Edge-connectivity of regular graphs with two orbits

Let G=(V,E) be a simple connected graph and x∈V(G). The set {x^g:g∈Aut(G)} is called an orbit of Aut(G). In this paper, we determine the edge connectivity of 3-regular and 4-regular connected graphs with two orbits, and prove the existence of k-regular m-edge-connected graphs with two orbits for some given integers k and m. Furthermore, we prove that the edge connectivity of a k-regular connected graph with two orbits and girth?5 attains its regular degree k.     

On the edge-connectivity of graphs with two orbits of the same size

It is well known that the edge-connectivity of a simple, connected, vertex-transitive graph attains its regular degree. It is then natural to consider the relationship between the graph’s edge-connectivity and the number of orbits of its automorphism group. In this paper, we discuss the edge connectedness of graphs with two orbits of the same size, and characterize when these double-orbit graphs are maximally edge connected and super-edge-connected. We also obtain a sufficient condition for some double-orbit graphs to be λ^′-optimal. Furthermore, by applying our results we obtain some results on vertex/edge-transitive bipartite graphs, mixed Cayley graphs and half vertex-transitive graphs.     

Acyclic edge coloring of subcubic graphs

An acyclic edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic cycles. The acyclic chromatic index of a graph is the minimum number k such that there is an acyclic edge coloring using k colors and it is denoted by a^′(G). From a result of Burnstein it follows that all subcubic graphs are acyclically edge colorable using five colors. This result is tight since there are 3-regular graphs which require five colors. In this paper we prove that any non-regular connected graph of maximum degree 3 is acyclically edge colorable using at most four colors. This result is tight since all edge maximal non-regular connected graphs of maximum degree 3 require four colors.     

Longest cycles in regular graphs

The paper is concerned with the longest cycles in regular three- (or two-) connected graphs. In particular, the following results are proved: (i) every 3-connected k-regular graph on n vertices has a cycle of length at least min(3k, n); (ii) every 2-connected k-regular graph on n vertices, where n < 3k + 4, has a cycle of length at least min(3k, n).     

Minimally (k,k)‐edge‐connected graphs

For an integer l > 1, the l‐edge‐connectivity of a connected graph with at least l vertices is the smallest number of edges whose removal results in a graph with l components. A connected graph G is (k, l)‐edge‐connected if the l‐edge‐connectivity of G is at least k. In this paper, we present a structural characterization of minimally (k, k)‐edge‐connected graphs. As a result, former characterizations of minimally (2, 2)‐edge‐connected graphs in [J of Graph Theory 3 (1979), 15–22] are extended. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 44: 116–131, 2003     

On the 3-restricted edge connectivity of permutation graphs

An edge cut W of a connected graph G is a k-restricted edge cut if G−W is disconnected, and every component of G−W has at least k vertices. The k-restricted edge connectivity is defined as the minimum cardinality over all k-restricted edge cuts. A permutation graph is obtained by taking two disjoint copies of a graph and adding a perfect matching between the two copies. The k-restricted edge connectivity of a permutation graph is upper bounded by the so-called minimum k-edge degree. In this paper some sufficient conditions guaranteeing optimal k-restricted edge connectivity and super k-restricted edge connectivity for permutation graphs are presented for k=2,3.     

A family of regular graphs of girth 5

Murty [A generalization of the Hoffman-Singleton graph, Ars Combin. 7 (1979) 191-193.] constructed a family of (p^m+2)-regular graphs of girth five and order 2p^2m, where p?5 is a prime, which includes the Hoffman-Singleton graph [A.J. Hoffman, R.R. Singleton, On Moore graphs with diameters 2 and 3, IBM J. (1960) 497-504]. This construction gives an upper bound for the least number f(k) of vertices of a k-regular graph with girth 5. In this paper, we extend the Murty construction to k-regular graphs with girth 5, for each k. In particular, we obtain new upper bounds for f(k), k?16.     

