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.     

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 $n\ge \lceil 3k/2\rceil +2$.     

Spectral strengthening of a theorem on transversal critical graphs

A transversal set of a graph G is a set of vertices incident to all edges of G. The transversal number of G, denoted by $\tau (G)$, is the minimum cardinality of a transversal set of G. A simple graph G with no isolated vertex is called τ-critical if $\tau (G?e)<\tau (G)$ for every edge $e\in E(G)$. For any τ-critical graph G with $\tau (G)=t$, it has been shown that $|V(G)|\le 2t$ by Erd?s and Gallai and that $|E(G)|\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+1\\ 2\end{array}\right)$ by Erd?s, Hajnal and Moon. Most recently, it was extended by Gyárfás and Lehel to $|V(G)|+|E(G)|\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+2\\ 2\end{array}\right)$. In this paper, we prove stronger results via spectrum. Let G be a τ-critical graph with $\tau (G)=t$ and $|V(G)|=n$, and let ${\lambda }_1$ denote the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of G. We show that $n+{\lambda }_1\le 2t+1$ with equality if and only if G is $t{K}_2$, $K_{s+1}\cup (t?s)K_2$, or $C_{2s?1}\cup (t?s)K_2$, where $2\le s\le t$; and in particular, ${\lambda }_1(G)\le t$ with equality if and only if G is $K_{t+1}$. We then apply it to show that for any nonnegative integer r, we have $n(r+\frac{{\lambda }_1}{2})\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+r+1\\ 2\end{array}\right)$ and characterize all extremal graphs. This implies a pure combinatorial result that $r|V(G)|+|E(G)|\le \left(\begin{array}{c}t+r+1\\ 2\end{array}\right)$, which is stronger than Erd?s-Hajnal-Moon Theorem and Gyárfás-Lehel Theorem. We also have some other generalizations.     

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 $k\ge 2$.     

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.     

A characterization of graphs with given maximum degree and smallest possible matching number: II

Let ${\alpha }^{\prime }(G)$ be the matching number of a graph G. A characterization of the graphs with given maximum odd degree and smallest possible matching number is given by Henning and Shozi (2021) [13]. In this paper we complete our study by giving a characterization of the graphs with given maximum even degree and smallest possible matching number. In 2018 Henning and Yeo [10] proved that if G is a connected graph of order n, size m and maximum degree k where $k\ge 4$ is even, then ${\alpha }^{\prime }(G)\ge \frac{n}{k(k+1)}+\frac{m}{k+1}?\frac{1}{k(k+1)}$, unless G is k-regular and $n\in \{k+1,k+3\}$. In this paper, we give a complete characterization of the graphs that achieve equality in this bound when the maximum degree k is even, thereby completing our study of graphs with given maximum degree and smallest possible matching number.     

Hamiltonian and long paths in bipartite graphs with connectivity

Let G be a graph, $\nu (G)$ the order of G, $\kappa (G)$ the connectivity of G and k a positive integer such that $k\le (\nu (G)?2)/2$. Then G is said to be k-extendable if it has a matching of size k and every matching of size k extends to a perfect matching of G. A Hamiltonian path of a graph G is a spanning path of G. A bipartite graph G with vertex sets $V_1$ and $V_2$ is defined to be Hamiltonian-laceable if such that $|V_1|=|V_2|$ and for every pair of vertices $p\in V_1$ and $q\in V_2$, there exists a Hamiltonian path in G with endpoints p and q, or $|V_1|=|V_2|+1$ and for every pair of vertices $p,q\in V_1,p\ne q$, there exists a Hamiltonian path in G with endpoints p and q. Let G be a bipartite graph with bipartition $(X,Y)$. Define $bn(G)$ to be a maximum integer such that $0\le bn(G)<min\{|X|,|Y|\}$ and (1) for each non-empty subset S of X, if $|S|\le |X|?bn(G)$, then $|N(S)|\ge |S|+bn(G)$, and if $|X|?bn(G)<|S|\le |X|$, then $N(S)=Y$; and (2) for each non-empty subset S of Y, if $|S|\le |Y|?bn(G)$, then $|N(S)|\ge |S|+bn(G)$, and if $|Y|?bn(G)<|S|\le |Y|$, then $N(S)=X$; and (3) $bn(G)=0$ if there is no non-negative integer satisfying (1) and (2).Let G be a bipartite graph with bipartition $(X,Y)$ such that $|X|=|Y|$ and $bn(G)>0$. In this paper, we show that if $\nu (G)\le 2\kappa (G)+4bn(G)?4$, then G is Hamiltonian-laceable; or if $\nu (G)>6bn(G)?2$, then for every pair of vertices $x\in X$ and $y\in Y$, there is an $(x,y)$-path P in G with $|V(P)|\ge 6bn(G)?2$. We show some of its corollaries in k-extendable, bipartite graphs and a conjecture in k-extendable graphs.     

Note on rainbow cycles in edge-colored graphs

Let G be a graph of order n with an edge-coloring c, and let ${\delta }^c(G)$ denote the minimum color-degree of G. A subgraph F of G is called rainbow if all edges of F have pairwise distinct colors. There have been a lot of results on rainbow cycles of edge-colored graphs. In this paper, we show that (i) if ${\delta }^c(G)>\frac{2n?1}{3}$, then every vertex of G is contained in a rainbow triangle; (ii) if ${\delta }^c(G)>\frac{2n?1}{3}$ and $n\ge 13$, then every vertex of G is contained in a rainbow $C_4$; (iii) if G is complete, $n\ge 7k?17$ and ${\delta }^c(G)>\frac{n?1}{2}+k$, then G contains a rainbow cycle of length at least k, where $k\ge 5$.