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.     

Contractible edges in non-separating cycles

An edge of ak-connected graph is said to bek-contractible if the contraction of the edge results in ak-connected graph. We prove that every triangle-freek-connected graphG has an induced cycleC such that all edges ofC arek-contractible and such thatG–V(C) is (k–3)-connected (k4). This result unifies two theorems by Thomassen [5] and Egawa et. al. [3].Dedicated to Professor Toshiro Tsuzuku on his sixtieth birthday     

Covering contractible edges in 3-connected graphs. I: Covers of size three are cutsets

An edge of a 3-connected graph is said to be contractible if its contraction results in a 3-connected graph. In this paper, a covering of contractible edges is studied. We give an alternative proof to the result of Ota and Saito (Scientia (A) 2 (1988) 101–105) that the set of contractible edges in a 3-connected graph cannot be covered by two vertices, and extended this result to a three-vertex covering. We also study the existence of a contractible edge whose contraction preserves a specified cycle, and show that a non-hamiltonian 3-connected graph has a contractible edge whose contraction preserves the circumference.     

On cyclic edge-connectivity of fullerenes

A graph is said to be cyclically k-edge-connected, if at least k edges must be removed to disconnect it into two components, each containing a cycle. Such a set of k edges is called a cyclic-k-edge cutset and it is called a trivial cyclic-k-edge cutset if at least one of the resulting two components induces a single k-cycle.It is known that fullerenes, that is, 3-connected cubic planar graphs all of whose faces are pentagons and hexagons, are cyclically 5-edge-connected. In this article it is shown that a fullerene F containing a nontrivial cyclic-5-edge cutset admits two antipodal pentacaps, that is, two antipodal pentagonal faces whose neighboring faces are also pentagonal. Moreover, it is shown that F has a Hamilton cycle, and as a consequence at least 15·2^n/20-1/2 perfect matchings, where n is the order of F.     

Cycle Covers of Planar 2-Edge-Connected Graphs

A graph with n vertices is said to have a small cycle cover provided its edges can be covered with at most (2n ? 1)/3 cycles. Bondy [2] has conjectured that every 2-connected graph has a small cycle cover. In [3] Lai and Lai prove Bondy’s conjecture for plane triangulations. In [1] the author extends this result to all planar 3-connected graphs, by proving that they can be covered by at most (n + 1)/2 cycles. In this paper we show that Bondy’s conjecture holds for all planar 2-connected graphs. We also show that all planar 2-edge-connected graphs can be covered by at most (3n ? 3)/4 cycles and we show an infinite family of graphs for which this bound is attained.     

Contractible Edges in 7-Connected Graphs

An edge of a k-connected graph is said to be a k-contractible edge, if its contraction yields again a k-connected graph. A noncomplete k-connected graph possessing no k-contractible edges is called contraction critical k-connected. Recently, Kriesell proved that every contraction critical 7-connected graph has two distinct vertices of degree 7. And he guessed that there are two vertices of degree 7 at distance one or two. In this paper, we give a proof to his conjecture. The work partially supported by NNSF of China(Grant number: 10171022)     

Equiarboreal graphs

A graphX is said to beequiarboreal if the number of spanning trees containing a specified edge inX is independent of the choice of edge. We prove that any graph which is a colour class in an association scheme (and thus any distance regular graph) is equiarboreal. We note that a connected equiarboreal graph withM edges andn vertices has edge-connectivity at leastM/(n−1).     

A new lower bound on the number of trivially noncontractible edges in contraction critical 5-connected graphs

An edge of a k-connected graph is said to be k-contractible if its contraction results in a k-connected graph. A k-connected non-complete graph with no k-contractible edge, is called contraction critical k-connected. An edge of a k-connected graph is called trivially noncontractible if its two end vertices have a common neighbor of degree k. Ando [K. Ando, Trivially noncontractible edges in a contraction critically 5-connected graph, Discrete Math. 293 (2005) 61-72] proved that a contraction critical 5-connected graph on n vertices has at least n/2 trivially noncontractible edges. Li [Xiangjun Li, Some results about the contractible edge and the domination number of graphs, Guilin, Guangxi Normal University, 2006 (in Chinese)] improved the lower bound to n+1. In this paper, the bound is improved to the statement that any contraction critical 5-connected graph on n vertices has at least trivially noncontractible edges.     

