Hamiltonian connected hourglass free line graphs

Thomassen [Reflections on graph theory, J. Graph Theory 10 (1986) 309-324] conjectured that every 4-connected line graph is hamiltonian. An hourglass is a graph isomorphic to K₅-E(C₄), where C₄ is a cycle of length 4 in K₅. In Broersma et al. [On factors of 4-connected claw-free graphs, J. Graph Theory 37 (2001) 125-136], it is shown that every 4-connected line graph without an induced subgraph isomorphic to the hourglass is hamiltonian connected. In this note, we prove that every 3-connected, essentially 4-connected hourglass free line graph, is hamiltonian connected.     

Cyclicity of graphs

The cyclicity of a graph is the largest integer n for which the graph is contractible to the cycle on n vertices. By analyzing the cycle space of a graph, we establish upper and lower bounds on cyclicity. These bounds facilitate the computation of cyclicity for several classes of graphs, including chordal graphs, complete n-partite graphs, n-cubes, products of trees and cycles, and planar graphs. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 32: 160–170, 1999     

Constructing even radius tightly attached half-arc-transitive graphs of valency four

A finite graph X is half-arc-transitive if its automorphism group is transitive on vertices and edges, but not on arcs. When X is tetravalent, the automorphism group induces an orientation on the edges and a cycle of X is called an alternating cycle if its consecutive edges in the cycle have opposite orientations. All alternating cycles of X have the same length and half of this length is called the radius of X. The graph X is said to be tightly attached if any two adjacent alternating cycles intersect in the same number of vertices equal to the radius of X. Marušič (J. Comb. Theory B, 73, 41–76, 1998) classified odd radius tightly attached tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs. In this paper, we classify the half-arc-transitive regular coverings of the complete bipartite graph K _4,4 whose covering transformation group is cyclic of prime-power order and whose fibre-preserving group contains a half-arc-transitive subgroup. As a result, two new infinite families of even radius tightly attached tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs are constructed, introducing the first infinite families of tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of 2-power orders.      

Weakly triangulated graphs

A graph is triangulated if it has no chordless cycle with four or more vertices. It follows that the complement of a triangulated graph cannot contain a chordless cycle with five or more vertices. We introduce a class of graphs (namely, weakly triangulated graphs) which includes both triangulated graphs and complements of triangulated graphs (we define a graph as weakly triangulated if neither it nor its complement contains a chordless cycle with five or more vertices). Our main result is a structural theorem which leads to a proof that weakly triangulated graphs are perfect.     

P3-isomorphisms for graphs

The P₃-graph of a finite simple graph G is the graph whose vertices are the 3-vertex paths of G, with adjacency between two such paths whenever their union is a 4-vertex path or a 3-cycle. In this paper we show that connected fnite simple graphs G and H with isomorphic P₃-graphs are either isomorphic or part of three exceptional families. We also characterize all isomorphisms between P₃-graphs in terms of the original graphs. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 26:35–51, 1997     

An infinite family of biprimitive semisymmetric graphs

A regular and edge-transitive graph that is not vertex-transitive is said to be semisymmetric. Every semisymmetric graph is necessarily bipartite, with the two parts having equal size and the automorphism group acting transitively on each of these two parts. A semisymmetric graph is called biprimitive, if its automorphism group acts primitively on each part. In this article, a classification of biprimitive semisymmetric graphs arising from the action of the group PSL(2, p), p ≡ ±1 (mod 8) a prime, acting on cosets of S₄ is given, resulting in several new infinite families of biprimitive semisymmetric graphs. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 32: 217–228, 1999     

Spanning subgraphs of graphs partitioned into two isomorphic pieces

A graph has the neighbor‐closed‐co‐neighbor, or ncc property, if for each of its vertices x, the subgraph induced by the neighbor set of x is isomorphic to the subgraph induced by the closed non‐neighbor set of x. As proved by Bonato and Nowakowski [ 5 ], graphs with the ncc property are characterized by the existence of perfect matchings satisfying certain local conditions. In the present article, we investigate the spanning subgraphs of ncc graphs, which we name sub‐ncc. Several equivalent characterizations of finite sub‐ncc graphs are given, along with a polynomial time algorithm for their recognition. The infinite sub‐ncc graphs are characterized, and we demonstrate the existence of a countable universal sub‐ncc graph satisfying a strong symmetry condition called pseudo‐homogeneity. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Hamiltonian cycles in n‐extendable graphs

