Finite Characterization of the Coarsest Balanced Coloring of a Network

Balanced colorings of networks correspond to flow-invariant synchrony spaces. It is known that the coarsest balanced coloring is equivalent to nodes having isomorphic infinite input trees, but this condition is not algorithmic. We provide an algorithmic characterization: two nodes have the same color for the coarsest balanced coloring if and only if their [Formula: see text]th input trees are isomorphic, where [Formula: see text] is the number of nodes. Here [Formula: see text] is the best possible. The proof is analogous to that of Leighton’s theorem in graph theory, using the universal cover of the network and the notion of a symbolic adjacency matrix to set up a partition refinement algorithm whose output is the coarsest balanced coloring. The running time of the algorithm is cubic in [Formula: see text].

SYMMETRY AND SYNCHRONY IN COUPLED CELL NETWORKS 3

This paper continues the study of patterns of synchrony (equivalently, balanced colorings or flow-invariant subspaces) in symmetric coupled cell networks, and their relation to fixed-point spaces of subgroups of the symmetry group. Our aim is to provide a group-theoretic explanation of the "exotic" balanced coloring previously discussed in Part 2. Here we show that the pattern can be obtained as a projection into two dimensions of a fixed-point pattern in a three-dimensional lattice. We prove a general theorem giving sufficient conditions for such a construction to lead to a balanced coloring, for an arbitrary direct product of group networks.

Balanced Avoidance Games on Random Graphs

International audience We introduce and study balanced online graph avoidance games on the random graph process. The game is played by a player we call Painter. Edges of the complete graph with $n$ vertices are revealed two at a time in a random order. In each move, Painter immediately and irrevocably decides on a balanced coloring of the new edge pair: either the first edge is colored red and the second one blue or vice versa. His goal is to avoid a monochromatic copy of a given fixed graph $H$ in both colors for as long as possible. The game ends as soon as the first monochromatic copy of $H$ has appeared. We show that the duration of the game is determined by a threshold function $m_H = m_H(n)$. More precisely, Painter will asymptotically almost surely (a.a.s.) lose the game after $m = \omega (m_H)$ edge pairs in the process. On the other hand, there is an essentially optimal strategy, that is, if the game lasts for $m = o(m_H)$ moves, then Painter will a.a.s. successfully avoid monochromatic copies of H using this strategy. Our attempt is to determine the threshold function for certain graph-theoretic structures, e.g., cycles.