Proper connection and size of graphs

An edge-coloured graph $G$ is called properly connected if any two vertices are connected by a path whose edges are properly coloured. The proper connection number of a connected graph $G,$ denoted by $\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)$, is the smallest number of colours that are needed in order to make $G$ properly connected. Our main result is the following: Let $G$ be a connected graph of order $n$ and $k\ge 2$. If $\left|E\left(G\right)\right|\ge \left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n?k?1}{2}\right)+k+2$, then $\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)\le k$ except when $k=2$ and $G\in \{G_1,G_2\},$ where $G_1=K_1\vee (2K_1+K_2)$ and $G_2=K_1\vee (K_1+2K_2).$     

On stable cutsets in claw-free graphs and planar graphs

A stable cutset in a connected graph is a stable set whose deletion disconnects the graph. Let $K_4$ and $K_{1,3}$ (claw) denote the complete (bipartite) graph on 4 and $1+3$ vertices. It is NP-complete to decide whether a line graph (hence a claw-free graph) with maximum degree five or a $K_4$-free graph admits a stable cutset. Here we describe algorithms deciding in polynomial time whether a claw-free graph with maximum degree at most four or whether a (claw, $K_4$)-free graph admits a stable cutset. As a by-product we obtain that the stable cutset problem is polynomially solvable for claw-free planar graphs, and also for planar line graphs.Thus, the computational complexity of the stable cutset problem is completely determined for claw-free graphs with respect to degree constraint, and for claw-free planar graphs. Moreover, we prove that the stable cutset problem remains NP-complete for $K_4$-free planar graphs with maximum degree five.     

On vertex-disjoint cycles and degree sum conditions

This paper considers a degree sum condition sufficient to imply the existence of $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles in a graph $G$. For an integer $t\ge 1$, let ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)$ be the smallest sum of degrees of $t$ independent vertices of $G$. We prove that if $G$ has order at least $7k+1$ and ${\sigma }_4\left(G\right)\ge 8k?3$, with $k\ge 2$, then $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles. We also show that the degree sum condition on ${\sigma }_4\left(G\right)$ is sharp and conjecture a degree sum condition on ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)$ sufficient to imply $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles for $k\ge 2$.     

A note on degree sum conditions for 2-factors with a prescribed number of cycles in bipartite graphs

Let $G$ be a balanced bipartite graph of order $2n\ge 4$, and let ${\sigma }_{1,1}\left(G\right)$ be the minimum degree sum of two non-adjacent vertices in different partite sets of $G$. In 1963, Moon and Moser proved that if ${\sigma }_{1,1}\left(G\right)\ge n+1$, then $G$ is hamiltonian. In this note, we show that if $k$ is a positive integer, then the Moon–Moser condition also implies the existence of a 2-factor with exactly $k$ cycles for sufficiently large graphs. In order to prove this, we also give a ${\sigma }_{1,1}$ condition for the existence of $k$ vertex-disjoint alternating cycles with respect to a chosen perfect matching in $G$.     

Hamiltonian cycles with all small even chords

Let $G$ be a graph of order $n\ge 3$. An even squared Hamiltonian cycle (ESHC) of $G$ is a Hamiltonian cycle $C=v_1{v}_2\dots v_n{v}_1$ of $G$ with chords $v_i{v}_{i+3}$ for all $1\le i\le n$ (where $v_{n+j}=v_j$ for $j\ge 1$). When $n$ is even, an ESHC contains all bipartite $2$-regular graphs of order $n$. We prove that there is a positive integer $N$ such that for every graph $G$ of even order $n\ge N$, if the minimum degree is $\delta \left(G\right)\ge \frac{n}{2}+92$, then $G$ contains an ESHC. We show that the condition of $n$ being even cannot be dropped and the constant $92$ cannot be replaced by $1$. Our results can be easily extended to even $k$th powered Hamiltonian cycles for all $k\ge 2$.     

Maximum average degree and relaxed coloring

We say a graph is $(d,d,\dots ,d,0,\dots ,0)$-colorable with $a$ of $d$’s and $b$ of $0$’s if $V\left(G\right)$ may be partitioned into $b$ independent sets $O_1,O_2,\dots ,O_b$ and $a$ sets $D_1,D_2,\dots ,D_a$ whose induced graphs have maximum degree at most $d$. The maximum average degree, $mad\left(G\right)$, of a graph $G$ is the maximum average degree over all subgraphs of $G$. In this note, for nonnegative integers $a,b$, we show that if $mad\left(G\right)<\frac{4}{3}a+b$, then $G$ is $(1_1,1_2,\dots ,1_a,0_1,\dots ,0_b)$-colorable.     

A note on the shameful conjecture

Let $P_G\left(q\right)$ denote the chromatic polynomial of a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices. The ‘shameful conjecture’ due to Bartels and Welsh states that, $\frac{P_G\left(n\right)}{P_G(n-1)}\ge \frac{n^n}{{(n-1)}^n}\text{.}$ Let $\mu \left(G\right)$ denote the expected number of colors used in a uniformly random proper $n$-coloring of $G$. The above inequality can be interpreted as saying that $\mu \left(G\right)\ge \mu \left(O_n\right)$, where $O_n$ is the empty graph on $n$ nodes. This conjecture was proved by F.M. Dong, who in fact showed that, $\frac{P_G\left(q\right)}{P_G(q-1)}\ge \frac{q^n}{{(q-1)}^n}$ for all $q\ge n$. There are examples showing that this inequality is not true for all $q\ge 2$. In this paper, we show that the above inequality holds for all $q\ge 36D^{3/2}$, where $D$ is the largest degree of $G$. It is also shown that the above inequality holds true for all $q\ge 2$ when $G$ is a claw-free graph.     

Some multicolor bipartite Ramsey numbers involving cycles and a small number of colors

For bipartite graphs $G_1,G_2,\dots ,G_k$, the bipartite Ramsey number $b(G_1,G_2,\dots ,G_k)$ is the least positive integer $b$ so that any coloring of the edges of $K_{b,b}$ with $k$ colors will result in a copy of $G_i$ in the $i$th color for some $i$. In this paper, our main focus will be to bound the following numbers: $b(C_{2t_1},C_{2t_2})$ and $b(C_{2t_1},C_{2t_2},C_{2t_3})$ for all $t_i\ge 3,$$b(C_{2t_1},C_{2t_2},C_{2t_3},C_{2t_4})$ for $3\le t_i\le 9,$ and $b(C_{2t_1},C_{2t_2},C_{2t_3},C_{2t_4},C_{2t_5})$ for $3\le t_i\le 5.$ Furthermore, we will also show that these mentioned bounds are generally better than the bounds obtained by using the best known Zarankiewicz-type result.