A sufficient degree condition for a graph to contain all trees of size <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>

The Erdős-Sós conjecture says that a graph G on n vertices and number of edges e(G) > n(k− 1)/2 contains all trees of size k. In this paper we prove a sufficient condition for a graph to contain every tree of size k formulated in terms of the minimum edge degree ζ(G) of a graph G defined as ζ(G) = min{d(u) + d(v) − 2: uv ∈ E(G)}. More precisely, we show that a connected graph G with maximum degree Δ(G) ≥ k and minimum edge degree ζ(G) ≥ 2k − 4 contains every tree of k edges if d _G (x) + d _G (y) ≥ 2k − 4 for all pairs x, y of nonadjacent neighbors of a vertex u of d _G (u) ≥ k.     

The diameter of paired-domination vertex critical graphs

In this paper we continue the study of paired-domination in graphs introduced by Haynes and Slater (Networks 32 (1998), 199–206). A paired-dominating set of a graph G with no isolated vertex is a dominating set of vertices whose induced subgraph has a perfect matching. The paired-domination number of G, denoted by γ _pr(G), is the minimum cardinality of a paired-dominating set of G. The graph G is paired-domination vertex critical if for every vertex v of G that is not adjacent to a vertex of degree one, γ _pr(G − v) < γ _pr(G). We characterize the connected graphs with minimum degree one that are paired-domination vertex critical and we obtain sharp bounds on their maximum diameter. We provide an example which shows that the maximum diameter of a paired-domination vertex critical graph is at least 3/2 (γ _pr(G) − 2). For γ _pr(G) ⩽ 8, we show that this lower bound is precisely the maximum diameter of a paired-domination vertex critical graph. The first author was supported in part by the South African National Research Foundation and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the second author was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

Semiharmonic trees and monocyclic graphs

A graph G is defined to be semiharmonic if there is a constant μ (necessarily a natural number) such that, for every vertex v, the number of walks of length 3 starting in v equals μd_G(v) where d_G(v) is the degree of v. We determine all finite semiharmonic trees and monocyclic graphs.     

A Fan Type Condition For Heavy Cycles in Weighted Graphs

 A weighted graph is a graph in which each edge e is assigned a non-negative number w(e), called the weight of e. The weight of a cycle is the sum of the weights of its edges. The weighted degree d ^w (v) of a vertex v is the sum of the weights of the edges incident with v. In this paper, we prove the following result: Suppose G is a 2-connected weighted graph which satisfies the following conditions: 1. max{d ^w (x),d ^w (y)∣d(x,y)=2}≥c/2; 2. w(x z)=w(y z) for every vertex z∈N(x)∩N(y) with d(x,y)=2; 3. In every triangle T of G, either all edges of T have different weights or all edges of T have the same weight. Then G contains either a Hamilton cycle or a cycle of weight at least c. This generalizes a theorem of Fan on the existence of long cycles in unweighted graphs to weighted graphs. We also show we cannot omit Condition 2 or 3 in the above result. Received: February 7, 2000 Final version received: June 5, 2001     

Injective (Δ + 1)-coloring of planar graphs with girth 6

A vertex coloring of a graph G is called injective if every two vertices joined by a path of length 2 get different colors. The minimum number χ _i (G) of the colors required for an injective coloring of a graph G is clearly not less than the maximum degree Δ(G) of G. There exist planar graphs with girth g ≥ 6 and χ _i = Δ+1 for any Δ ≥ 2. We prove that every planar graph with Δ ≥ 18 and g ≥ 6 has χ _i ≤ Δ + 1.     

On 3-Edge-Connected Supereulerian Graphs

The supereulerian graph problem, raised by Boesch et al. (J Graph Theory 1:79–84, 1977), asks when a graph has a spanning eulerian subgraph. Pulleyblank showed that such a decision problem, even when restricted to planar graphs, is NP-complete. Jaeger and Catlin independently showed that every 4-edge-connected graph has a spanning eulerian subgraph. In 1992, Zhan showed that every 3-edge-connected, essentially 7-edge-connected graph has a spanning eulerian subgraph. It was conjectured in 1995 that every 3-edge-connected, essentially 5-edge-connected graph has a spanning eulerian subgraph. In this paper, we show that if G is a 3-edge-connected, essentially 4-edge-connected graph and if for every pair of adjacent vertices u and v, d _G (u) + d _G (v) ≥ 9, then G has a spanning eulerian subgraph.     