Vertices of Degree 5 in a Contraction Critically 5-connected Graph

An edge of a k-connected graph is said to be k-contractible if the contraction of the edge results in a k-connected graph. A k-connected graph with no k-contractible edge is said to be contraction critically k-connected. We prove that a contraction critically 5-connected graph on n vertices has at least n/5 vertices of degree 5. We also show that, for a graph G and an integer k greater than 4, there exists a contraction critically k-connected graph which has G as its induced subgraph.     

Decomposition of 3-connected graphs

Cunningham and Edmonds [4[ have proved that a 2-connected graphG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, each of which is either 3-connected, a bond or a polygon. They define the notion of a good split, and first prove thatG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, none of which has a good split, and second prove that the graphs that do not have a good split are precisely 3-connected graphs, bonds and polygons. This paper provides an analogue of the first result above for 3-connected graphs, and an analogue of the second for minimally 3-connected graphs. Following the basic strategy of Cunningham and Edmonds, an appropriate notion of good split is defined. The first main result is that ifG is a 3-connected graph, thenG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, none of which has a good split. The second main result is that the minimally 3-connected graphs that do not have a good split are precisely cyclically 4-connected graphs, twirls (K _3,n for somen3) and wheels. From this it is shown that ifG is a minimally 3-connected graph, thenG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, each of which is either cyclically 4-connected, a twirl or a wheel.Research partially supported by Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-86-K-0689 at Purdue University.     

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.     

Contractible edges in triangle-free graphs

An edge of a graph is calledk-contractible if the contraction of the edge results in ak-connected graph. Thomassen [5] proved that everyk-connected graph of girth at least four has ak-contractible edge. In this paper, we study the distribution ofk-contractible edges in triangle-free graphs and show the following: Whenk≧2, everyk-connected graph of girth at least four and ordern≧3k, hasn+(3/2)k ²-3k or morek-contractible edges.     

Cycles through four edges in 3-connected cubic graphs

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for four edges in a 3-connected cubic graph to lie on a cycle. As a consequence, if such a graph is cyclically 4-edge-connected with order greater than 8 it is shown that any four independent edges lie on a cycle.     

Some structural properties of minimally contraction-critically 5-connected graphs

An edge of a k-connected graph is said to be k-removable (resp. k-contractible) if the removal (resp. the contraction ) of the edge results in a k-connected graph. A k-connected graph with neither k-removable edge nor k-contractible edge is said to be minimally contraction-critically k-connected. We show that around an edge whose both end vertices have degree greater than 5 of a minimally contraction-critically 5-connected graph, there exists one of two specified configurations. Using this fact, we prove that each minimally contraction-critically 5-connected graph on n vertices has at least vertices of degree 5.     

Long cycles and spanning subgraphs of locally maximal 1-planar graphs

A graph is 1-planar if it has a drawing in the plane such that each edge is crossed at most once by another edge. Moreover, if this drawing has the additional property that for each crossing of two edges the end vertices of these edges induce a complete subgraph, then the graph is locally maximal 1-planar. For a 3-connected locally maximal 1-planar graph G, we show the existence of a spanning 3-connected planar subgraph and prove that G is Hamiltonian if G has at most three 3-vertex-cuts, and that G is traceable if G has at most four 3-vertex-cuts. Moreover, infinitely many nontraceable 5-connected 1-planar graphs are presented.     

Enumeration of cyclically 4-connected cubic graphs

The number of labeled cyclically 4-connected cubic graphs on n vertices is shown to satisfy a simple recurrence relation. The proof involves the unique decomposition of 3-connected cubic graphs into cyclically 4-connected components.     

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.     

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).     

Circumference of 3-connected claw-free graphs and large Eulerian subgraphs of 3-edge-connected graphs

The circumference of a graph is the length of its longest cycles. Results of Jackson, and Jackson and Wormald, imply that the circumference of a 3-connected cubic n-vertex graph is Ω(n^0.694), and the circumference of a 3-connected claw-free graph is Ω(n^0.121). We generalize and improve the first result by showing that every 3-edge-connected graph with m edges has an Eulerian subgraph with Ω(m^0.753) edges. We use this result together with the Ryjá?ek closure operation to improve the lower bound on the circumference of a 3-connected claw-free graph to Ω(n^0.753). Our proofs imply polynomial time algorithms for finding large Eulerian subgraphs of 3-edge-connected graphs and long cycles in 3-connected claw-free graphs.