Improved Decomposition Bounds for Partition Polytopes and Odd-Covers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Borgwardt, Steffen, Dvořák, Zdeněk, Frederickson, Bryce, Nix, Abigail, Yoo, Youngho
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Borgwardt, Steffen
Dvořák, Zdeněk
Frederickson, Bryce
Nix, Abigail
Yoo, Youngho
author_facet Borgwardt, Steffen
Dvořák, Zdeněk
Frederickson, Bryce
Nix, Abigail
Yoo, Youngho
contents The assignments of a set of $m$ items into $n$ clusters of prescribed sizes $k_1,\dots,k_n$ can be encoded as the vertices of the partition polytope $\mathrm{PP}(k_1,\dots,k_n)$. We prove that, if $K = \max\{k_1,\dots,k_n\}$, then the combinatorial diameter of $\mathrm{PP}(k_1,\dots,k_n)$ is at most $\lceil 3K/2\rceil$. This improves the previously known upper bound of $2K$. A cycle (or path) odd-cover of a graph $G$ is a set of cycles (or paths) with symmetric difference $G$. We prove that every Eulerian graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ$ admits a cycle odd-cover and a path odd-cover, each of size at most $\lceil 3Δ/4\rceil$. This improves the previously known upper bound of $Δ$. The two proofs share many similarities and are both based on the proof of Akiyama, Exoo, and Harary that every graph with maximum degree 4 has linear arboricity at most 3.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_12748
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Improved Decomposition Bounds for Partition Polytopes and Odd-Covers
Borgwardt, Steffen
Dvořák, Zdeněk
Frederickson, Bryce
Nix, Abigail
Yoo, Youngho
Combinatorics
05C38, 05C62, 05C70, 52B05
The assignments of a set of $m$ items into $n$ clusters of prescribed sizes $k_1,\dots,k_n$ can be encoded as the vertices of the partition polytope $\mathrm{PP}(k_1,\dots,k_n)$. We prove that, if $K = \max\{k_1,\dots,k_n\}$, then the combinatorial diameter of $\mathrm{PP}(k_1,\dots,k_n)$ is at most $\lceil 3K/2\rceil$. This improves the previously known upper bound of $2K$. A cycle (or path) odd-cover of a graph $G$ is a set of cycles (or paths) with symmetric difference $G$. We prove that every Eulerian graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ$ admits a cycle odd-cover and a path odd-cover, each of size at most $\lceil 3Δ/4\rceil$. This improves the previously known upper bound of $Δ$. The two proofs share many similarities and are both based on the proof of Akiyama, Exoo, and Harary that every graph with maximum degree 4 has linear arboricity at most 3.
title Improved Decomposition Bounds for Partition Polytopes and Odd-Covers
topic Combinatorics
05C38, 05C62, 05C70, 52B05
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12748