On the Existence of a Long Path Between Specified Vertices in a 2-Connected Graph

 Let G be a 2-connected graph with maximum degree Δ (G)≥d, and let x and y be distinct vertices of G. Let W be a subset of V(G)−{x, y} with cardinality at most d−1. Suppose that max{d _G(u), d _G(v)}≥d for every pair of vertices u and v in V(G)−({x, y}∪W) with d _G(u,v)=2. Then x and y are connected by a path of length at least d−|W|. Received: February 5, 1998 Revised: April 13, 1998     

On Small World Semiplanes with Generalised Schubert Cells

The well known “real-life examples” of small world graphs, including the graph of binary relation: “two persons on the earth know each other” contains cliques, so they have cycles of order 3 and 4. Some problems of Computer Science require explicit construction of regular algebraic graphs with small diameter but without small cycles. The well known examples here are generalised polygons, which are small world algebraic graphs i.e. graphs with the diameter d≤clog  _k−1(v), where v is order, k is the degree and c is the independent constant, semiplanes (regular bipartite graphs without cycles of order 4); graphs that can be homomorphically mapped onto the ordinary polygons. The problem of the existence of regular graphs satisfying these conditions with the degree ≥k and the diameter ≥d for each pair k≥3 and d≥3 is addressed in the paper. This problem is positively solved via the explicit construction. Generalised Schubert cells are defined in the spirit of Gelfand-Macpherson theorem for the Grassmanian. Constructed graph, induced on the generalised largest Schubert cells, is isomorphic to the well-known Wenger’s graph. We prove that the family of edge-transitive q-regular Wenger graphs of order 2q ⁿ , where integer n≥2 and q is prime power, q≥n, q>2 is a family of small world semiplanes. We observe the applications of some classes of small world graphs without small cycles to Cryptography and Coding Theory.     

A Note on L（2, 1）-labelling of Trees

An L(2,1)-labelling of a graph G is a function from the vertex set V (G) to the set of all nonnegative integers such that |f(u) f(v)| ≥ 2 if d G (u,v)=1 and |f(u) f(v)| ≥ 1 if d G (u,v)=2.The L(2,1)-labelling problem is to find the smallest number,denoted by λ(G),such that there exists an L(2,1)-labelling function with no label greater than it.In this paper,we study this problem for trees.Our results improve the result of Wang [The L(2,1)-labelling of trees,Discrete Appl.Math.154 (2006) 598-603].     

On Connected [g,f +1]-Factors in Graphs

Let G = (V (G),E(G)) be a graph with vertex set V (G) and edge set E(G), and g and f two positive integral functions from V (G) to Z⁺-{1} such that g(v) ≤ f(v) ≤ d_G(v) for all v ∈V (G), where d_G(v) is the degree of the vertex v. It is shown that every graph G, including both a [g,f]-factor and a hamiltonian path, contains a connected [g,f +1]-factor. This result also extends Kano’s conjecture concerning the existence of connected [k,k+1]-factors in graphs. * The work of this author was supported by NSFC of China under Grant No. 10271065, No. 60373025. † The work of these authors was also supported in part by the US Department of Energy’s Genomes to Life program (http://doegenomestolife.org/) under project, “Carbon Sequestration in Synechococcus sp.: From Molecular Machines to Hierarchical Modeling” (www.genomes2life.org) and by National Science Foundation (NSF/DBI-0354771,NSF/ITR-IIS-0407204).     

