Removable Edges in Longest Cycles of 4-Connected Graphs

Let G be a 4-connected graph. For an edge e of G, we do the following operations on G: first, delete the edge e from G, resulting the graph G–e; second, for all vertices x of degree 3 in G–e, delete x from G–e and then completely connect the 3 neighbors of x by a triangle. If multiple edges occur, we use single edges to replace them. The final resultant graph is denoted by Ge. If Ge is 4-connected, then e is called a removable edge of G. In this paper we obtain some results on removable edges in a longest cycle of a 4-connected graph G. We also show that for a 4-connected graph G of minimum degree at least 5 or girth at least 4, any edge of G is removable or contractible.Acknowledgment. The authors are greatly indebted to a referee for his valuable suggestions and comments, which are very helpful to improve the proof of our main result Lemma 3.3.Research supported by National Science Foundation of China AMS subject classification (2000): 05C40, 05C38, 05C75Final version received: March 10, 2004     

Removable edges in cycles of a <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-connected graph

An edge e of a k-connected graph G is said to be a removable edge if G ⊖ e is still k-connected, where G ⊖ e denotes the graph obtained from G by deleting e to get G − e, and for any end vertex of e with degree k − 1 in G − e, say x, delete x, and then add edges between any pair of non-adjacent vertices in N _G−e (x). The existence of removable edges of k-connected graphs and some properties of 3-connected graphs and 4-connected graphs have been investigated. In the present paper, we investigate some properties of k-connected graphs and study the distribution of removable edges on a cycle in a k-connected graph (k ≥ 4).     

Removable edges in a 5-connected graph and a construction method of 5-connected graphs

An edge e of a k-connected graph G is said to be a removable edge if G?e is still k-connected. A k-connected graph G is said to be a quasi (k+1)-connected if G has no nontrivial k-separator. The existence of removable edges of 3-connected and 4-connected graphs and some properties of quasi k-connected graphs have been investigated [D.A. Holton, B. Jackson, A. Saito, N.C. Wormale, Removable edges in 3-connected graphs, J. Graph Theory 14(4) (1990) 465-473; H. Jiang, J. Su, Minimum degree of minimally quasi (k+1)-connected graphs, J. Math. Study 35 (2002) 187-193; T. Politof, A. Satyanarayana, Minors of quasi 4-connected graphs, Discrete Math. 126 (1994) 245-256; T. Politof, A. Satyanarayana, The structure of quasi 4-connected graphs, Discrete Math. 161 (1996) 217-228; J. Su, The number of removable edges in 3-connected graphs, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 75(1) (1999) 74-87; J. Yin, Removable edges and constructions of 4-connected graphs, J. Systems Sci. Math. Sci. 19(4) (1999) 434-438]. In this paper, we first investigate the relation between quasi connectivity and removable edges. Based on the relation, the existence of removable edges in k-connected graphs (k?5) is investigated. It is proved that a 5-connected graph has no removable edge if and only if it is isomorphic to K₆. For a k-connected graph G such that end vertices of any edge of G have at most k-3 common adjacent vertices, it is also proved that G has a removable edge. Consequently, a recursive construction method of 5-connected graphs is established, that is, any 5-connected graph can be obtained from K₆ by a number of θ⁺-operations. We conjecture that, if k is even, a k-connected graph G without removable edge is isomorphic to either K_k+1 or the graph H_k/2+1 obtained from K_k+2 by removing k/2+1 disjoint edges, and, if k is odd, G is isomorphic to K_k+1.     

Removable edges in 3-connected graphs

An edge e of a 3-connected graph G is said to be removable if G - e is a subdivision of a 3-connected graph. If e is not removable, then e is said to be nonremovable. In this paper, we study the distribution of removable edges in 3-connected graphs and prove that a 3-connected graph of order n ≥ 5 has at most [(4 n — 5)/3] nonremovable edges.     

Removable Edges and Chords of Longest Cycles in 3-Connected Graphs

We verify two special cases of Thomassen’s conjecture of 1976 stating that every longest cycle in a 3-connected graph contains a chord.We prove that Thomassen’s conjecture is true for two classes of 3-connected graphs that have a bounded number of removable edges on or off a longest cycle. Here an edge e of a 3-connected graph G is said to be removable if G – e is still 3-connected or a subdivision of a 3-connected (multi)graph.We give examples to showthat these classes are not covered by previous results.     

