Walks through every edge exactly twice

In this article, we develop a theory of walks traversing every edge exactly twice. Rosenstiehl and Read proved that if G is a graph with no set of edges that is simultaneously a cycle and a cocycle, then G is planar if and only if there is a closed walk W in G traversing every edge exactly twice such that certain sets of edges derived from W are all cocycles. One consequence of the current work is a simple proof of the Rosenstiehl-Read theorem. Another is an unusual method for determining the rank (over the integers modulo 2) of a symmetric matrix obtained from a circle graph.     

The 7/5-conjecture strengthens itself

The following is proved: if every bridgeless graph G has a cycle cover of length at most 7/5|E(G)|, then every bridgeless graph G has a cycle cover of length at most 7/5|E(G)| such that any edge of G is covered once or twice. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Spanning 2‐trails from degree sum conditions

Suppose G is a simple connected n‐vertex graph. Let σ₃(G) denote the minimum degree sum of three independent vertices in G (which is ∞ if G has no set of three independent vertices). A 2‐trail is a trail that uses every vertex at most twice. Spanning 2‐trails generalize hamilton paths and cycles. We prove three main results. First, if σ₃G)≥ n ‐ 1, then G has a spanning 2‐trail, unless G ? K_1,3. Second, if σ₃(G) ≥ n, then G has either a hamilton path or a closed spanning 2‐trail. Third, if G is 2‐edge‐connected and σ₃(G) ≥ n, then G has a closed spanning 2‐trail, unless G ? K_2,3 or K (the 6‐vertex graph obtained from K_2,3 by subdividing one edge). All three results are sharp. These results are related to the study of connected and 2‐edge‐connected factors, spanning k‐walks, even factors, and supereulerian graphs. In particular, a closed spanning 2‐trail may be regarded as a connected (and 2‐edge‐connected) even [2,4]‐factor. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 45: 298–319, 2004     

Every DFS Tree of a 3‐Connected Graph Contains a Contractible Edge

Tutte proved that every 3‐connected graph G on more than 4 vertices contains a contractible edge. We strengthen this result by showing that every depth‐first‐search tree of G contains a contractible edge. Moreover, we show that every spanning tree of G contains a contractible edge if G is 3‐regular or if G does not contain two disjoint pairs of adjacent degree‐3 vertices.     

Path covers of weighted graphs

Let (G, w) denote a simple graph G with a weight function w : E(G) ← {0, 1, 2}. A path cover of (G, w) is a collection of paths in G such that every edge e is contained in exactly w(e) paths of the collection. For a vertex v, w(v) is the sum of the weights of the edges incident with v; v is called an odd (even) vertex if w(v) is odd (even). We prove that if every vertex of (G, w) is incident with at most one edge of weight 2, then (G, w) has a path cover P such that each odd vertex occurs exactly once, and each even vertex exactly twice, as an end of a path of P. We also prove that if every vertex of (G, w) is even, then (G, w) has a path cover P such that each vertex occurs exactly twice as an end of a path of P. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On removable cycles through every edge

Mader and Jackson independently proved that every 2‐connected simple graph G with minimum degree at least four has a removable cycle, that is, a cycle C such that G/E(C) is 2‐connected. This paper considers the problem of determining when every edge of a 2‐connected graph G, simple or not, can be guaranteed to lie in some removable cycle. The main result establishes that if every deletion of two edges from G remains 2‐connected, then, not only is every edge in a removable cycle but, for every two edges, there are edge‐disjoint removable cycles such that each contains one of the distinguished edges. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 42: 155–164, 2003     

Perfect path double covers of graphs

A perfect path double cover (PPDC) of a graph G on n vertices is a family ?? of n paths of G such that each edge of G belongs to exactly two members of ?? and each vertex of G occurs exactly twice as an end of a path of ??. We propose and study the conjecture that every simple graph admits a PPDC. Among other things, we prove that every simple 3-regular graph admits a PPDC consisting of paths of length three.     

3‐Flows and Combs

Tutte's 3‐Flow Conjecture states that every 2‐edge‐connected graph with no 3‐cuts admits a 3‐flow. The 3‐Flow Conjecture is equivalent to the following: let G be a 2‐edge‐connected graph, let S be a set of at most three vertices of G; if every 3‐cut of G separates S then G has a 3‐flow. We show that minimum counterexamples to the latter statement are 3‐connected, cyclically 4‐connected, and cyclically 7‐edge‐connected.     

Oriented walk double covering and bidirectional double tracing

An oriented walk double covering of a graph G is a set of oriented closed walks, that, traversed successively, combined will have traced each edge of G once in each direction. A bidirectional double tracing of a graph G is an oriented walk double covering that consists of a single closed walk. A retracting in a closed walk is the immediate succession of an edge by its inverse. Every graph with minimum degree 2 has a retracting free oriented walk double covering and every connected graph has a bidirectional double tracing. The minimum number of closed walks in a retracting free oriented walk double covering of G is denoted by c(G). The minimum number of retractings in a bidirectional double tracing of G is denoted by r(G). We shall prove that for all connected noncycle graphs G with minimum degree at least 2, r(G) = c(G) − 1. The problem of characterizing those graphs G for which r(G) = 0 was raised by Ore. Thomassen solved this problem by relating it to the existence of certain spanning trees. We generalize this result, and relate the parameters r(G), c(G) to spanning trees of G. This relation yields a polynomial time algorithm to determine the parameters c(G) and r(G). © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Graph Theory 29: 89–102, 1998     

Matroidal families of finite connected nonhomeomorphic graphs exist

A matroidal family is a nonempty set ? of connected finite graphs such that for every arbitrary finite graph G the edge sets of the subgraphs of G which are isomorphic to an element of ? form a matroid on the edge set of G. In the present paper the question whether there are any matroidal families besides the four previously described by Simões-Pereira is answered affirmatively. It is shown that for every natural number n ? 2 there is a matroidal family that contains the complete graph with n vertices. For n = 4 this settles Simões-Pereira's conjecture that there is a matroidal family containing all wheels.     