Degree Bounded Spanning Trees

In this paper, we give a sufficient condition for a graph to have a degree bounded spanning tree. Let n ≥ 1, k ≥ 3, c ≥ 0 and G be an n-connected graph. Suppose that for every independent set ${S \subseteq V(G)}In this paper, we give a sufficient condition for a graph to have a degree bounded spanning tree. Let n ≥ 1, k ≥ 3, c ≥ 0 and G be an n-connected graph. Suppose that for every independent set S í V(G){S \subseteq V(G)} of cardinality n(k−1) + c + 2, there exists a vertex set X í S{X \subseteq S} of cardinality k such that the degree sum of vertices in X is at least |V(G)| − c −1. Then G has a spanning tree T with maximum degree at most k+éc/nù{k+\lceil c/n\rceil} and ?_{v ? V(T)}max{d_T(v)-k,0} ￡ c{\sum_{v\in V(T)}\max\{d_T(v)-k,0\}\leq c} .     

On the total domination subdivision numbers in graphs

A set S of vertices of a graph G = (V, E) without isolated vertex is a total dominating set if every vertex of V(G) is adjacent to some vertex in S. The total domination number γ _t (G) is the minimum cardinality of a total dominating set of G. The total domination subdivision number sd_γt (G) is the minimum number of edges that must be subdivided (each edge in G can be subdivided at most once) in order to increase the total domination number. Karami, Khoeilar, Sheikholeslami and Khodkar, (Graphs and Combinatorics, 2009, 25, 727–733) proved that for any connected graph G of order n ≥ 3, sd_{γ t} (G) ≤ 2γ _t (G) − 1 and posed the following problem: Characterize the graphs that achieve the aforementioned upper bound. In this paper we first prove that sd_{γ t} (G) ≤ 2α′(G) for every connected graph G of order n ≥ 3 and δ(G) ≥ 2 where α′(G) is the maximum number of edges in a matching in G and then we characterize all connected graphs G with sd_{γ t} (G)=2γ _t (G)−1.     

Survey of Double Vertex Graphs

 Let G be a (V,E) graph of order p≥2. The double vertex graph U ₂ (G) is the graph whose vertex set consists of all 2-subsets of V such that two distinct vertices {x,y} and {u,v} are adjacent if and only if |{x,y}∩{u,v}|=1 and if x=u, then y and v are adjacent in G. For this class of graphs we discuss the regularity, eulerian, hamiltonian, and bipartite properties of these graphs. A generalization of this concept is n-tuple vertex graphs, defined in a manner similar to double vertex graphs. We also review several recent results for n-tuple vertex graphs. Received: October, 2001 Final version received: September 20, 2002 Dedicated to Frank Harary on the occasion of his Eightieth Birthday and the Manila International Conference held in his honor     

New Local Conditions for a Graph to be Hamiltonian

For a vertex w of a graph G the ball of radius 2 centered at w is the subgraph of G induced by the set M₂(w) of all vertices whose distance from w does not exceed 2. We prove the following theorem: Let G be a connected graph where every ball of radius 2 is 2-connected and d(u)+d(v)≥|M₂(w)|−1 for every induced path uwv. Then either G is hamiltonian or for some p≥2 where ∨ denotes join. As a corollary we obtain the following local analogue of a theorem of Nash-Williams: A connected r-regular graph G is hamiltonian if every ball of radius 2 is 2-connected and for each vertex w of G. Supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR)     

Degree-Light-Free Graphs and Hamiltonian Cycles

 Let G and H be graphs. G is said to be degree-light H-free if G is either H-free or, for every induced subgraph K of G with K≅H, and every {u,v}⊆K, d i s t _K (u,v)=2 implies max {d(u),d(v)}≥|V(G)|/2. In this paper, we will show that every 2-connected graph with either degree-light {K _1,3, P ₆}-free or degree-light {K _1,3, Z}-free is hamiltonian (with three exceptional graphs), where P ₆ is a path of order 6 and Z is obtained from P ₆ by adding an edge between the first and the third vertex of P ₆ (see Figure 1). Received: December 9, 1998?Final version received: July 21, 1999     

