Hamiltonian weights and unique 3-edge-colorings of cubic graphs

A (1,2)-eulerian weight w of a grph is hamiltonian if every faithful cover of w is a set of two Hamilton circuits. Let G be a 3-connected cubic graph containing no subdivition of the Petersen graph. We prove that if G admits a hamiltonian weight then G is uniquely 3-edge-colorable. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Another two graphs with no planar covers

A graph H is a cover of a graph G if there exists a mapping φ from V( H ) onto V( G ) such that φ maps the neighbors of every vertex υ in H bijectively to the neighbors of φ(υ) in G . Negami conjectured in 1986 that a connected graph has a finite planar cover if and only if it embeds in the projective plane. It follows from the results of Archdeacon, Fellows, Negami, and the author that the conjecture holds as long as K _1,2,2,2 has no finite planar cover. However, this is still an open question, and K _1,2,2,2 is not the only minor‐minimal graph in doubt. Let ??₄ (?₂) denote the graph obtained from K _1,2,2,2 by replacing two vertex‐disjoint triangles (four edge‐disjoint triangles) not incident with the vertex of degree 6 with cubic vertices. We prove that the graphs ??₄ and ?₂ have no planar covers. This fact is used in [P. Hlin?ný, R. Thomas, On possible counterexamples to Negami's planar cover conjecture, 1999 (submitted)] to show that there are, up to obvious constructions, at most 16 possible counterexamples to Negami's conjecture. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 37: 227–242, 2001     

On Perfect Matching Coverings and Even Subgraph Coverings

A perfect matching covering of a graph G is a set of perfect matchings of G such that every edge of G is contained in at least one member of it. Berge conjectured that every bridgeless cubic graph admits a perfect matching covering of order at most 5 (we call such a collection of perfect matchings a Berge covering of G). A cubic graph G is called a Kotzig graph if G has a 3‐edge‐coloring such that each pair of colors forms a hamiltonian circuit (introduced by R. Häggkvist, K. Markström, J Combin Theory Ser B 96 (2006), 183–206). In this article, we prove that if there is a vertex w of a cubic graph G such that , the graph obtained from by suppressing all degree two vertices is a Kotzig graph, then G has a Berge covering. We also obtain some results concerning the so‐called 5‐even subgraph double cover conjecture.     

Uniquely Edge-3-Colorable Graphs and Snarks

 A cubic graph G is uniquely edge-3-colorable if G has precisely one 1-factorization. It is proved in this paper, if a uniquely edge-3-colorable, cubic graph G is cyclically 4-edge-connected, but not cyclically 5-edge-connected, then G must contain a snark as a minor. This is an approach to a conjecture that every triangle free uniquely edge-3-colorable cubic graph must have the Petersen graph as a minor. Fiorini and Wilson (1976) conjectured that every uniquely edge-3-colorable planar cubic graph must have a triangle. It is proved in this paper that every counterexample to this conjecture is cyclically 5-edge-connected and that in a minimal counterexample to the conjecture, every cyclic 5-edge-cut is trivial (an edge-cut T of G is cyclic if no component of G\T is acyclic and a cyclic edge-cut T is trivial if one component of G\T is a circuit of length |T|). Received: July 14, 1997 Revised: June 11, 1998     

The spanning subgraphs of eulerian graphs

It is shown that a connected graph G spans an eulerian graph if and only if G is not spanned by an odd complete bigraph K(2_m + 1, 2n + 1). A disconnected graph spans an eulerian graph if and only if it is not the union of the trivial graph with a complete graph of odd order. Exact formulas are obtained for the number of lines which must be added to such graphs in order to get eulerian graphs.     

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.     

Cycle double covers and spanning minors II

In this paper we continue our investigations from [R. Häggkvist, K. Markström, Cycle double covers and spanning minors, Technical Report 07, Department of Mathematics, Umeå University, Sweden, 2001, J. Combin. Theory, Ser. B, to appear] regarding spanning subgraphs which imply the existence of cycle double covers. We prove that if a cubic graph G has a spanning subgraph isomorphic to a subdivision of a bridgeless cubic graph on at most 10 vertices then G has a CDC. A notable result is thus that a cubic graph with a spanning Petersen minor has a CDC, a result also obtained by Goddyn [L. Goddyn, Cycle covers of graphs, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Waterloo, 1988].     

Uniqueness of maximal dominating cycles in 3-regular graphs and of hamiltonian cycles in 4-regular graphs

We construct 3-regular (cubic) graphs G that have a dominating cycle C such that no other cycle C₁ of G satisfies V(C) ? V(C₁). By a similar construction we obtain loopless 4-regular graphs having precisely one hamiltonian cycle. The basis for these constructions are considerations on the uniqueness of a cycle decomposition compatible with a given eulerian trail in some eulerian graph.     

