The Shannon capacity of graph powers

For a graph G, its k-th graph power Gk is constructed by placing an edge between two vertices if they are within distance k. We consider the problem of deriving upper bounds on the Shannon capacity of graph powers by using spectral graph theory and linear optimization methods. First, we use the so-c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Abiad, Aida, Dalfó, Cristina, Fiol Mora, Miguel Ángel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
Repositorio:Repositori Obert UdL
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/469159
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1109/TIT.2025.3628011
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/469159
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Graph power
Independence number
Lovasz theta number
Shannon capacit
Descripción
Sumario:For a graph G, its k-th graph power Gk is constructed by placing an edge between two vertices if they are within distance k. We consider the problem of deriving upper bounds on the Shannon capacity of graph powers by using spectral graph theory and linear optimization methods. First, we use the so-called ratio-type bound to provide an alternative and spectral proof of a result by Lovasz [ IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 1979], which states that, for a regular graph, the Hoffman ratio bound on the independence number is also an upper bound on the Lovasz theta number and, hence, also on the Shannon capacity. In fact, we show that Lovasz’ result holds in the more general context of graph powers. Secondly, we derive another bound on the Shannon capacity of graph powers, the so-called rank-type bound, which depends on a new family of polynomials that can be computed by running a simple algorithm. Lastly, we provide several computational xperiments that demonstrate the sharpness of the two proposed algebraic bounds. As a by-product, when these two new algebraic bounds are tight, they can be used to easily derive the exact values of the Lovasz theta number which relies on solving an SDP) and the Shannon capacity (which is not known to be computable) of the corresponding graph power.