Super cyclically edge-connected vertex-transitive graphs of girth at least 5

A cyclic edge-cut of a graph G is an edge set, the removal of which separates two cycles. If G has a cyclic edge-cut, then it is called cyclically separable. We call a cyclically separable graph super cyclically edge-connected, in short, super-λc, if the removal of any minimum cyclic edge-cut results in a component which is a shortest cycle. In [Zhang, Z., Wang, B.: Super cyclically edge-connected transitive graphs. J. Combin. Optim., 22, 549-562 (2011)], it is proved that a connected vertex-transitive graph is super-λc if G has minimum degree at least 4 and girth at least 6, and the authors also presented a class of nonsuper-λc graphs which have degree 4 and girth 5. In this paper, a characterization of k (k≥4)-regular vertex-transitive nonsuper-λc graphs of girth 5 is given. Using this, we classify all k (k≥4)-regular nonsuper-λc Cayley graphs of girth 5, and construct the first infinite family of nonsuper-λc vertex-transitive non-Cayley graphs.     

On the limit points of the smallest eigenvalues of regular graphs

In this paper, we give infinitely many examples of (non-isomorphic) connected k-regular graphs with smallest eigenvalue in half open interval ${[-1-\sqrt2, -2)}$ and also infinitely many examples of (non-isomorphic) connected k-regular graphs with smallest eigenvalue in half open interval ${[\alpha_1, -1-\sqrt2)}$ where α ₁ is the smallest root ${(\approx -2.4812)}$ of the polynomial x ³?+?2x ² ? 2x ? 2. From these results, we determine the largest and second largest limit points of smallest eigenvalues of regular graphs less than ?2. Moreover we determine the supremum of the smallest eigenvalue among all connected 3-regular graphs with smallest eigenvalue less than ?2 and we give the unique graph with this supremum value as its smallest eigenvalue.     

Super Restricted Edge Connectivity of Regular Graphs

An edge cut of a connected graph is called restricted if it separates this graph into components each having order at least 2; a graph G is super restricted edge connected if G−S contains an isolated edge for every minimum restricted edge cut S of G. It is proved in this paper that k-regular connected graph G is super restricted edge connected if k > |V(G)|/2+1. The lower bound on k is exemplified to be sharp to some extent. With this observation, we determined the number of edge cuts of size at most 2k−2 of these graphs. Supported by NNSF of China (10271105); Ministry of Science and Technology of Fujian (2003J036); Education Ministry of Fujian (JA03147)     

Super-connectivity and super-edge-connectivity for some interconnection networks

Let G=(V,E) be a k-regular graph with connectivity κ and edge connectivity λ. G is maximum connected if κ=k, and G is maximum edge connected if λ=k. Moreover, G is super-connected if it is a complete graph, or it is maximum connected and every minimum vertex cut is {x|(v,x)E} for some vertex vV; and G is super-edge-connected if it is maximum edge connected and every minimum edge disconnecting set is {(v,x)|(v,x)E} for some vertex vV. In this paper, we present three schemes for constructing graphs that are super-connected and super-edge-connected. Applying these construction schemes, we can easily discuss the super-connected property and the super-edge-connected property of hypercubes, twisted cubes, crossed cubes, möbius cubes, split-stars, and recursive circulant graphs.     

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.     

Pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p3

A graph is symmetric or 1-regular if its automorphism group is transitive or regular on the arc set of the graph, respectively. We classify the connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p~3 for each prime p. All those symmetric graphs appear as normal Cayley graphs on some groups of order 2p~3 and their automorphism groups are determined. For p = 3, no connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p~3 exist. However, for p = 2 or 5, such symmetric graph exists uniquely in each case. For p 7, the connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order 2p~3 are all regular covers of the dipole Dip5 with covering transposition groups of order p~3, and they consist of seven infinite families; six of them are 1-regular and exist if and only if 5 |(p- 1), while the other one is 1-transitive but not 1-regular and exists if and only if 5 |(p ± 1). In the seven infinite families, each graph is unique for a given order.     

