The list L(2,1)-labeling of planar graphs

Let $\mathbf{N}$ be the set of all positive integers. A list assignment of a graph $G$ is a function $L:V\left(G\right)?2^{\mathbf{N}}$ that assigns each vertex $v$ a list $L\left(v\right)$ for all $v\in V\left(G\right)$. We say that $G$ is $L$-$(2,1)$-choosable if there exists a function $?$ such that $?\left(v\right)\in L\left(v\right)$ for all $v\in V\left(G\right)$, $|?\left(u\right)??\left(v\right)|\ge 2$ if $u$ and $v$ are adjacent, and $|?\left(u\right)??\left(v\right)|\ge 1$ if $u$ and $v$ are at distance 2. The list-$L(2,1)$-labeling number ${\lambda }_l\left(G\right)$ of $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that for every list assignment $L=\{L\left(v\right):|L\left(v\right)|=k,v\in V\left(G\right)\}$, $G$ is $L$-$(2,1)$-choosable. We prove that if $G$ is a planar graph with girth $g\ge 8$ and its maximum degree $\Delta$ is large enough, then ${\lambda }_l\left(G\right)\le \Delta +3$. There are graphs with large enough $\Delta$ and $g\ge 8$ having ${\lambda }_l\left(G\right)=\Delta +3$.     

Stability in the Erdős–Gallai Theorem on cycles and paths,II

The Erd?s–Gallai Theorem states that for $k\ge 3$, any $n$-vertex graph with no cycle of length at least $k$ has at most $\frac{1}{2}(k?1)(n?1)$ edges. A stronger version of the Erd?s–Gallai Theorem was given by Kopylov: If $G$ is a 2-connected $n$-vertex graph with no cycle of length at least $k$, then $e\left(G\right)\le max\{h(n,k,2),h(n,k,?\frac{k?1}{2}?)\}$, where $h(n,k,a)?\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{k?a}{2}\right)+a(n?k+a)$. Furthermore, Kopylov presented the two possible extremal graphs, one with $h(n,k,2)$ edges and one with $h(n,k,?\frac{k?1}{2}?)$ edges.In this paper, we complete a stability theorem which strengthens Kopylov’s result. In particular, we show that for $k\ge 3$ odd and all $n\ge k$, every $n$-vertex 2-connected graph $G$ with no cycle of length at least $k$ is a subgraph of one of the two extremal graphs or $e\left(G\right)\le max\{h(n,k,3),h(n,k,\frac{k?3}{2})\}$. The upper bound for $e\left(G\right)$ here is tight.     

A degree sum condition for graphs to be covered by two cycles

Let $G$ be a $k$-connected graph of order $n$. In [1], Bondy (1980) considered a degree sum condition for a graph to have a Hamiltonian cycle, say, to be covered by one cycle. He proved that if ${\sigma }_{k+1}\left(G\right)>(k+1)(n?1)/2$, then $G$ has a Hamiltonian cycle. On the other hand, concerning a degree sum condition for a graph to be covered by two cycles, Enomoto et al. (1995) [4] proved that if $k=1$ and ${\sigma }_3\left(G\right)\ge n$, then $G$ can be covered by two cycles. By these results, we conjecture that if ${\sigma }_{2k+1}\left(G\right)>(2k+1)(n?1)/3$, then $G$ can be covered by two cycles. In this paper, we prove the case $k=2$ of this conjecture. In fact, we prove a stronger result; if $G$ is 2-connected with ${\sigma }_5\left(G\right)\ge 5(n?1)/3$, then $G$ can be covered by two cycles, or $G$ belongs to an exceptional class.     

