Republic has $n \geq 2$ cities, between some pairs of cities there are non-directed flight routes. From each city it is possible to get to any other city, and we will call the minimal number of flights required to do that the distance between the cities. For every city consider the biggest distance to another city. It turned out that for every city this number is equal to $m$. Find all values $m$ can attain for given $n$
Problem
Source: Belarus - Iran Competition 2022
Tags: graph theory, combinatorics
nguyenloc1712
14.09.2024 17:59
the answer is $ m \leq [\frac{n}{2}]$
for construction, let it be a cyclic graph, number 1,2,..,n clockwise
connect (1+m; 1-m);....(n-m;n-3m) (mod n)
then we will have each vertex in a cylce with 2m+1 vertices
for m = 1 let the graph be a clique
for $m = [\frac{n}{2}]$ when n even let the graph be a cyclic graph
for example, n = 15 and m = 6
to show that $ m \leq [\frac{n}{2}]$
assume $ m \geq [\frac{n}{2}] + 1$
let a,b,c,d such that distance(a,b) = distance(c,d) = m
distance(a,b) and distance(c,d) can't be disjoint paths (since 2m > n)
which means any paths with distance = m will intersect other paths
so there will be a intersection, let it be e
and the paths after vertex e are same
because b,d are the max distance from e
and we can show that there is no vertex f such that distance (e,f) = m
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nAalniaOMliO
14.09.2024 23:05
I do not understand your solution at all. Can you please be more specific everywhere?