Longest cycles in 3-connected graphs contain three contractible edges

We show that if G is a 3-connected graph of order at least seven, then every longest path between distinct vertices in G contains at least two contractible edges. An immediate corollary is that longest cycles in such graphs contain at least three contractible edges.     

The 3-connected graphs having a longest cycle containing only three contractible edges

It is shown that with one small exception, the 3-connected graphs admitting longest cycles that contain less than four contractible edges of the parent graph are the members of three closely related infinite families. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Covering contractible edges in 3-connected graphs. II. Characterizing those with covers of size three

It is shown that if G is a 3-connected graph with |V(G)| ≥ 10, then, with the exception of one infinite class based on K_3,p, it takes at least four vertices to cover the set of contractible edges of G. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Non removable edges in 3-connected cubic graphs

LetG be a cyclicallyk-edge-connected cubic graph withk 3. Lete be an edge ofG. LetG be the cubic graph obtained fromG by deletinge and its end vertices. The edgee is said to bek-removable ifG is also cyclicallyk-edge-connected. Let us denote by S _k (G) the graph induced by thek-removable edges and by N _k (G) the graph induced by the non 3-removable edges ofG. In a previous paper [7], we have proved that N ₃(G) is empty if and only ifG is cyclically 4-edge connected and that if N ₃(G) is not empty then it is a forest containing at least three trees. Andersen, Fleischner and Jackson [1] and, independently, McCuaig [11] studied N ₄(G). Here, we study the structure of N _k (G) fork 5 and we give some constructions of graphs such thatN _k (G) = E(G). We note that the main result of this paper (Theorem 5) has been announced independently by McCuaig [11].

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Résumé SoitG un graphe cubique cyliquementk-arête-connexe, aveck 3. Soite une arête deG et soitG le graphe cubique obtenu à partir deG en supprimante et ses extrémités. L'arêtee est ditek-suppressible siG est aussi cycliquementk-arête-connexe. Désignons par S _k (G) le graphe induit par les arêtesk-suppressibles et par N _k (G) celui induit par les arêtes nonk-suppressibles. Dans un précédent article [7], nous avons montré que N ₃(G) est vide si et seulement siG est cycliquement 4-arête-connexe et que si N ₃(G) n'est pas vide alors c'est une forêt possédant au moins trois arbres. Andersen, Fleischner and Jackson [1] et, indépendemment, McCuaig [11] ont étudié N ₄(G). Ici, nous étudions la structure de N _k (G) pourk 5 et nous donnons des constructions de graphes pour lesquelsN _k (G) = E(G). Nous signalons que le résultat principal de cet article (Théorème 5) a été annoncé indépendamment par McCuaig [11].

     

3-connected graphs with non-cut contractible edge covers of size k

In this paper, we show that if a 3-connected graph G other than K₄ has a vertex subset K that covers the set of contractible edges of G and if |K| 3 and |V(G)| 3|K| ? 1, then K is a cutset of G. We also give examples to show that this result is best possible. In particular, the result does not hold for K with smaller cardinality.     

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

Let G be a 4-connected graph, and let E_c(G) denote the set of 4-contractible edges of G and let denote the set of those edges of G which are not contained in a triangle. Under this notation, we show that if , then we have .     

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.     

The 3-connected graphs with a maximum matching containing precisely one contractible edge

It has previously been shown that if M is a maximum matching in a 3-connected graph G, other than K₄, then M contains at least one contractible edge of G. In this paper, we give a constructive characterization of the 3-connected graphs G having a maximum matching containing only one contractible edge of G.     

Cycles through five edges in 3-connected cubic graphs

Given five edges in a 3-connected cubic graph there are obvious reasons why there may not be one cycle passing through all of them. For instance, an odd subset of the edges may form a cutset of the graph. By restricting the sets of five edges in a natural way we are able to give necessary and sufficient conditions for the set to be a subset of edges of some cycle. It follows as a corollary that, under suitable restrictions, any five edges of a cyclically 5-edge connected cubic graph lie on a cycle.     

Removable edges of cycles in 5-connected graphs

Let G be a 5-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 each vertex x of degree 4 in G?e, delete x from G?e and then completely connect the 4 neighbors of x by K ₄. If multiple edges occur, we use single edge to replace them. The final resultant graph is denoted by G ? e. If G ? e is still 5-connected, then e is called a removable edge of G. In this paper, we investigate the distribution of removable edges in a cycle of a 5-connected graph. And we give examples to show some of our results are best possible in some sense.     

The number of edges of radius-invariant graphs

The eccentricity e(υ) of vertex υ is defined as a distance to a farthest vertex from υ. The radius of a graph G is defined as r(G) = {e(u)}. We consider properties of unchanging the radius of a graph under two different situations: deleting an arbitrary edge and deleting an arbitrary vertex. This paper gives the upper bounds for the number of edges in such graphs. Supported by VEGA grant No. 1/0084/08.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Uniformly 3-connected graphs

Let $k$ be a positive integer. A graph is said to be uniformly $k$-connected if between any pair of vertices the maximum number of independent paths is exactly $k$. Dawes showed that all minimally 3-connected graphs can be constructed from $K_4$ such that every graph in each intermediate step is also minimally 3-connected. In this paper, we generalize Dawes' result to uniformly 3-connected graphs. We give a constructive characterization of the class of uniformly 3-connected graphs which differs from the characterization provided by Göring et al., where their characterization requires the set of all 3-connected and 3-regular graphs as a starting set, the new characterization requires only the graph $K_4$. Eventually, we obtain a tight bound on the number of edges in uniformly 3-connected graphs.