Steiner tree packing number and tree connectivity

Let $S$ be a set of at least two vertices in a graph $G$. A subtree $T$ of $G$ is a $S$-Steiner tree if $S?V\left(T\right)$. Two $S$-Steiner trees $T_1$ and $T_2$ are edge-disjoint (resp. internally vertex-disjoint) if $E\left(T_1\right)\cap E\left(T_2\right)=?$ (resp. $E\left(T_1\right)\cap E\left(T_2\right)=?$ and $V\left(T_1\right)\cap V\left(T_2\right)=S$). Let ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_G\left(S\right)$) be the maximum number of edge-disjoint (resp. internally vertex-disjoint) $S$-Steiner trees in $G$, and let ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_k\left(G\right)$) be the minimum ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)$ (resp. ${\kappa }_G\left(S\right)$) for $S$ ranges over all $k$-subset of $V\left(G\right)$. Kriesell conjectured that if ${\lambda }_G\left(\{x,y\}\right)\ge 2k$ for any $x,y\in S$, then ${\lambda }_G\left(S\right)\ge k$. He proved that the conjecture holds for $\left|S\right|=3,4$. In this paper, we give a short proof of Kriesell’s Conjecture for $\left|S\right|=3,4$, and also show that ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)\ge ?\frac{1}{k?1}?\frac{k?}{2}??$ (resp. ${\kappa }_k\left(G\right)\ge ?\frac{1}{k?1}?\frac{k?}{2}??$ ) if $\lambda \left(G\right)\ge ?$ (resp. $\kappa \left(G\right)\ge ?$) in $G$, where $k=3,4$. Moreover, we also study the relation between ${\kappa }_k\left(L\left(G\right)\right)$ and ${\lambda }_k\left(G\right)$, where $L\left(G\right)$ is the line graph of $G$.     

The NLC-width and clique-width for powers of graphs of bounded tree-width

The $k$-power graph of a graph $G$ is a graph with the same vertex set as $G$, in that two vertices are adjacent if and only if, there is a path between them in $G$ of length at most $k$. A $k$-tree-power graph is the $k$-power graph of a tree, a $k$-leaf-power graph is the subgraph of some $k$-tree-power graph induced by the leaves of the tree.We show that (1) every $k$-tree-power graph has NLC-width at most $k+2$ and clique-width at most $k+2+max\{?\frac{k}{2}??1,0\}$, (2) every $k$-leaf-power graph has NLC-width at most $k$ and clique-width at most $k+max\{?\frac{k}{2}??2,0\}$, and (3) every $k$-power graph of a graph of tree-width $l$ has NLC-width at most ${(k+1)}^{l+1}?1$, and clique-width at most $2?{(k+1)}^{l+1}?2$.     

On vertex-disjoint cycles and degree sum conditions

This paper considers a degree sum condition sufficient to imply the existence of $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles in a graph $G$. For an integer $t\ge 1$, let ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)$ be the smallest sum of degrees of $t$ independent vertices of $G$. We prove that if $G$ has order at least $7k+1$ and ${\sigma }_4\left(G\right)\ge 8k?3$, with $k\ge 2$, then $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles. We also show that the degree sum condition on ${\sigma }_4\left(G\right)$ is sharp and conjecture a degree sum condition on ${\sigma }_t\left(G\right)$ sufficient to imply $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles for $k\ge 2$.     

Essential edge connectivity of line graphs

Let $G$ be a graph and $L\left(G\right)$ be its line graph. In 1969, Chartrand and Stewart proved that ${\kappa }^{\prime }\left(L\left(G\right)\right)\ge 2{\kappa }^{\prime }\left(G\right)?2$, where ${\kappa }^{\prime }\left(G\right)$ and ${\kappa }^{\prime }\left(L\left(G\right)\right)$ denote the edge connectivity of $G$ and $L\left(G\right)$ respectively. We show a similar relationship holds for the essential edge connectivity of $G$ and $L\left(G\right)$, written ${\kappa }_e^{\prime }\left(G\right)$ and ${\kappa }_e^{\prime }\left(L\left(G\right)\right)$, respectively. In this note, it is proved that if $L\left(G\right)$ is not a complete graph and $G$ does not have a vertex of degree two, then ${\kappa }_e^{\prime }\left(L\left(G\right)\right)\ge 2{\kappa }_e^{\prime }\left(G\right)?2$. An immediate corollary is that $\kappa \left(L^2\left(G\right)\right)\ge 2\kappa \left(L\left(G\right)\right)?2$ for such graphs $G$, where the vertex connectivity of the line graph $L\left(G\right)$ and the second iterated line graph $L^2\left(G\right)$ are written as $\kappa \left(L\left(G\right)\right)$ and $\kappa \left(L^2\left(G\right)\right)$ respectively.     

