Vertex‐disjoint cycles of length at most four each of which contains a specified vertex*

We obtain a sharp minimum degree condition δ (G) ≥ of a graph G of order n ≥ 3k guaranteeing that, for any k distinct vertices, G contains k vertex‐disjoint cycles of length at most four each of which contains one of the k prescribed vertices. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 37: 37–47, 2001     

Hamiltonian graphs involving neighborhood unions

Dirac proved that a graph G is hamiltonian if the minimum degree , where n is the order of G. Let G be a graph and . The neighborhood of A is for some . For any positive integer k, we show that every (2k ? 1)‐connected graph of order n ≥ 16k³ is hamiltonian if |N(A)| ≥ n/2 for every independent vertex set A of k vertices. The result contains a few known results as special cases. The case of k = 1 is the classic result of Dirac when n is large and the case of k = 2 is a result of Broersma, Van den Heuvel, and Veldman when n is large. For general k, this result improves a result of Chen and Liu. The lower bound 2k ? 1 on connectivity is best possible in general while the lower bound 16k³ for n is conjectured to be unnecessary. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 53: 83–100, 2006     

A list analogue of equitable coloring

Given lists of available colors assigned to the vertices of a graph G, a list coloring is a proper coloring of G such that the color on each vertex is chosen from its list. If the lists all have size k, then a list coloring is equitable if each color appears on at most vertices. A graph is equitably k-choosable if such a coloring exists whenever the lists all have size k. We prove that G is equitably k-choosable when unless G contains or k is odd and . For forests, the threshold improves to . If G is a 2-degenerate graph (given k ≥ 5) or a connected interval graph (other than ), then G is equitably k-choosable when . © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 44: 166–177, 2003     

Pentagons and cycle coverings

Let G be a graph of order n ≥ 5k + 2, where k is a positive integer. Suppose that the minimum degree of G is at least ?(n + k)/2?. We show that G contains k pentagons and a path such that they are vertex‐disjoint and cover all the vertices of G. Moreover, if n ≥ 5k + 7, then G contains k + 1 vertex‐disjoint cycles covering all the vertices of G such that k of them are pentagons. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 54: 194–208, 2007     

Perfect matchings in random uniform hypergraphs

Let ??_k(n, p) be the random k‐uniform hypergraph on V = [n] with edge probability p. Motivated by a theorem of Erd?s and Rényi 7 regarding when a random graph G(n, p) = ??₂(n, p) has a perfect matching, the following conjecture may be raised. (See J. Schmidt and E. Shamir 16 for a weaker version.) Conjecture. Let k|n for fixed k ≥ 3, and the expected degree d(n, p) = p(). Then (Erd?s and Rényi 7 proved this for G(n, p).) Assuming d(n, p)/n^1/2 → ∞, Schmidt and Shamir 16 were able to prove that ??_k(n, p) contains a perfect matching with probability 1 ? o(1). Frieze and Janson 8 showed that a weaker condition d(n, p)/n^1/3 → ∞ was enough. In this paper, we further weaken the condition to A condition for a similar problem about a perfect triangle packing of G(n, p) is also obtained. A perfect triangle packing of a graph is a collection of vertex disjoint triangles whose union is the entire vertex set. Improving a condition p ≥ cn^?2/3+1/15 of Krivelevich 12 , it is shown that if 3|n and p ? n^?2/3+1/18, then © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 23: 111–132, 2003     

2‐connected 7‐coverings of 3‐connected graphs on surfaces

An m‐covering of a graph G is a spanning subgraph of G with maximum degree at most m. In this paper, we shall show that every 3‐connected graph on a surface with Euler genus k ≥ 2 with sufficiently large representativity has a 2‐connected 7‐covering with at most 6k ? 12 vertices of degree 7. We also construct, for every surface F² with Euler genus k ≥ 2, a 3‐connected graph G on F² with arbitrarily large representativity each of whose 2‐connected 7‐coverings contains at least 6k ? 12 vertices of degree 7. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 26–36, 2003     

