
Information Theory
This letter addresses an open question concerning a variant of the Lovász $\vartheta$ function, which was introduced by Schrijver and independently by McEliece et al. (1978). The question of whether this variant provides an upper bound on the Shannon capacity of a graph was explicitly stated by Bi and Tang (2019). This letter presents an explicit example of a Tanner graph on 32 vertices, which shows that, in contrast to the Lovász $\vartheta$ function, this variant does not necessarily upper bound the Shannon capacity of a graph. The example, previously outlined by the author in a recent paper (2024), is presented here in full detail, making it easy to follow and verify. By resolving this question, the note clarifies a subtle but significant distinction between these two closely related graph invariants.
title An example showing that Schrijver's $\vartheta$-function need not upper bound the Shannon capacity of a graph
topic Combinatorics
Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07778