On Infinite Cycles I

We adapt the cycle space of a finite graph to locally finite infinite graphs, using as infinite cycles the homeomorphic images of the unit circle S¹ in the graph compactified by its ends. We prove that this cycle space consists of precisely the sets of edges that meet every finite cut evenly, and that the spanning trees whose fundamental cycles generate this cycle space are precisely the end-faithful spanning trees. We also generalize Eulers theorem by showing that a locally finite connected graph with ends contains a closed topological curve traversing every edge exactly once if and only if its entire edge set lies in this cycle space.To the memory of C. St. J. A. Nash-Williams     

Sufficient conditions for graphs to be λ′‐optimal,super‐edge‐connected,and maximally edge‐connected

The restricted‐edge‐connectivity of a graph G, denoted by λ′(G), is defined as the minimum cardinality over all edge‐cuts S of G, where G‐S contains no isolated vertices. The graph G is called λ′‐optimal, if λ′(G) = ξ(G), where ξ(G) is the minimum edge‐degree in G. A graph is super‐edge‐connected, if every minimum edge‐cut consists of edges adjacent to a vertex of minimum degree. In this paper, we present sufficient conditions for arbitrary, triangle‐free, and bipartite graphs to be λ′‐optimal, as well as conditions depending on the clique number. These conditions imply super‐edge‐connectivity, if δ (G) ≥ 3, and the equality of edge‐connectivity and minimum degree. Different examples will show that these conditions are best possible and independent of other results in this area. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 48: 228–246, 2005     

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)     

Thomassen's conjecture implies polynomiality of 1‐Hamilton‐connectedness in line graphs

A graph G is 1‐Hamilton‐connected if G?x is Hamilton‐connected for every x∈V(G), and G is 2‐edge‐Hamilton‐connected if the graph G+ X has a hamiltonian cycle containing all edges of X for any X?E⁺(G) = {xy| x, y∈V(G)} with 1≤|X|≤2. We prove that Thomassen's conjecture (every 4‐connected line graph is hamiltonian, or, equivalently, every snark has a dominating cycle) is equivalent to the statements that every 4‐connected line graph is 1‐Hamilton‐connected and/or 2‐edge‐Hamilton‐connected. As a corollary, we obtain that Thomassen's conjecture implies polynomiality of both 1‐Hamilton‐connectedness and 2‐edge‐Hamilton‐connectedness in line graphs. Consequently, proving that 1‐Hamilton‐connectedness is NP‐complete in line graphs would disprove Thomassen's conjecture, unless P = NP. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 69: 241–250, 2012     

Three-regular subgraphs of four-regular graphs

Berge conjectured that every finite simple 4-regular graph G contains a 3-regular subgraph. We prove that this conjecture is true if the cyclic edge connectivity λ^c(G) of G is at least 10. Also we prove that if G is a smallest counterexample, then λ^c(G) is either 6 or 8.     

Vertex-Distinguishing Edge Colorings of Graphs with Degree Sum Conditions

An edge coloring is called vertex-distinguishing if every two distinct vertices are incident to different sets of colored edges. The minimum number of colors required for a vertex-distinguishing proper edge coloring of a simple graph G is denoted by c￠_vd(G){\chi'_{vd}(G)}. It is proved that c￠_vd(G) ￡ D(G)+5{\chi'_{vd}(G)\leq\Delta(G)+5} if G is a connected graph of order n ≥ 3 and s₂(G) 3 \frac2n3{\sigma_{2}(G)\geq\frac{2n}{3}}, where σ ₂(G) denotes the minimum degree sum of two nonadjacent vertices in G.     

Two‐connected orientations of Eulerian graphs

A graph G = (V, E) is said to be weakly four‐connected if G is 4‐edge‐connected and G – x is 2‐edge‐connected for every x ∈ V. We prove that every weakly four‐connected Eulerian graph has a 2‐connected Eulerian orientation. This verifies a special case of a conjecture of A. Frank . © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 52: 230–242, 2006     

A graph-theoretic version of the union-closed sets conjecture

An induced subgraph S of a graph G is called a derived subgraph of G if S contains no isolated vertices. An edge e of G is said to be residual if e occurs in more than half of the derived subgraphs of G. We introduce the conjecture: Every non-empty graph contains a non-residual edge. This conjecture is implied by, but weaker than, the union-closed sets conjecture. We prove that a graph G of order n satisfies this conjecture whenever G satisfies any one of the conditions: δ(G) ≤ 2, log₂ n ≤ δ(G), n ≤ 10, or the girth of G is at least 6. Finally, we show that the union-closed sets conjecture, in its full generality, is equivalent to a similar conjecture about hypergraphs. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 26: 155–163, 1997     

Graphs isomorphic to their maximum matching graphs

The maximum matching graph M（G） of a graph G is a simple graph whose vertices are the maximum matchings of G and where two maximum matchings are adjacent in M（G） if they differ by exactly one edge. In this paper, we prove that if a graph is isomorphic to its maximum matching graph, then every block of the graph is an odd cycle.     

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.