Symmetry Breaking in Tournaments

We provide upper bounds for the determining number and the metric dimension of tournaments. A set of vertices $S \subseteq V(T)$ is a determining set for a tournament $T$ if every nontrivial automorphism of $T$ moves at least one vertex of $S$, while $S$ is a resolving set for $T$ if every two distinct vertices in $T$ have different distances to some vertex in $S$. We show that the minimum size of a determining set for an order $n$ tournament (its determining number) is bounded by $\lfloor n/3 \rfloor$, while the minimum size of a resolving set for an order $n$ strong tournament (its metric dimension) is bounded by $\lfloor n/2 \rfloor$. Both bounds are optimal.

A Note on the Number of Hamiltonian Paths in Strong Tournaments

We prove that the minimum number of distinct hamiltonian paths in a strong tournament of order $n$ is $5^{{n-1}\over{3}}$. A known construction shows this number is best possible when $n \equiv 1 \hbox{ mod } 3$ and gives similar minimal values for $n$ congruent to $0$ and $2$ modulo $3$.

Hamiltonian Cycles Avoiding Prescribed Arcs in Tournaments

Thomassen [6] conjectured that if I is a set of k−1 arcs in a k-strong tournament T, then T−I has a Hamiltonian cycle. This conjecture was proved by Fraisse and Thomassen [3]. We prove the following stronger result. Let T=(V, A) be a k-strong tournament on n vertices and let X1, X2, [ctdot ], Xl be a partition of the vertex set V of T such that [mid ]X1[mid ][les ][mid ]X2[mid ] [les ][ctdot ][les ][mid ]Xl[mid ]. If k[ges ][sum ] l−1i=1[lfloor ] [mid ]Xi[mid ]/2[rfloor ]+[mid ]Xl[mid ], then T−∪li=1 {xy∈A[ratio ]x, y∈Xi} has a Hamiltonian cycle. The bound on k is sharp.

Cycles of Each Length in Regular Tournaments

It is known that a strong tournament of order n contains a cycle of each length k, k=3,…, n, ([l], Thm. 7). Moon [2] observed that each vertex in a strong tournament of order n is contained in a cycle of each length k, k = 3,…, n. In this paper we obtain a similar result for each arc of a regular tournament, that is, a tournament in which all vertices have the same score.