r-fundamental groups of graphs

Publication date: 30 January 2013

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce the notions of

r

-fundamental groups of graphs,

r

-covering maps, and

r

-neighborhood complexes of graphs for a positive integer

r

. There is a natural correspondence between

r

-covering maps and

r

-fundamental groups as is the case of the covering space theory in topology. We can derive obstructions of the existences of graph maps from

r

-fundamental groups. Especially,

r

-fundamental groups gives deep informations about the existences of graph maps to odd cycles. For example, we prove the Kneser graph

K_{2 k + 1, k}

has no graph maps to

C_{5}

.

r

-neighborhood complexes are natural generalization of neighborhood complexes defined by Lov

a c u t e m a

sz. We prove that

(2 r)

-fundamental groups gives graph theoretical description of the fundamental groups of

r

-neighborhood complexes.

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