3-Vertices with fewest 2-neighbors in plane graphs with no long paths of 2-vertices

Let $g(k,t)$ be the minimum integer such that every plane graph with girth g at least $g(k,t)$, minimum degree $\delta =2$ and no $(k+1)$-paths consisting of vertices of degree 2, where $k\ge 1$, has a 3-vertex with at least t neighbors of degree 2, where $1\le t\le 3$.In 2015, Jendrol' and Maceková proved $g(1,1)\le 7$. Later on, Hudák et al. established $g(1,3)=10$, Jendrol', Maceková, Montassier, and Soták proved $g(1,1)\ge 7$, $g(1,2)=8$ and $g(2,2)\ge 11$, and we recently proved that $g(2,2)=11$ and $g(2,3)=14$.Thus $g(k,t)$ is already known for $k=1$ and all t. In this paper, we prove that $g(k,1)=3k+4$, $g(k,2)=3k+5$, and $g(k,3)=3k+8$ whenever $k\ge 2$.     

On the size of special class 1 graphs and (P3;k)-co-critical graphs

A well-known theorem of Vizing states that if G is a simple graph with maximum degree Δ, then the chromatic index ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ of G is Δ or $\mathrm{\Delta }+1$. A graph G is class 1 if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }$, and class 2 if ${\chi }^{\prime }(G)=\mathrm{\Delta }+1$; G is Δ-critical if it is connected, class 2 and ${\chi }^{\prime }(G-e)<{\chi }^{\prime }(G)$ for every $e\in E(G)$. A long-standing conjecture of Vizing from 1968 states that every Δ-critical graph on n vertices has at least $(n(\mathrm{\Delta }-1)+3)/2$ edges. We initiate the study of determining the minimum number of edges of class 1 graphs G, in addition, ${\chi }^{\prime }(G+e)={\chi }^{\prime }(G)+1$ for every $e\in E(\bar{G})$. Such graphs have intimate relation to $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graphs, where a non-complete graph G is $(P_3;k)$-co-critical if there exists a k-coloring of $E(G)$ such that G does not contain a monochromatic copy of $P_3$ but every k-coloring of $E(G+e)$ contains a monochromatic copy of $P_3$ for every $e\in E(\bar{G})$. We use the bound on the size of the aforementioned class 1 graphs to study the minimum number of edges over all $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graphs. We prove that if G is a $(P_3;k)$-co-critical graph on $n\ge k+2$ vertices, then$e(G)\ge \frac{k}{2}(n-\lceil \frac{k}{2}\rceil -\epsilon )+\left(\begin{array}{c}\lceil k/2\rceil +\epsilon \\ 2\end{array}\right),$ where ε is the remainder of $n-\lceil k/2\rceil$ when divided by 2. This bound is best possible for all $k\ge 1$ and $n\ge \lceil 3k/2\rceil +2$.     

Maximize the Q-index of graphs with fixed order and size

In this paper, we consider two kinds of spectral extremal questions. The first asks which graph attains the maximum Q-index over all graphs of order n and size $m=n+k$? The second asks which graph attains the maximum Q-index over all $(p,q)$-bipartite graphs with $m=p+q+k$ edges? We solve the first question for $4\le k\le n?3$, and the second question for $?p?q\le k\le p?q$. The maximum Q-index on connected $(p,q)$-bipartite graphs is also determined for $?1\le k\le p?2$.     

An infinite family of m-ovoids of Q(4,q)

In this paper, we construct an infinite family of $\frac{q-1}{2}$-ovoids of the generalized quadrangle $Q(4,q)$, for $q\equiv 1(\text{mod}4)$ and $q>5$. Together with [3] and [11], this establishes the existence of $\frac{q-1}{2}$-ovoids in $Q(4,q)$ for each odd prime power q.     

Large blocking sets in PG(2,q2)

Minimal blocking sets in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)$ have size at most $q^3+1$. This result is due to Bruen and Thas and the bound is sharp, sets attaining this bound are called unitals. In this paper, we show that the second largest minimal blocking sets have size at most $q^3+1-(p-3)/2$, if $q=p$, $p\ge 67$, or $q=p^h$, $p>7$, $h>1$. Our proof also works for sets having at least one tangent at each of its points (that is, for tangency sets).     

Graphs with nullity 2c(G)+p(G)−1

Let G be a connected graph with $n(G)$ vertices and $e(G)$ edges. The nullity of G, denoted by $\eta (G)$, is the multiplicity of eigenvalue zero of the adjacency matrix of G. Ma, Wong and Tian (2016) proved that $\eta (G)\le 2c(G)+p(G)?1$ unless G is a cycle of order a multiple of 4, where $c(G)=e(G)?n(G)+1$ is the elementary cyclic number of G and $p(G)$ is the number of leaves of G. Recently, Chang, Chang and Zheng (2020) characterized the leaf-free graphs with nullity $2c(G)?1$, thus leaving the problem to characterize connected graphs G with nullity $2c(G)+p(G)?1$ when $p(G)\ne 0$. In this paper, we solve this problem completely.     

Hamiltonian s-properties and eigenvalues of k-connected graphs

Chvátal and Erdös (1972) [5] proved that, for a k-connected graph G, if the stability number $\alpha (G)\le k?s$, then G is Hamilton-connected ($s=1$) or Hamiltonian ($s=0$) or traceable ($s=?1$). Motivated by the result, we focus on tight sufficient spectral conditions for k-connected graphs to possess Hamiltonian s-properties. We say that a graph possesses Hamiltonian s-properties, which means that the graph is Hamilton-connected if $s=1$, Hamiltonian if $s=0$, and traceable if $s=?1$.For a real number $a\ge 0$, and for a k-connected graph G with order n, degree diagonal matrix $D(G)$ and adjacency matrix $A(G)$, we have identified best possible upper bounds for the spectral radius ${\lambda }_1(aD(\mathrm{\Gamma })+A(\mathrm{\Gamma }))$, where Γ is either G or the complement of G, to warrant that G possesses Hamiltonian s-properties. Sufficient conditions for a graph G to possess Hamiltonian s-properties in terms of upper bounds for the Laplacian spectral radius as well as lower bounds of the algebraic connectivity of G are also obtained. Other best possible spectral conditions for Hamiltonian s-properties are also discussed.