A graph G of order at least 2n+2 is said to be n‐extendable if G has a perfect matching and every set of n independent edges extends to a perfect matching in G. We prove that every pair of nonadjacent vertices x and y in a connected n‐extendable graph of order p satisfy deg_G x+deg_G y ≥ p ? n ? 1, then either G is hamiltonian or G is isomorphic to one of two exceptional graphs. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 40: 75–82, 2002     

Even and odd holes in cap‐free graphs

It is an old problem in graph theory to test whether a graph contains a chordless cycle of length greater than three (hole) with a specific parity (even, odd). Studying the structure of graphs without odd holes has obvious implications for Berge's strong perfect graph conjecture that states that a graph G is perfect if and only if neither G nor its complement contain an odd hole. Markossian, Gasparian, and Reed have proven that if neither G nor its complement contain an even hole, then G is β‐perfect. In this article, we extend the problem of testing whether G(V, E) contains a hole of a given parity to the case where each edge of G has a label odd or even. A subset of E is odd (resp. even) if it contains an odd (resp. even) number of odd edges. Graphs for which there exists a signing (i.e., a partition of E into odd and even edges) that makes every triangle odd and every hole even are called even‐signable. Graphs that can be signed so that every triangle is odd and every triangle is odd and every hole is odd are called odd‐signable. We derive from a theorem due to Truemper co‐NP characterizations of even‐signable and odd‐signable graphs. A graph is strongly even‐signable if it can be signed so that every cycle of length ≥ 4 with at most one chord is even and every triangle is odd. Clearly a strongly even‐signable graph is even‐signable as well. Graphs that can be signed so that cycles of length four with one chord are even and all other cycles with at most one chord are odd are called strongly odd‐signable. Every strongly odd‐signable graph is odd‐signable. We give co‐NP characterizations for both strongly even‐signable and strongly odd‐signable graphs. A cap is a hole together with a node, which is adjacent to exactly two adjacent nodes on the hole. We derive a decomposition theorem for graphs that contain no cap as induced subgraph (cap‐free graphs). Our theorem is analogous to the decomposition theorem of Burlet and Fonlupt for Meyniel graphs, a well‐studied subclass of cap‐free graphs. If a graph is strongly even‐signable or strongly odd‐signable, then it is cap‐free. In fact, strongly even‐signable graphs are those cap‐free graphs that are even‐signable. From our decomposition theorem, we derive decomposition results for strongly odd‐signable and strongly even‐signable graphs. These results lead to polynomial recognition algorithms for testing whether a graph belongs to one of these classes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 30: 289–308, 1999     

On a conjecture of Hoàng and Tu concerning perfectly orderable graphs

Hoàng and Tu [On the perfect orderability of unions of two graphs, J. Graph Theory 33 (2000) 32-43] conjectured that a weakly triangulated graph which does not contain a chordless path with six vertices is perfectly orderable. We present a counter example to this conjecture.     

Clique‐coloring some classes of odd‐hole‐free graphs

We consider the problem of clique‐coloring, that is coloring the vertices of a given graph such that no maximal clique of size at least 2 is monocolored. Whereas we do not know any odd‐hole‐free graph that is not 3‐clique‐colorable, the existence of a constant C such that any perfect graph is C‐clique‐colorable is an open problem. In this paper we solve this problem for some subclasses of odd‐hole‐free graphs: those that are diamond‐free and those that are bull‐free. We also prove the NP‐completeness of 2‐clique‐coloring K₄‐free perfect graphs. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 53: 233–249, 2006     

Light subgraphs in planar graphs of minimum degree 4 and edge‐degree 9

A graph H is light in a given class of graphs if there is a constant w such that every graph of the class which has a subgraph isomorphic to H also has a subgraph isomorphic to H whose sum of degrees in G is ≤ w. Let be the class of simple planar graphs of minimum degree ≥ 4 in which no two vertices of degree 4 are adjacent. We denote the minimum such w by w(H). It is proved that the cycle C_s is light if and only if 3 ≤ s ≤ 6, where w(C₃) = 21 and w(C₄) ≤ 35. The 4‐cycle with one diagonal is not light in , but it is light in the subclass consisting of all triangulations. The star K_1,s is light if and only if s ≤ 4. In particular, w(K_1,3) = 23. The paths P_s are light for 1 ≤ s ≤ 6, and heavy for s ≥ 8. Moreover, w(P₃) = 17 and w(P₄) = 23. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 44: 261–295, 2003     

