Long cycles in graphs without hamiltonian paths

For a graph G, p(G) and c(G) denote the order of a longest path and a longest cycle of G, respectively. Bondy and Locke J.A. Bondy, S.C. Locke, Relative length of paths and cycles in 3-connected graphs, Discrete Math. 33 (1981) 111-122] consider the gap between p(G) and c(G) in 3-connected graphs G. Starting with this result, there are many results appeared in this context, see H. Enomoto, J. van den Heuvel, A. Kaneko, A. Saito, Relative length of long paths and cycles in graphs with large degree sums, J. Graph Theory 20 (1995) 213-225; M. Lu, H. Liu, F. Tian, Relative length of longest paths and cycles in graphs, Graphs Combin. 23 (2007) 433-443; K. Ozeki, M. Tsugaki, T. Yamashita, On relative length of longest paths and cycles, preprint; I. Schiermeyer, M. Tewes, Longest paths and longest cycles in graphs with large degree sums, Graphs Combin. 18 (2002) 633-643]. In this paper, we investigate graphs G with p(G)−c(G) at most 1 or at most 2, but with no hamiltonian paths. Let G be a 2-connected graph of order n, which has no hamiltonian paths. We show two results as follows: (i) if , then p(G)−c(G)≤1, and (ii) if σ₄(G)≥n+3, then p(G)−c(G)≤2.