Two‐factors each component of which contains a specified vertex

It is shown that if G is a graph of order n with minimum degree δ(G), then for any set of k specified vertices {v₁,v₂,…,v_k} ? V(G), there is a 2‐factor of G with precisely k cycles {C₁,C₂,…,C_k} such that v_i ∈ V(C_i) for (1 ≤ i ≤ k) if or 3k + 1 ≤ n ≤ 4k, or 4k ≤ n ≤ 6k ? 3,δ(G) ≥ 3k ? 1 or n ≥ 6k ? 3, . Examples are described that indicate this result is sharp. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 188–198, 2003     

Partial Degree Conditions and Cycle Coverings

Let G be a graph of order n. Let W be a subset of with , where k is a positive integer. We show that if for each , then G contains k vertex‐disjoint cycles covering W such that each of the k cycles contains at least three vertices of W.     

On the number of independent chorded cycles in a graph

Hajnal and Corrádi proved that any simple graph on at least 3k vertices with minimal degree at least 2k contains k independent cycles. We prove the analogous result for chorded cycles. Let G be a simple graph with |V(G)|4k and minimal degree δ(G)3k. Then G contains k independent chorded cycles. This result is sharp.     

Graphs with unavoidable subgraphs with large degrees

Let ??(n, m) denote the class of simple graphs on n vertices and m edges and let G ∈ ?? (n, m). There are many results in graph theory giving conditions under which G contains certain types of subgraphs, such as cycles of given lengths, complete graphs, etc. For example, Turan's theorem gives a sufficient condition for G to contain a K_{k + 1} in terms of the number of edges in G. In this paper we prove that, for m = αn², α > (k - 1)/2k, G contains a K_{k + 1}, each vertex of which has degree at least f(α)n and determine the best possible f(α). For m = ?n²/4? + 1 we establish that G contains cycles whose vertices have certain minimum degrees. Further, for m = αn², α > 0 we establish that G contains a subgraph H with δ(H) ≥ f(α, n) and determine the best possible value of f(α, n).     

Explicit sparse almost‐universal graphs for ${\bf {{\cal G}(n, {k \over n})}}$

For any integer n, let be a probability distribution on the family of graphs on n vertices (where every such graph has nonzero probability associated with it). A graph Γ is ‐almost‐universal if Γ satisifies the following: If G is chosen according to the probability distribution , then G is isomorphic to a subgraph of Γ with probability 1 ‐ . For any p ∈ [0,1], let (n,p) denote the probability distribution on the family of graphs on n vertices, where two vertices u and v form an edge with probability p, and the events {u and v form an edge}; u,v ∈ V (G) are mutually independent. For k ≥ 4 and n sufficiently large we construct a ‐almost‐universal‐graph on n vertices and with O(n)polylog(n) edges, where q = ? ? for such k ≤ 6, and where q = ? ? for k ≥ 7. The number of edges is close to the lower bound of Ω( ) for the number of edges in a universal graph for the family of graphs with n vertices and maximum degree k. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2010     

The color space of a graph

If k is a prime power, and G is a graph with n vertices, then a k‐coloring of G may be considered as a vector in $\mathbb{GF}$(k)ⁿ. We prove that the subspace of $\mathbb{GF}$(3)ⁿ spanned by all 3‐colorings of a planar triangle‐free graph with n vertices has dimension n. In particular, any such graph has at least n − 1 nonequivalent 3‐colorings, and the addition of any edge or any vertex of degree 3 results in a 3‐colorable graph. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 34: 234–245, 2000     

Packing k‐edge trees in graphs of restricted vertex degrees

Let denote the set of graphs with each vertex of degree at least r and at most s, v(G) the number of vertices, and τ_k (G) the maximum number of disjoint k‐edge trees in G. In this paper we show that

• (a1) if G ∈ and s ≥ 4, then τ₂(G) ≥ v(G)/(s + 1),
• (a2) if G ∈ and G has no 5‐vertex components, then τ₂(G) ≥ v(G)4,
• (a3) if G ∈ and G has no k‐vertex component, where k ≥ 2 and s ≥ 3, then τ_k(G) ≥ (v(G) ‐k)/(sk ‐ k + 1), and
• (a4) the above bounds are attained for infinitely many connected graphs.

