A unified treatment of the most important results in the study of fractional graph concepts, this volume explores the various ways in which integer-valued concepts can be modified to derive nonintegral values. It begins with the general fractional theory of hypergraphs and presents in-depth coverage of fundamental and advanced topics. Subjects include fractional matching, fractional coloring, fractional edge coloring, fractional arboricity via matroid methods, and fractional isomorphism. The final chapter examines additional topics such as fractional domination, fractional intersection numbers, and fractional aspects of partially ordered sets.
Challenging exercises reinforce the contents of each chapter, and the authors provide substantial references and bibliographic materials. A comprehensive reference for researchers, this volume also constitutes an excellent graduate-level text for students of graph theory and linear programming.
The vast majority of concepts in graph theory are whole-number based. Invariants from chromatic number to arboricity only take on integer values. In this book the authors explore generalizations of core graph theory notions by allowing real values to substitute where normally only integers would be permitted. The aim is to prove "fractional analogues" of the theorems of traditional graph theory.