The Noncrossing Bond Poset of a Graph

The partition lattice and noncrossing partition lattice are well studied objects in combinatorics. Given a graph $G$ on vertex set $\{1,2,\dots, n\}$, its bond lattice, $L_G$, is the subposet of the partition lattice formed by restricting to the partitions whose blocks induce connected subgraphs of $G$. In this article, we introduce a natural noncrossing analogue of the bond lattice, the noncrossing bond poset, $NC_G$, obtained by restricting to the noncrossing partitions of $L_G$. Both the noncrossing partition lattice and the bond lattice have many nice combinatorial properties. We show that, for several families of graphs, the noncrossing bond poset also exhibits these properties. We present simple necessary and sufficient conditions on the graph to ensure the noncrossing bond poset is a lattice. Additionally, for several families of graphs, we give combinatorial descriptions of the Möbius function and characteristic polynomial of the noncrossing bond poset. These descriptions are in terms of a noncrossing analogue of non-broken circuit (NBC) sets of the graphs and can be thought of as a noncrossing version of Whitney's NBC theorem for the chromatic polynomial. We also consider the shellability and supersolvability of the noncrossing bond poset, providing sufficient conditions for both. We end with some open problems.

Flow polynomials of a Signed Graph

For a signed graph $G$ and non-negative integer $d$, it was shown by DeVos et al. that there exists a polynomial $F_d(G,x)$ such that the number of the nowhere-zero $\Gamma$-flows in $G$ equals $F_d(G,x)$ evaluated at $k$ for every Abelian group $\Gamma$ of order $k$ with $\epsilon(\Gamma)=d$, where $\epsilon(\Gamma)$ is the largest integer $d$ for which $\Gamma$ has a subgroup isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^d_2$. We define a class of particular directed circuits in $G$, namely the fundamental directed circuits, and show that all $\Gamma$-flows (not necessarily nowhere-zero) in $G$ can be generated by these circuits. It turns out that all $\Gamma$-flows in $G$ can be evenly partitioned into $2^{\epsilon(\Gamma)}$ classes specified by the elements of order 2 in $\Gamma$, each class of which consists of the same number of flows depending only on the order of $\Gamma$. Using an extension of Whitney's broken circuit theorem of Dohmen and Trinks, we give a combinatorial interpretation of the coefficients in $F_d(G,x)$ for $d=0$ in terms of broken bonds. Finally, we show that the sets of edges in a signed graph that contain no broken bond form a homogeneous simplicial complex.

An Abstraction of Whitney's Broken Circuit Theorem

We establish a broad generalization of Whitney's broken circuit theorem on the chromatic polynomial of a graph to sums of type $\sum_{A\subseteq S} f(A)$ where $S$ is a finite set and $f$ is a mapping from the power set of $S$ into an abelian group. We give applications to the domination polynomial and the subgraph component polynomial of a graph, the chromatic polynomial of a hypergraph, the characteristic polynomial and Crapo's beta invariant of a matroid, and the principle of inclusion-exclusion. Thus, we discover several known and new results in a concise and unified way. As further applications of our main result, we derive a new generalization of the maximums-minimums identity and of a theorem due to Blass and Sagan on the Möbius function of a finite lattice, which generalizes Rota's crosscut theorem. For the classical Möbius function, both Euler's totient function and its Dirichlet inverse, and the reciprocal of the Riemann zeta function we obtain new expansions involving the greatest common divisor resp. least common multiple. We finally establish an even broader generalization of Whitney's broken circuit theorem in the context of convex geometries (antimatroids).

Software System for Automotive Wiring Harness Testing Based on Virtual Instrument

Development of modern information technology provides a technical platform for the wide application of virtual instrument technology. Here we apply virtual instrument technology to test the faults of wiring harnesses, such as short circuit , broken circuit , wiring error , poor contact, poor insulation and unsatisfactory impedance and monitor the product quality at real-time. We use LabVIEW of the graphical programming language based on virtual instrument as the tool to develop the testing software. It realizes the functions such as the data acquisition, storage, analysis and display, single point wiring harness testing, all wiring harness testing, impedance testing, query and statistics, etc. We uses software instead of hardware so that functions can be added or cut down at random without adding any other hardware facilities.

A GENERALIZATION OF THE SWARTZ EQUALITY

For a given (d−1)-dimensional simplicial complex Γ, we denote its h-vector by h(Γ)=(h0(Γ),h1(Γ),. . .,hd(Γ)) and set h−1(Γ)=0. The known Swartz equality implies that if Δ is a (d−1)-dimensional Buchsbaum simplicial complex over a field, then for every 0 ≤ i ≤ d, the inequality ihi(Δ)+(d−i+1)hi−1(Δ) ≥ 0 holds true. In this paper, by using these inequalities, we give a simple proof for a result of Terai (N. Terai, On h-vectors of Buchsbaum Stanley–Reisner rings, Hokkaido Math. J. 25(1) (1996), 137–148) on the h-vectors of Buchsbaum simplicial complexes. We then generalize the Swartz equality (E. Swartz, Lower bounds for h-vectors of k-CM, independence, and broken circuit complexes, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 18(3) (2004/05), 647–661), which in turn leads to a generalization of the above-mentioned inequalities for Cohen–Macaulay simplicial complexes in co-dimension t.