5连通图中的可去边

An edge e of a k-connected graph G is said to be a removable edge if G O e is still k-connected, where G e denotes the graph obtained from G by deleting e to get G - e, and for any end vertex of e with degree k - 1 in G- e, say x, delete x, and then add edges between any pair of non-adjacent vertices in NG-e （x）. The existence of removable edges of k-connected graphs and some properties of 3-connected and 4-connected graphs have been investigated [1, 11, 14, 15]. In the present paper, we investigate some properties of 5-connected graphs and study the distribution of removable edges on a cycle and a spanning tree in a 5- connected graph. Based on the properties, we proved that for a 5-connected graph G of order at least 10, if the edge-vertex-atom of G contains at least three vertices, then G has at least （3│G│ ＋ 2）/2 removable edges.     

The contractible subgraph of 5-connected graphs

An edge e of a k-connected graph G is said to be k-removable if G — e is still k-connected. A subgraph H of a k-connected graph is said to be k-contractible if its contraction results still in a k-connected graph. A k-connected graph with neither removable edge nor contractible subgraph is said to be minor minimally k-connected. In this paper, we show that there is a contractible subgraph in a 5-connected graph which contains a vertex who is not contained in any triangles. Hence, every vertex of minor minimally 5-connected graph is contained in some triangle.     

Edge degrees and dominating cycles

The edge degree d(e) of the edge e=uv is defined as the number of neighbours of e, i.e., |N(u)∪N(v)|-2. Two edges are called remote if they are disjoint and there is no edge joining them. In this article, we prove that in a 2-connected graph G, if d(e₁)+d(e₂)>|V(G)|-4 for any remote edges e₁,e₂, then all longest cycles C in G are dominating, i.e., G-V(C) is edgeless. This lower bound is best possible.As a corollary, it holds that if G is a 2-connected triangle-free graph with σ₂(G)>|V(G)|/2, then all longest cycles are dominating.     

Heavy cycles in k-connected weighted graphs with large weighted degree sums

A weighted graph is one in which every edge e is assigned a nonnegative number w(e), called the weight of e. The weight of a cycle is defined as the sum of the weights of its edges. The weighted degree of a vertex is the sum of the weights of the edges incident with it. In this paper, we prove that: Let G be a k-connected weighted graph with k?2. Then G contains either a Hamilton cycle or a cycle of weight at least 2m/(k+1), if G satisfies the following conditions: (1) The weighted degree sum of any k+1 pairwise nonadjacent vertices is at least m; (2) In each induced claw and each induced modified claw of G, all edges have the same weight. This generalizes an early result of Enomoto et al. on the existence of heavy cycles in k-connected weighted graphs.     

A generalization of Tutte’s theorem on Hamiltonian cycles in planar graphs

In 1956, W.T. Tutte proved that a 4-connected planar graph is hamiltonian. Moreover, in 1997, D.P. Sanders extended this to the result that a 4-connected planar graph contains a hamiltonian cycle through any two of its edges. We prove that a planar graph G has a cycle containing a given subset X of its vertex set and any two prescribed edges of the subgraph of G induced by X if |X|≥3 and if X is 4-connected in G. If X=V(G) then Sanders’ result follows.     

On the NP-hardness of edge-deletion and -contraction problems

If π is a property on graphs, the corresponding edge deletion (edge contraction, respectively) problem is: Given a graph G, determine the minimum number of edges of G whose deletion (contraction) results in a graph satisfying property π. We show that these problems are NP-hard if π is finitely characterizable by 3-connected graphs.     

Contractible edges in some k-connected graphs

An edge e of a k-connected graph G is said to be k-contractible (or simply contractible) if the graph obtained from G by contracting e (i.e., deleting e and identifying its ends, finally, replacing each of the resulting pairs of double edges by a single edge) is still k-connected. In 2002, Kawarabayashi proved that for any odd integer k ? 5, if G is a k-connected graph and G contains no subgraph D = K ₁ + (K ₂ ∪ K _1,2), then G has a k-contractible edge. In this paper, by generalizing this result, we prove that for any integer t ? 3 and any odd integer k ? 2t + 1, if a k-connected graph G contains neither K ₁ + (K ₂ ∪ K _1,t ), nor K ₁ + (2K ₂ ∪ K _1,2), then G has a k-contractible edge.     

On the removal of forbidden graphs by edge-deletion or by edge-contraction

If π is a property on graphs, the corresponding edge deletion (edge contraction, respectively) problem is: Given a graph G, determine the minimum number of edges of G whose deletion (contraction) results in a graph satisfying property π. We show that these problems are NP-hard if π is finitely characterizable by 3-connected graphs.     