Proper connection and size of graphs

An edge-coloured graph $G$ is called properly connected if any two vertices are connected by a path whose edges are properly coloured. The proper connection number of a connected graph $G,$ denoted by $\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)$, is the smallest number of colours that are needed in order to make $G$ properly connected. Our main result is the following: Let $G$ be a connected graph of order $n$ and $k\ge 2$. If $\left|E\left(G\right)\right|\ge \left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n?k?1}{2}\right)+k+2$, then $\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)\le k$ except when $k=2$ and $G\in \{G_1,G_2\},$ where $G_1=K_1\vee (2K_1+K_2)$ and $G_2=K_1\vee (K_1+2K_2).$     

On 3-stable number conditions in n-connected claw-free graphs

For a subgraph $X$ of $G$, let ${\alpha }_G^3\left(X\right)$ be the maximum number of vertices of $X$ that are pairwise distance at least three in $G$. In this paper, we prove three theorems. Let $n$ be a positive integer, and let $H$ be a subgraph of an $n$-connected claw-free graph $G$. We prove that if $n\ge 2$, then either $H$ can be covered by a cycle in $G$, or there exists a cycle $C$ in $G$ such that ${\alpha }_G^3(H?V\left(C\right))\le {\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)?n$. This result generalizes the result of Broersma and Lu that $G$ has a cycle covering all the vertices of $H$ if ${\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)\le n$. We also prove that if $n\ge 1$, then either $H$ can be covered by a path in $G$, or there exists a path $P$ in $G$ such that ${\alpha }_G^3(H?V\left(P\right))\le {\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)?n?1$. By using the second result, we prove the third result. For a tree $T$, a vertex of $T$ with degree one is called a leaf of $T$. For an integer $k\ge 2$, a tree which has at most $k$ leaves is called a $k$-ended tree. We prove that if ${\alpha }_G^3\left(H\right)\le n+k?1$, then $G$ has a $k$-ended tree covering all the vertices of $H$. This result gives a positive answer to the conjecture proposed by Kano et al. (2012).     

Sum choice number of generalized θ-graphs

Let $G=\left(VE\right)$ be a simple graph and for every vertex $v\in V$ let $L\left(v\right)$ be a set (list) of available colors. $G$ is called $L$-colorable if there is a proper coloring $\phi$ of the vertices with $\phi \left(v\right)\in L\left(v\right)$ for all $v\in V$. A function $f:V\to \mathbb{N}$ is called a choice function of $G$ and $G$ is said to be $f$-list colorable if $G$ is $L$-colorable for every list assignment $L$ choice function is defined by $size\left(f\right)={\sum }_{v\in V}f\left(v\right)$ and the sum choice number ${\chi }_{sc}\left(G\right)$ denotes the minimum size of a choice function of $G$.Sum list colorings were introduced by Isaak in 2002 and got a lot of attention since then.For $r\ge 3$ a generalized ${\theta }_{k_1{k}_2\dots k_r}$-graph is a simple graph consisting of two vertices $v_1$ and $v_2$ connected by $r$ internally vertex disjoint paths of lengths $k_1,k_2,\dots ,k_r$ $(k_1\le k_2\le ?\le k_r)$.In 2014, Carraher et al. determined the sum-paintability of all generalized $\theta$-graphs which is an online-version of the sum choice number and consequently an upper bound for it.In this paper we obtain sharp upper bounds for the sum choice number of all generalized $\theta$-graphs with $k_1\ge 2$ and characterize all generalized $\theta$-graphs $G$ which attain the trivial upper bound $\left|V\left(G\right)\right|+\left|E\left(G\right)\right|$.     

Estimates on the size of the cycle spectra of Hamiltonian graphs

Given a graph $G$, let $S\left(G\right)$ be the set of all cycle lengths contained in $G$ and let $s\left(G\right)=\left|S\left(G\right)\right|$. Let $?\left(G\right)=\{3,\dots ,n\}?S\left(G\right)$ and let $d$ be the greatest common divisor of $n?2$ and all the positive pairwise differences of elements in $?\left(G\right)$. We prove that if a Hamiltonian graph $G$ of order $n$ has at least $\frac{n(p+2)}{4}+1$ edges, where $p$ is an integer such that $1\le p\le n?2$, then $s\left(G\right)\ge p$ or $G$ is exceptional, by which we mean $d?(??2)$ for some $?\in ?\left(G\right)$. We also discuss cases where $G$ is not exceptional, for example when $n?2$ is prime. Moreover, we show that $s\left(G\right)\ge min\{p,\frac{n?3}{2}\}$, which if $G$ is bipartite implies that $s\left(G\right)\ge min\{?\frac{4(m?1)}{n}?2?,\frac{n?2}{2}\}$, where $m$ is the number of edges in $G$.