On vertex-disjoint cycles and degree sum conditions

This paper considers a degree sum condition sufficient to imply the existence of $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles in a graph $G$. For an integer $t\ge 1$, let ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)$ be the smallest sum of degrees of $t$ independent vertices of $G$. We prove that if $G$ has order at least $7k+1$ and ${\sigma }_4\left(G\right)\ge 8k?3$, with $k\ge 2$, then $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles. We also show that the degree sum condition on ${\sigma }_4\left(G\right)$ is sharp and conjecture a degree sum condition on ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)$ sufficient to imply $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles for $k\ge 2$.     

A note on Bartholdi zeta function and graph invariants based on resistance distance

Let $G$ be a finite connected graph. In this note, we show that the complexity of $G$ can be obtained from the partial derivatives at $(1?\frac{1}{t},t)$ of a determinant in terms of the Bartholdi zeta function of $G$. Moreover, the second order partial derivatives at $(1?\frac{1}{t},t)$ of this determinant can all be expressed as the linear combination of the Kirchhoff index, the additive degree-Kirchhoff index, and the multiplicative degree-Kirchhoff index of the graph $G$.     

Properties of minimally t-tough graphs

A graph $G$ is minimally $t$-tough if the toughness of $G$ is $t$ and the deletion of any edge from $G$ decreases the toughness. Kriesell conjectured that for every minimally $1$-tough graph the minimum degree $\delta \left(G\right)=2$. We show that in every minimally $1$-tough graph $\delta \left(G\right)\le \frac{n}{3}+1$. We also prove that every minimally $1$-tough, claw-free graph is a cycle. On the other hand, we show that for every positive rational number $t$ any graph can be embedded as an induced subgraph into a minimally $t$-tough graph.     

Proper connection and size of graphs

An edge-coloured graph $G$ is called properly connected if any two vertices are connected by a path whose edges are properly coloured. The proper connection number of a connected graph $G,$ denoted by $\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)$, is the smallest number of colours that are needed in order to make $G$ properly connected. Our main result is the following: Let $G$ be a connected graph of order $n$ and $k\ge 2$. If $\left|E\left(G\right)\right|\ge \left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n?k?1}{2}\right)+k+2$, then $\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)\le k$ except when $k=2$ and $G\in \{G_1,G_2\},$ where $G_1=K_1\vee (2K_1+K_2)$ and $G_2=K_1\vee (K_1+2K_2).$     

The confirmation of a conjecture on disjoint cycles in a graph

Let $t$ and $k$ be two integers with $t\ge 5$ and $k\ge 2$. For a graph $G$ and a vertex $x$ of $G$, we use $d_G\left(x\right)$ to denote the degree of $x$ in $G$. Define ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)$ to be the minimum value of ${\sum }_{x\in X}{d}_G\left(x\right)$, where $X$ is an independent set of $G$ with $\left|X\right|=t$. This paper proves the following conjecture proposed by Gould et al. (2018). If $G$ is a graph of sufficiently large order with ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)\ge 2kt?t+1$, then $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles.     

Equitable Δ-coloring of graphs

Consider a graph $G$ consisting of a vertex set $V\left(G\right)$ and an edge set $E\left(G\right)$. Let $\Delta \left(G\right)$ and $\chi \left(G\right)$ denote the maximum degree and the chromatic number of $G$, respectively. We say that $G$ is equitably $\Delta \left(G\right)$-colorable if there exists a proper $\Delta \left(G\right)$-coloring of $G$ such that the sizes of any two color classes differ by at most one. Obviously, if $G$ is equitably $\Delta \left(G\right)$-colorable, then $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge \chi \left(G\right)$. Conversely, even if $G$ satisfies $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge \chi \left(G\right)$, we cannot guarantee that $G$ must be equitably $\Delta \left(G\right)$-colorable. In 1994, the Equitable $\Delta$-Coloring Conjecture $\left(E\Delta \mathrm{CC}\right)$ asserts that a connected graph $G$ with $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge \chi \left(G\right)$ is equitably $\Delta \left(G\right)$-colorable if $G$ is different from $K_{2n+1,2n+1}$ for all $n\ge 1$. In this paper, we give necessary conditions for a graph $G$ (not necessarily connected) with $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge \chi \left(G\right)$ to be equitably $\Delta \left(G\right)$-colorable and prove that those necessary conditions are also sufficient conditions when $G$ is a bipartite graph, or $G$ satisfies $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge \frac{\left|V\left(G\right)\right|}{3}+1$, or $G$ satisfies $\Delta \left(G\right)\le 3$.     

