Nonseparating K4‐subdivisions in graphs of minimum degree at least 4

We first prove that for every vertex x of a 4‐connected graph G, there exists a subgraph H in G isomorphic to a subdivision of the complete graph K₄ on four vertices such that is connected and contains x. This implies an affirmative answer to a question of Kühnel whether every 4‐connected graph G contains a subdivision H of K₄ as a subgraph such that is connected. The motor for our induction is a result of Fontet and Martinov stating that every 4‐connected graph can be reduced to a smaller one by contracting a single edge, unless the graph is the square of a cycle or the line graph of a cubic graph. It turns out that this is the only ingredient of the proof where 4‐connectedness is used. We then generalize our result to connected graphs of minimum degree at least 4 by developing the respective motor, a structure theorem for the class of simple connected graphs of minimum degree at least 4. A simple connected graph G of minimum degree 4 cannot be reduced to a smaller such graph by deleting a single edge or contracting a single edge and simplifying if and only if it is the square of a cycle or the edge disjoint union of copies of certain bricks as follows: Each brick is isomorphic to K₃, K₅, K_{2, 2, 2}, , , or one the four graphs , , , obtained from K₅ and K_{2, 2, 2} by deleting the edges of a triangle, or replacing a vertex x by two new vertices and adding four edges to the endpoints of two disjoint edges of its former neighborhood, respectively. Bricks isomorphic to K₅ or K_{2, 2, 2} share exactly one vertex with the other bricks of the decomposition, vertices of degree 4 in any other brick are not contained in any further brick of the decomposition, and the vertices of a brick isomorphic to K₃ must have degree 4 in G and have pairwise no common neighbors outside that brick.     

Decomposition of 3-connected graphs

Cunningham and Edmonds [4[ have proved that a 2-connected graphG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, each of which is either 3-connected, a bond or a polygon. They define the notion of a good split, and first prove thatG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, none of which has a good split, and second prove that the graphs that do not have a good split are precisely 3-connected graphs, bonds and polygons. This paper provides an analogue of the first result above for 3-connected graphs, and an analogue of the second for minimally 3-connected graphs. Following the basic strategy of Cunningham and Edmonds, an appropriate notion of good split is defined. The first main result is that ifG is a 3-connected graph, thenG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, none of which has a good split. The second main result is that the minimally 3-connected graphs that do not have a good split are precisely cyclically 4-connected graphs, twirls (K _3,n for somen3) and wheels. From this it is shown that ifG is a minimally 3-connected graph, thenG has a unique minimal decomposition into graphs, each of which is either cyclically 4-connected, a twirl or a wheel.Research partially supported by Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-86-K-0689 at Purdue University.     

Total restrained domination in graphs with minimum degree two

In this paper, we continue the study of total restrained domination in graphs, a concept introduced by Telle and Proskurowksi (Algorithms for vertex partitioning problems on partial k-trees, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 10 (1997) 529-550) as a vertex partitioning problem. A set S of vertices in a graph G=(V,E) is a total restrained dominating set of G if every vertex is adjacent to a vertex in S and every vertex of V?S is adjacent to a vertex in V?S. The minimum cardinality of a total restrained dominating set of G is the total restrained domination number of G, denoted by γ_tr(G). Let G be a connected graph of order n with minimum degree at least 2 and with maximum degree Δ where Δ?n-2. We prove that if n?4, then and this bound is sharp. If we restrict G to a bipartite graph with Δ?3, then we improve this bound by showing that and that this bound is sharp.     

Total domination in claw-free graphs with minimum degree 2

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a total dominating set (TDS) of G if every vertex of G is adjacent to some vertex in S. The minimum cardinality of a TDS of G is the total domination number of G, denoted by γ_t(G). A graph is claw-free if it does not contain K_1,3 as an induced subgraph. It is known [M.A. Henning, Graphs with large total domination number, J. Graph Theory 35(1) (2000) 21-45] that if G is a connected graph of order n with minimum degree at least two and G∉{C₃,C₅, C₆, C₁₀}, then γ_t(G)?4n/7. In this paper, we show that this upper bound can be improved if G is restricted to be a claw-free graph. We show that every connected claw-free graph G of order n and minimum degree at least two satisfies γ_t(G)?(n+2)/2 and we characterize those graphs for which γ_t(G)=⌊(n+2)/2⌋.     

Altitude of regular graphs with girth at least five

The altitude of a graph G is the largest integer k such that for each linear ordering f of its edges, G has a (simple) path P of length k for which f increases along the edge sequence of P. We determine a necessary and sufficient condition for cubic graphs with girth at least five to have altitude three and show that for r?4, r-regular graphs with girth at least five have altitude at least four. Using this result we show that some snarks, including all but one of the Blanus?a type snarks, have altitude three while others, including the flower snarks, have altitude four. We construct an infinite class of 4-regular graphs with altitude four.     

Edge-reconstruction of minimally 3-connected planar graphs

Summary It is shown that minimally 3-connected planar graphs are edge-reconstructible.     