Hamilton connectivity of line graphs and claw‐free graphs

Let G be a graph and let V₀ = {ν∈ V(G): d_G(ν) = 6}. We show in this paper that: (i) if G is a 6‐connected line graph and if |V₀| ≤ 29 or G[V₀] contains at most 5 vertex disjoint K₄'s, then G is Hamilton‐connected; (ii) every 8‐connected claw‐free graph is Hamilton‐connected. Several related results known before are generalized. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

A characterization of Hamiltonian prisms

A characterization is established for a graph G to have a Hamilton cycle in G × K₂, the prism over G. Moreover, it is shown that every 3-connected graph has a 2-connected spanning bipartite subgraph. Using this result, the existence of a Hamilton cycle in the prism over every 3-connected cubic graph is established. Further, the existence of a Hamilton cycle in the prism over a cubic 2-connected graph is also discussed. Earlier results in this direction are shown to be particular cases of the results obtained here. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Implications among linkage properties in graphs

Given a graph H with vertices w₁, …, w_m, a graph G with at least m vertices is H‐linked if for every choice of vertices v₁, …, v_m in G, there is a subdivision of H in G such that v_i is the branch vertex representing w_i (for all i ). This concept generalizes the notions of k‐linked, k‐connected, and k‐ordered graphs. For graphs H₁ and H₂ with the same order that are not contained in stars, the property of being H₁‐linked implies that of being H₂‐linked if and only if H₂?H₁. The implication also holds when H₁ is obtained from H₂ by replacing an edge xy with an edge from y to a new vertex x′. Other instances of nonimplication are obtained, using a lemma that the number of vertices appearing in minimum vertex covers of a graph G is at most the vertex cover number plus the size of a maximum matching. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 60: 327‐337, 2009     

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     

Supereulerian graphs and the Petersen graph

A graphG is supereulerian if G has a spanning eulerian subgraph.Boesch et al.[J.Graph Theory,1,79–84(1977)]proposed the problem of characterizing supereulerian graphs.In this paper,we prove that any 3-edge-connected graph with at most 11 edge-cuts of size 3 is supereulerian if and only if it cannot be contractible to the Petersen graph.This extends a former result of Catlin and Lai[J.Combin.Theory,Ser.B,66,123–139(1996)].     

A note on shortest cycle covers of cubic graphs

Let SCC₃(G) be the length of a shortest 3‐cycle cover of a bridgeless cubic graph G. It is proved in this note that if G contains no circuit of length 5 (an improvement of Jackson's (JCTB 1994) result: if G has girth at least 7) and if all 5‐circuits of G are disjoint (a new upper bound of SCC₃(G) for the special class of graphs).     

A degree condition for spanning eulerian subgraphs

Let p ≥ 2 be a fixed integer. Let G be a simple and 2-edge-connected graph on n vertices, and let g be the girth of G. If d(u) + d(v) ≥ (2/(g ? 2))((n/p) ? 4 + g) holds whenever uv ? E(G), and if n is sufficiently large compared to p, then either G has a spanning eulerian subgraph or G can be contracted to a graph G₁ of order at most p without a spanning eulerian subgraph. Furthermore, we characterize the graphs that satisfy the conditions above such that G₁ has order p and does not have any spanning eulerian subgraph. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The b-Chromatic Number of Cubic Graphs

The b-chromatic number of a graph G is the largest integer k such that G admits a proper k-coloring in which every color class contains at least one vertex adjacent to some vertex in all the other color classes. It is proved that with four exceptions, the b-chromatic number of cubic graphs is 4. The exceptions are the Petersen graph, K _3,3, the prism over K ₃, and one more sporadic example on 10 vertices.     

Packing in regular graphs

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a packing if the vertices in S are pairwise at distance at least 3 apart in G. The packing number of G, denoted by ρ(G), is the maximum cardinality of a packing in G. Favaron [Discrete Math. 158 (1996), 287–293] showed that if G is a connected cubic graph of order n different from the Petersen graph, then ρ(G) ≥ n/8. In this paper, we generalize Favaron’s result. We show that for k ≥ 3, if G is a connected k-regular graph of order n that is not a diameter-2 Moore graph, then ρ(G) ≥ n/(k² ? 1).     

The size of graphs without nowhere-zero 4-flows

Let G be a 2-edge-connected simple graph with order n. We show that if | V(G)| ≤ 17, then either G has a nowhere-zero 4-flow, or G is contractible to the Petersen graph. We also show that for n large, if | V(G)| n ? 17/2 + 34, then either G has a nonwhere-zero 4-flow, or G can be contracted to the Petersen graph. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Claw Conditions for Heavy Cycles in Weighted Graphs

A graph is called a weighted graph when each edge e is assigned a nonnegative number w(e), called the weight of e. For a vertex v of a weighted graph, d^w(v) is the sum of the weights of the edges incident with v. For a subgraph H of a weighted graph G, the weight of H is the sum of the weights of the edges belonging to H. In this paper, we give a new sufficient condition for a weighted graph to have a heavy cycle. A 2-connected weighted graph G contains either a Hamilton cycle or a cycle of weight at least c, if G satisfies the following conditions: In every induced claw or induced modified claw F of G, (1) max{d^w(x),d^w(y)} c/2 for each non-adjacent pair of vertices x and y in F, and (2) all edges of F have the same weight.     

Retracts of hypercubes

An induced subgraph G of a graph H is a retract of H if there is an edge-preserving map f from H onto G such that f|_G is the identity map on G. A median graph is a connected graph such that for any three vertices u,v and w, there exists a unique vertex x which lies simultaneously on some shortest (u,v)-, (v,w)-, and (w,u)-paths. It is shown that a graph G is a retract of some hypercube if and only if G is a median graph.