Weakly pancyclic graphs

In generalizing the concept of a pancyclic graph, we say that a graph is “weakly pancyclic” if it contains cycles of every length between the length of a shortest and a longest cycle. In this paper it is shown that in many cases the requirements on a graph which ensure that it is weakly pancyclic are considerably weaker than those required to ensure that it is pancyclic. This sheds some light on the content of a famous metaconjecture of Bondy. From the main result of this paper it follows that 2-connected nonbipartite graphs of sufficiently large order n with minimum degree exceeding 2n/7 are weakly pancyclic; and that graphs with minimum degree at least n/4 + 250 are pancyclic, if they contain both a triangle and a hamiltonian cycle. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 27: 141–176, 1998     

Infinite paths in planar graphs IV,dividing cycles

Nash‐Williams conjectured that a 4‐connected infinite planar graph contains a spanning 2‐way infinite path if, and only if, the deletion of any finite set of vertices results in at most two infinite components. In this article, we prove this conjecture for graphs with no dividing cycles and for graphs with infinitely many vertex disjoint dividing cycles. A cycle in an infinite plane graph is called dividing if both regions of the plane bounded by this cycle contain infinitely many vertices of the graph. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 53: 173–195, 2006     

Non‐Cayley‐isomorphic self‐complementary circulant graphs

Non‐CI self‐complementary circulant graphs of prime‐squared order are constructed and enumerated. It is shown that for prime p, there exists a self‐complementary circulant graph of order p² not Cayley isomorphic to its complement if and only if p ≡ 1 (mod 8). Such graphs are also enumerated. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 34: 128–141, 2000     

Slightly triangulated graphs are perfect

A graph istriangulated if it has no chordless cycle with at least four vertices (?k ≥ 4,C _k ?G). These graphs Jhave been generalized by R. Hayward with theweakly triangulated graphs $(\forall k \geqslant 5,C_{k,} \bar C_k \nsubseteq G)$ . In this note we propose a new generalization of triangulated graphs. A graph G isslightly triangulated if it satisfies the two following conditions;

1. G contains no chordless cycle with at least 5 vertices.
2. For every induced subgraphH of G, there is a vertex inH the neighbourhood of which inH contains no chordless path of 4 vertices.

     

Is every cycle basis fundamental?

A collection of (simple) cycles in a graph is called fundamental if they form a basis for the cycle space and if they can be ordered such that C_j(C₁ U … U C_j-1) ≠ Ø for all j. We characterize by excluded minors those graphs for which every cycle basis is fundamental. We also give a constructive characterization that leads to a (polynomial) algorithm for recognizing these graphs. In addition, this algorithm can be used to determine if a graph has a cycle basis that covers every edge two or more times. An equivalent dual characterization for the cutset space is also given.     

A generalization of simplicial elimination orderings

We consider the class of graphs where every induced subgraph possesses a vertex whose neighborhood has no P₄ and no 2K₂. We prove that Berge's Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture holds for such graphs. The class generalizes several well-known families of perfect graphs, such as triangulated graphs and bipartite graphs. Testing membership in this class and computing the maximum clique size for a graph in this class is not hard, but finding an optimal coloring is NP-hard. We give a polynomial-time algorithm for optimally coloring the vertices of such a graph when it is perfect. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Acrylic improper colorings of graphs

In this article, we introduce the new notion of acyclic improper colorings of graphs. An improper coloring of a graph is a vertex-coloring in which adjacent vertices are allowed to have the same color, but each color class V_i satisfies some condition depending on i. Such a coloring is acyclic if there are no alternating 2-colored cycles. We prove that every outerplanar graph can be acyclically 2-colored in such a way that each monochromatic subgraph has degree at most five and that this result is best possible. For planar graphs, we prove some negative results and state some open problems. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 32: 97–107, 1999