Large faces in 4-critical planar graphs with minimum degree 4

We prove that the size of the largest face of a 4-critical planar graph with 4 is at most one half the number of its vertices. Letf(n) denote the maximum of the sizes of largest faces of all such graphs withn vertices (n sufficiently large). We present an infinite family of graphs that shows .All three authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

Bicyclic graphs for which the least eigenvalue is minimum

The spread of a graph is defined to be the difference between the greatest eigenvalue and the least eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the graph. In this paper we determine the unique graph with minimum least eigenvalue among all connected bicyclic graphs of order n. Also, we determine the unique graph with maximum spread in this class for each n?28.     

Partition of graphs with condition on the connectivity and minimum degree

C. Thomassen and M. Szegedy proved the existence of a functionf(s, t) such that the points of anyf(s, t)-connected graph have a decomposition into two non-empty sets such that the subgraphs induced by them ares-connected andt-connected, respectively. We prove, thatf(s, t) ≦ 4s+4t − 13 and examine a similar problem for the minimum degree.     

Cycles through ten vertices in 3-connected cubic graphs

It is known that there exists a cycle through any nine vertices of a 3-connected cubic graphG. Here we show that if an edge is removed from such a graph, then there is still a cycle through any five vertices. Furthermore, we characterise the circumstances in which there fails to be a cycle through six. As corollaries we are able to prove that a 3-connected cubic graph has a cycle through any specified five vertices and one edge, and to classify the conditions under which it has a cycle through four chosen vertices and two edges. We are able to use the five and six vertex results to show that a 3-connected cubic graph has a cycle which passes through any ten given vertices if and only if the graph is not contractible to the Petersen graph in such a way that the ten vertices each map to a distinct vertex of the Petersen graph.     

A nine point theorem for 3-connected graphs

We prove that a 3-connected cubic graph contains a cycle through any nine points.     

Crossing graphs of fiber-complemented graphs

Fiber-complemented graphs form a vast non-bipartite generalization of median graphs. Using a certain natural coloring of edges, induced by parallelism relation between prefibers of a fiber-complemented graph, we introduce the crossing graph of a fiber-complemented graph G as the graph whose vertices are colors, and two colors are adjacent if they cross on some induced 4-cycle in G. We show that a fiber-complemented graph is 2-connected if and only if its crossing graph is connected. We characterize those fiber-complemented graphs whose crossing graph is complete, and also those whose crossing graph is chordal.     

Small cycle double covers of 4-connected planar graphs

Acycle double cover of a graph,G, is a collection of cycles,C, such that every edge ofG lies in precisely two cycles ofC. TheSmall Cycle Double Cover Conjecture, proposed by J. A. Bondy, asserts that every simple bridgeless graph onn vertices has a cycle double cover with at mostn–1 cycles, and is a strengthening of the well-knownCycle Double Cover Conjecture. In this paper, we prove Bondy's conjecture for 4-connected planar graphs.     

2–3 graphs which have Vizing's adjacency property

2–3 graphs in which each vertex is adjacent to at least two vertices of degree 3 are shown to be characterised by the number of vertices of degree 3 adjacent to vertices of degree 3 only.     

The least eigenvalue of graphs with given connectivity

Let G be a simple graph and A(G) be the adjacency matrix of G. The eigenvalues of G are those of A(G). In this paper, we characterize the graphs with the minimal least eigenvalue among all graphs of fixed order with given vertex connectivity or edge connectivity.     

Preperfect graphs

We say that a vertexx of a graph is predominant if there exists another vertexy ofG such that either every maximum clique ofG containingy containsx or every maximum stable set containingx containsy. A graph is then called preperfect if every induced subgraph has a predominant vertex. We show that preperfect graphs are perfect, and that several well-known classes of perfect graphs are preperfect. We also derive a new characterization of perfect graphs.     

Cancellation properties of products of graphs

This note extends results of Fernández, Leighton, and López-Presa on the uniqueness of rth roots for disconnected graphs with respect to the Cartesian product to other products and shows that their methods also imply new cancelation laws.     

Some remarks on universal graphs

LetΓ be a class of countable graphs, and let ℱ(Γ) denote the class of all countable graphs that do not contain any subgraph isomorphic to a member ofΓ. Furthermore, letTΓ andHΓ denote the class of all subdivisions of graphs inΓ and the class of all graphs contracting to a member ofΓ, respectively. As the main result of this paper it is decided which of the classes ℱ(TK ⁿ ) and ℱ(HK ⁿ ),n≦ℵ₀, contain a universal element. In fact, for ℱ(TK ⁴)=ℱ(HK ⁴) a strongly universal graph is constructed, whereas for 5≦n≦ℵ₀ the classes ℱ(TK ⁿ ) and ℱ(HK ⁿ ) have no universal elements. Dedicated to Klaus Wagner on his 75^th birthday     

A Dynamic location problem for graphs

We introduce a class of optimization problems, calleddynamic location problems, involving the processing of requests that occur sequentially at the nodes of a graphG. This leads to the definition of a new parameter of graphs, called the window indexWX(G), that measures how large a window into the future is needed to solve every instance of the dynamic location problem onG optimally on-line. We completely characterize this parameter:WX(G)k if and only ifG is a weak retract of a product of complete graphs of size at mostk. As a byproduct, we obtain two (polynomially recognizable) structural characterizations of such graphs, extending a result of Bandelt.