New bounds on the decycling number of generalized de Bruijn digraphs

Abstract

A set of vertices of a graph whose removal leaves an acyclic graph is referred as a decycling set, or a feedback vertex set, of the graph. The minimum cardinality of a decycling set of a graph [Formula: see text] is referred to as the decycling number of [Formula: see text]. For [Formula: see text], the generalized de Bruijn digraph [Formula: see text] is defined by congruence equations as follows: [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we give a systematic method to find a decycling set of [Formula: see text] and give a new upper bound that improve the best known results. By counting the number of vertex-disjoint cycles with the idea of constrained necklaces, we obtain new lower bounds on the decycling number of generalized de Bruijn digraphs.