Quotients of connected regular graphs of even degree

This paper introduces a method of listing all nonequivalent quotients of any connected regular graph of even degree with a given 2-factorization. The method is based on the characterization of connected 2d-regular graphs as Schreier coset graphs given by Gross (J. Combin. Theory Ser. B22 (1977), 227–232). Various representations of a given graph with a fixed 2-factorization are also investigated. The work is related to graph imbedding theory, particularly to voltage and current graphs.     

On 3-regular 4-ordered graphs

A simple graph G is k-ordered (respectively, k-ordered hamiltonian), if for any sequence of k distinct vertices v₁,…,v_kof G there exists a cycle (respectively, hamiltonian cycle) in G containing these k vertices in the specified order. In 1997 Ng and Schultz introduced these concepts of cycle orderability and posed the question of the existence of 3-regular 4-ordered (hamiltonian) graphs other than K₄ and K_3,3. Ng and Schultz observed that a 3-regular 4-ordered graph on more than 4 vertices is triangle free. We prove that a 3-regular 4-ordered graph G on more than 6 vertices is square free,and we show that the smallest graph that is triangle and square free, namely the Petersen graph, is 4-ordered. Furthermore, we prove that the smallest graph after K₄ and K_3,3 that is 3-regular 4-ordered hamiltonianis the Heawood graph. Finally, we construct an infinite family of 3-regular 4-ordered graphs.     

Circumferences of regular claw-free graphs

A known result obtained independently by Fan and Jung is that every 3-connected k-regular graph on n vertices contains a cycle of length at least min{3k,n}. This raises the question of how much can be said about the circumferences of 3-connected k-regular claw-free graphs. In this paper, we show that every 3-connected k-regular claw-free graph on n vertices contains a cycle of length at least min{6k-17,n}.     

A Classification of the Strongly Regular Generalised Johnson Graphs

The generalised Johnson graphs are the graphs J(n, k, m) whose vertices are the k subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n}, with two vertices J ₁ and J ₂ joined by an edge if and only if ${{|J_1 \cap J_2| = m}}$ . A graph is called d-regular if every vertex has exactly d edges incident to it. A d-regular graph on v vertices is called a (v, d, a, c)-strongly regular graph if every pair of adjacent vertices have exactly a common neighbours and every pair of non-adjacent vertices have exactly c common neighbours. The triangular graphs J(n, 2, 1), their complements J(n, 2, 0), the sporadic examples J(10, 3, 1) and J(7, 3, 1), as well as the trivially strongly regular graphs J(2k, k, 0) are examples of strongly regular generalised Johnson graphs. In this paper we prove that there are no other strongly regular generalised Johnson graphs.     

Minimum monopoly in regular and tree graphs

In this paper we consider a graph optimization problem called minimum monopoly problem, in which it is required to find a minimum cardinality set S⊆V, such that, for each u∈V, |N[u]∩S|?|N[u]|/2 in a given graph G=(V,E). We show that this optimization problem does not have a polynomial-time approximation scheme for k-regular graphs (k?5), unless P=NP. We show this by establishing two L-reductions (an approximation preserving reduction) from minimum dominating set problem for k-regular graphs to minimum monopoly problem for 2k-regular graphs and to minimum monopoly problem for (2k-1)-regular graphs, where k?3. We also show that, for tree graphs, a minimum monopoly set can be computed in linear time.     

On Perfect k-Matchings

In this paper, we generalize the notions of perfect matchings, perfect 2-matchings to perfect k-matchings and give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of perfect k-matchings. We show that a bipartite graph G contains a perfect k-matching if and only if it contains a perfect matching. Moreover, for regular graphs, we provide a sufficient condition for the existence of perfect k-matching in terms of the edge connectivity.     

Matchings in regular graphs

We consider k-regular graphs with specified edge connectivity and show how some classical theorems and some new results concerning the existence of matchings in such graphs can be proved by using the polyhedral characterization of Edmonds. In addition, we show that lower bounds of Lovász and Plummer on the number of perfect matchings in bicritical graphs can be improved for cubic bicritical graphs.