A Network-Flow Technique for Finding Low-Weight Bounded-Degree Spanning Trees

Given a graph with edge weights satisfying the triangle inequality, and a degree bound for each vertex, the problem of computing a low-weight spanning tree such that the degree of each vertex is at most its specified bound is considered. In particular, modifying a given spanning treeTusingadoptionsto meet the degree constraints is considered. A novel network-flow-based algorithm for finding a good sequence of adoptions is introduced. The method yields a better performance guarantee than any previous algorithm. If the degree constraintd(v) for eachvis at least 2, the algorithm is guaranteed to find a tree whose weight is at most the weight of the given tree times 2 − min{(d(v) − 2)/(deg_T(v) − 2) : deg_T(v) > 2}, where deg_T(v) is the initial degree ofv. Equally importantly, it takes this approach to the limit in the following sense: if any performance guarantee that is solely a function of the topology and edge weights of a given tree holds foranyalgorithm at all, then it also holds for the given algorithm. Examples are provided in which no lighter tree meeting the degree constraint exists. Linear-time algorithms are provided with the same worst-case performance guarantee. ChoosingTto be a minimum spanning tree yields approximation algorithms with factors less than 2 for the general problem on geometric graphs with distances induced by variousL_pnorms. Finally, examples of Euclidean graphs are provided in which the ratio of the lengths of an optimal Traveling Salesman path and a minimum spanning tree can be arbitrarily close to 2.     

Paired Domination Vertex Critical Graphs

Let γ _pr (G) denote the paired domination number of graph G. A graph G with no isolated vertex is paired domination vertex critical if for any vertex v of G that is not adjacent to a vertex of degree one, γ _pr (G – v) < γ _pr (G). We call these graphs γ _pr -critical. In this paper, we present a method of constructing γ _pr -critical graphs from smaller ones. Moreover, we show that the diameter of a γ _pr -critical graph is at most and the upper bound is sharp, which answers a question proposed by Henning and Mynhardt [The diameter of paired-domination vertex critical graphs, Czechoslovak Math. J., to appear]. Xinmin Hou: Research supported by NNSF of China (No.10701068 and No.10671191).     

Bounds on the Distance Two-Domination Number of a Graph

 For a graph G = (V, E), a subset D⊆V(G) is said to be distance two-dominating set in G if for each vertex u∈V−D, there exists a vertex v∈D such that d(u,v)≤2. The minimum cardinality of a distance two-dominating set in G is called a distance two-domination number and is denoted by γ₂(G). In this note we obtain various upper bounds for γ₂(G) and characterize the classes of graphs attaining these bounds. Received: May 31, 1999 Final version received: July 13, 2000     

Local and global average degree in graphs and multigraphs

A vertex v of a graph G is called groupie if the average degree t_v of all neighbors of v in G is not smaller than the average degree t_G of G. Every graph contains a groupie vertex; the problem of whether or not every simple graph on ≧2 vertices has at least two groupie vertices turned out to be surprisingly difficult. We present various sufficient conditions for a simple graph to contain at least two groupie vertices. Further, we investigate the function f(n) = max min_v (t_v/t_G), where the maximum ranges over all simple graphs on n vertices, and prove that f(n) = 1/42n + o(1). The corresponding result for multigraphs is in sharp contrast with the above. We also characterize trees in which the local average degree t_v is constant.     

Efficient algorithms for decomposing graphs under degree constraints

Stiebitz [Decomposing graphs under degree constraints, J. Graph Theory 23 (1996) 321-324] proved that if every vertex v in a graph G has degree d(v)?a(v)+b(v)+1 (where a and b are arbitrarily given nonnegative integer-valued functions) then G has a nontrivial vertex partition (A,B) such that d_A(v)?a(v) for every v∈A and d_B(v)?b(v) for every v∈B. Kaneko [On decomposition of triangle-free graphs under degree constraints, J. Graph Theory 27 (1998) 7-9] and Diwan [Decomposing graphs with girth at least five under degree constraints, J. Graph Theory 33 (2000) 237-239] strengthened this result, proving that it suffices to assume d(v)?a+b (a,b?1) or just d(v)?a+b-1 (a,b?2) if G contains no cycles shorter than 4 or 5, respectively.The original proofs contain nonconstructive steps. In this paper we give polynomial-time algorithms that find such partitions. Constructive generalizations for k-partitions are also presented.