Toughness and Matching Extension in {\mathcal{P}_3}-Dominated Graphs

Let G be a connected graph. For ${x,y\in V(G)}$ with d(x, y) = 2, we define ${J(x,y)= \{u \in N(x)\cap N(y)\mid Nu] \subseteq Nx] \,{\cup}\,Ny] \}}$ and ${J'(x,y)= \{u \in N(x) \cap N(y)\,{\mid}\,{\rm if}\ v \in N(u){\setminus}(Nx] \,{\cup}\, Ny])\ {\rm then}\ Nx] \,{\cup}\, Ny]\,{\cup}\,Nu]{\setminus}\{x,y\}\subseteq Nv]\}}$ . A graph G is quasi-claw-free if ${J(x,y) \not= \emptyset}$ for each pair (x, y) of vertices at distance 2 in G. Broersma and Vumar (in Math Meth Oper Res. doi:10.1007/s00186-008-0260-7) introduced ${\mathcal{P}_{3}}$ -dominated graphs defined as ${J(x,y)\,{\cup}\, J'(x,y)\not= \emptyset}$ for each ${x,y \in V(G)}$ with d(x, y) = 2. This class properly contains that of quasi-claw-free graphs, and hence that of claw-free graphs. In this note, we prove that a 2-connected ${\mathcal{P}_3}$ -dominated graph is 1-tough, with two exceptions: K _2,3 and K _1,1,3, and prove that every even connected ${\mathcal{P}_3}$ -dominated graph ${G\ncong K_{1,3}}$ has a perfect matching. Moreover, we show that every even (2p + 1)-connected ${\mathcal{P}_3}$ -dominated graph is p-extendable. This result follows from a stronger result concerning factor-criticality of ${\mathcal{P}_3}$ -dominated graphs.