Which cospectral graphs have same degree sequences

Two graphs are said to be $L$-cospectral (respectively, $Q$-cospectral) if they have the same (respectively, signless) Laplacian spectra, and a graph $G$ is said to be $L?DS$ (respectively, $Q?DS$) if there does not exist other non-isomorphic graph $H$ such that $H$ and $G$ are $L$-cospectral (respectively, $Q$-cospectral). Let $d_1\left(G\right)\ge d_2\left(G\right)\ge ?\ge d_n\left(G\right)$ be the degree sequence of a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices. In this paper, we prove that except for two exceptions (respectively, the graphs with $d_1\left(G\right)\in \{4,5\}$), if $H$ is $L$-cospectral (respectively, $Q$-cospectral) with a connected graph $G$ and $d_2\left(G\right)=2$, then $H$ has the same degree sequence as $G$. A spider graph is a unicyclic graph obtained by attaching some paths to a common vertex of the cycle. As an application of our result, we show that every spider graph and its complement graph are both $L?DS$, which extends the corresponding results of Haemers et al. (2008), Liu et al. (2011), Zhang et al. (2009) and Yu et al. (2014).     

Steiner tree packing number and tree connectivity

Let $S$ be a set of at least two vertices in a graph $G$. A subtree $T$ of $G$ is a $S$-Steiner tree if $S?V\left(T\right)$. Two $S$-Steiner trees $T_1$ and $T_2$ are edge-disjoint (resp. internally vertex-disjoint) if $E\left(T_1\right)\cap E\left(T_2\right)=?$ (resp. $E\left(T_1\right)\cap E\left(T_2\right)=?$ and $V\left(T_1\right)\cap V\left(T_2\right)=S$). Let ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_G\left(S\right)$) be the maximum number of edge-disjoint (resp. internally vertex-disjoint) $S$-Steiner trees in $G$, and let ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_k\left(G\right)$) be the minimum ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_G\left(S\right)$) for $S$ ranges over all $k$-subset of $V\left(G\right)$. Kriesell conjectured that if ${\lambda }_G\left(\{x,y\}\right)\ge 2k$ for any $x,y\in S$, then ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)\ge k$. He proved that the conjecture holds for $\left|S\right|=3,4$. In this paper, we give a short proof of Kriesell’s Conjecture for $\left|S\right|=3,4$, and also show that ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)\ge ?\frac{1}{k?1}?\frac{k?}{2}??$ (resp. ${\kappa }_k\left(G\right)\ge ?\frac{1}{k?1}?\frac{k?}{2}??$ ) if $\lambda \left(G\right)\ge ?$ (resp. $\kappa \left(G\right)\ge ?$) in $G$, where $k=3,4$. Moreover, we also study the relation between ${\kappa }_k\left(L\left(G\right)\right)$ and ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)$, where $L\left(G\right)$ is the line graph of $G$.     

A note on degree sum conditions for 2-factors with a prescribed number of cycles in bipartite graphs

Let $G$ be a balanced bipartite graph of order $2n\ge 4$, and let ${\sigma }_{1,1}\left(G\right)$ be the minimum degree sum of two non-adjacent vertices in different partite sets of $G$. In 1963, Moon and Moser proved that if ${\sigma }_{1,1}\left(G\right)\ge n+1$, then $G$ is hamiltonian. In this note, we show that if $k$ is a positive integer, then the Moon–Moser condition also implies the existence of a 2-factor with exactly $k$ cycles for sufficiently large graphs. In order to prove this, we also give a ${\sigma }_{1,1}$ condition for the existence of $k$ vertex-disjoint alternating cycles with respect to a chosen perfect matching in $G$.