Reductions of 3-connected graphs with minimum degree at least four

We show that if G is a 3-connected graph of minimum degree at least 4 and with |V (G)| ≥ 7 then one of the following is true: (1) G has an edge e such that G/e is a 3-connected graph of minimum degree at least 4; (2) G has two edges uv and xy with ux, vy, vx ∈ E(G) such that the graph G/uv/xy obtained by contraction of edges uv and xy in G is a 3-connected graph of minimum degree at least 4; (3) G has a vertex x with N(x) = {x₁, x₂, x₃, x₄} and x₁x₂, x₃x₄ ∈ E(G) such that the graph (G ? x)/x₁x₂/x₃x₄ obtained by contraction of edges x₁x₂ and x₃x₄ in G – x is a 3-connected graph of minimum degree at least 4.

Each of the three reductions is necessary: there exists an infinite family of 3- connected graphs of minimum degree not less than 4 such that only one of the three reductions may be performed for the members of the family and not the two other reductions.     

On minors of graphs with at least 3n −4 edges

A point disconnecting set S of a graph G is a nontrivial m-separator, where m = |S|, if the connected components of G - S can be partitioned into two subgraphs, each of which has at least two points. A 3-connected graph is quasi 4-connected if it has no nontrivial 3-separators. Suppose G is a graph having n ≥ 6 points. We prove three results: (1) If G is quasi 4-connected with at least 3n - 4 edges, then the graph K^?₁, obtained from K₆ by deleting an edge, is a minor of G. (2) If G has at least 3n - 4 edges then either K^?₆ or the graph obtained by pasting two disjoint copies of K₅ together along a triangle is a minor of G. (3) If the minimum degree of G is at least 6, then K^?₆ is a minor of G. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Crossing-critical edges and Kuratowski subgraphs of a graph

An edge e of a graph G is said to be crossing-critical if cr(G ? e) < cr(G), where cr(G) denotes the crossing number of G on the plane. It is proved that any crossing-critical edge e of a graph G for which cr(G ? e) ≤ 1 belongs to a subdivision of K₅ or K_{3, 3}, the Kuratowski subgraphs of G. Further, as regards crossing-critical edges e of G for which cr(G ? e) ≥ 5, it is shown that the properties of “being a crossing-critical edge of G” and “being contained in a Kuratowski subgraph of G” are independent.     

On Non-Essential Edges in 3-Connected Graphs

 An edge e in a simple 3-connected graph is deletable (simple-contractible) if the deletion G\e (contraction G/e) is both simple and 3-connected. Suppose a, b, and c are three non-negative integers. If there exists a simple 3-connected graph with exactly a edges which are deletable but not simple-contractible, exactly b edges which are simple-contractible but not deletable, and exactly c edges which are both deletable and simple-contractible, then we call the triple (a, b, c) realizable, and such a graph is said to be an (a, b, c)-graph. Tutte's Wheels Theorem says the only (0, 0, 0)-graphs are the wheels. In this paper, we characterize the (a, b, c) realizable triples for which at least one of a + b≤2, c=0, and c≥16 holds. Received: February 12, 1997 Revised: February 13, 1998     

Edges not contained in triangles and the distribution of contractible edges in a 4-connected graph

We prove results concerning the distribution of 4-contractible edges in a 4-connected graph G in connection with the edges of G not contained in a triangle. As a corollary, we show that if G is 4-regular 4-connected graph, then the number of 4-contractible edges of G is at least one half of the number of edges of G not contained in a triangle.     

Claw Conditions for Heavy Cycles in Weighted Graphs

A graph is called a weighted graph when each edge e is assigned a nonnegative number w(e), called the weight of e. For a vertex v of a weighted graph, d^w(v) is the sum of the weights of the edges incident with v. For a subgraph H of a weighted graph G, the weight of H is the sum of the weights of the edges belonging to H. In this paper, we give a new sufficient condition for a weighted graph to have a heavy cycle. A 2-connected weighted graph G contains either a Hamilton cycle or a cycle of weight at least c, if G satisfies the following conditions: In every induced claw or induced modified claw F of G, (1) max{d^w(x),d^w(y)} c/2 for each non-adjacent pair of vertices x and y in F, and (2) all edges of F have the same weight.     

3-连通3-正则图生成树外的可去边

G是3-连通图，e是G中的一条边．若G-e是3-连通图的一个剖分，则称e是3-连通图的可去边．否则，e是G中不可去边．本给出3-连通3-正则图中生成树外可去边的分布情况及数目．