Our proofs provide polynomial time algorithms for finding the corresponding packings in a graph. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55: 306–324, 2007     

Induced subgraphs of prescribed size

A subgraph of a graph G is called trivial if it is either a clique or an independent set. Let q(G) denote the maximum number of vertices in a trivial subgraph of G. Motivated by an open problem of Erd?s and McKay we show that every graph G on n vertices for which q(G)≤ C log n contains an induced subgraph with exactly y edges, for every y between 0 and n^{δ (C)}. Our methods enable us also to show that under much weaker assumption, i.e., q(G) ≤ n/14, G still must contain an induced subgraph with exactly y edges, for every y between 0 and . © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 239–251, 2003     

Covering a graph with cycles

Let k and n be two integers such that k ≥ 0 and n ≥ 3(k + 1). Let G be a graph of order n with minimum degree at least ?(n + k)/2?. Then G contains k + 1 independent cycles covering all the vertices of G such that k of them are triangles. © 1995, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A variation of a conjecture due to Erdös and Sós

Erdoes and Soes conjectured in 1963 that every graph G on n vertices with edge number e（G） 〉 1/2（k - 1）n contains every tree T with k edges as a subgraph. In this paper, we consider a variation of the above conjecture, that is, for n 〉 9/ 2k^2 ＋ 37/2＋ 14 and every graph G on n vertices with e（G） 〉 1/2 （k- 1）n, we prove that there exists a graph G＇ on n vertices having the same degree sequence as G and containing every tree T with k edges as a subgraph.     

The kth Laplacian eigenvalue of a tree

Let λ_k(G) be the kth Laplacian eigenvalue of a graph G. It is shown that a tree T with n vertices has and that equality holds if and only if k < n, k|n and T is spanned by k vertex disjoint copies of , the star on vertices. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

A bound on the chromatic number using the longest odd cycle length

It is known that for every integer k ≥ 4, each k‐map graph with n vertices has at most kn ? 2k edges. Previously, it was open whether this bound is tight or not. We show that this bound is tight for k = 4, 5. We also show that this bound is not tight for large enough k (namely, k ≥ 374); more precisely, we show that for every and for every integer , each k‐map graph with n vertices has at most edges. This result implies the first polynomial (indeed linear) time algorithm for coloring a given k‐map graph with less than 2k colors for large enough k. We further show that for every positive multiple k of 6, there are infinitely many integers n such that some k‐map graph with n vertices has at least edges. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55: 267–290, 2007     

Coloring graphs from lists with bounded size of their union

A graph G is k‐choosable if its vertices can be colored from any lists L(ν) of colors with |L(ν)| ≥ k for all ν ∈ V(G). A graph G is said to be (k,?)‐choosable if its vertices can be colored from any lists L(ν) with |L(ν)| ≥k, for all ν∈ V(G), and with . For each 3 ≤ k ≤ ?, we construct a graph G that is (k,?)‐choosable but not (k,? + 1)‐choosable. On the other hand, it is proven that each (k,2k ? 1)‐choosable graph G is O(k · ln k · 2^4k)‐choosable. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Upper total domination in claw‐free graphs

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a total dominating set of G if every vertex of G is adjacent to some vertex in S (other than itself). The maximum cardinality of a minimal total dominating set of G is the upper total domination number of G, denoted by Γ_t(G). We establish bounds on Γ_t(G) for claw‐free graphs G in terms of the number n of vertices and the minimum degree δ of G. We show that if if , and if δ ≥ 5. The extremal graphs are characterized. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 44: 148–158, 2003