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.     

Existence of rainbow matchings in properly edge-colored graphs

Let G be a properly edge-colored graph. A rainbow matching of G is a matching in which no two edges have the same color. Let δ denote the minimum degree of G. We show that if |V(G)| > (δ ² + 14δ + 1)/4, then G has a rainbow matching of size δ, which answers a question asked by G. Wang [Electron. J. Combin., 2011, 18: #N162] affirmatively. In addition, we prove that if G is a properly colored bipartite graph with bipartition (X, Y) and max{|X|, |Y|} > (δ ² + 4δ − 4)/4, then G has a rainbow matching of size δ.     

The graph of perfect matching polytope and an extreme problem

For graph G, its perfect matching polytope Poly(G) is the convex hull of incidence vectors of perfect matchings of G. The graph corresponding to the skeleton of Poly(G) is called the perfect matching graph of G, and denoted by PM(G). It is known that PM(G) is either a hypercube or hamilton connected [D.J. Naddef, W.R. Pulleyblank, Hamiltonicity and combinatorial polyhedra, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 31 (1981) 297-312; D.J. Naddef, W.R. Pulleyblank, Hamiltonicity in (0-1)-polytope, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 37 (1984) 41-52]. In this paper, we give a sharp upper bound of the number of lines for the graphs G whose PM(G) is bipartite in terms of sizes of elementary components of G and the order of G, respectively. Moreover, the corresponding extremal graphs are constructed.     

Maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraphs of class II graphs

A graph G is class II, if its chromatic index is at least Δ + 1. Let H be a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph of G. The paper proves best possible lower bounds for |E(H)|/|E(G)|, and structural properties of maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraphs. It is shown that every set of vertex‐disjoint cycles of a class II graph with Δ≥3 can be extended to a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph. Simple graphs have a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph such that the complement is a matching. Furthermore, a maximum Δ‐edge‐colorable subgraph of a simple graph is always class I. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Largest Non-Unique Subgraphs

The reduction number r(G) of a graph G is the maximum integer m≤|E(G)| such that the graphs G−E, E⊆E(G),|E|≤m, are mutually non-isomorphic, i.e., each graph is unique as a subgraph of G. We prove that and show by probabilistic methods that r(G) can come close to this bound for large orders. By direct construction, we exhibit graphs with large reduction number, although somewhat smaller than the upper bound. We also discuss similarities to a parameter introduced by Erdős and Rényi capturing the degree of asymmetry of a graph, and we consider graphs with few circuits in some detail. Supported by a grant from the Danish Natural Science Research Council.     

Bipartite Subgraphs of Graphs with Maximum Degree Three

We prove that for a connected graph G with maximum degree 3 there exists a bipartite subgraph of G containing almost of the edges of G. Furthermore, we completely characterize the set of all extremal graphs, i.e. all connected graphs G=(V, E) with maximum degree 3 for which no bipartite subgraph has more than of the edges; |E| denotes the cardinality of E. For 2-edge-connected graphs there are two kinds of extremal graphs which realize the lower bound . Received: July 17, 1995 / Revised: April 5, 1996     

Forcing matching numbers of fullerene graphs

The forcing number or the degree of freedom of a perfect matching M of a graph G is the cardinality of the smallest subset of M that is contained in no other perfect matchings of G. In this paper we show that the forcing numbers of perfect matchings in a fullerene graph are not less than 3 by applying the 2-extendability and cyclic edge-connectivity 5 of fullerene graphs obtained recently, and Kotzig’s classical result about unique perfect matching as well. This lower bound can be achieved by infinitely many fullerene graphs.     

Factor-Critical Graphs with Given Number of Maximum Matchings

A connected graph G is said to be factor-critical if G − ν has a perfect matching for every vertex ν of G. In this paper, the factor-critical graphs G with |V(G)| maximum matchings and with |V(G)| + 1 ones are characterized, respectively. From this, some special bicritical graphs are characterized. This work is supported by the Ph.D. Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No.20070574006) and the NNSF(10201019) of China.     

On some structural properties of generalized fullerene graphs with 13 pentagonal faces

It is shown that every generalized fullerene graph G with 13 pentagons is 2-extendable, a brick, and cyclically 5-edge-connected, i.e., that G cannot be separated into two components, each containing a cycle, by deletion of fewer than five edges. New lower bound on the number of perfect matchings in such graphs are also established.     

A lower bound on the acyclic matching number of subcubic graphs

The acyclic matching number of a graph $G$ is the largest size of an acyclic matching in $G$, that is, a matching $M$ in $G$ such that the subgraph of $G$ induced by the vertices incident to edges in $M$ is a forest. We show that the acyclic matching number of a connected subcubic graph $G$ with $m$ edges is at least $m∕6$ except for two graphs of order 5 and 6.     

Characterizing defect n-extendable graphs and -critical graphs

A near perfect matching is a matching saturating all but one vertex in a graph. Let G be a connected graph. If any n independent edges in G are contained in a near perfect matching where n is a positive integer and n(|V(G)|-2)/2, then G is said to be defect n-extendable. If deleting any k vertices in G where k|V(G)|-2, the remaining graph has a perfect matching, then G is a k-critical graph. This paper first shows that the connectivity of defect n-extendable graphs can be any integer. Then the characterizations of defect n-extendable graphs and (2k+1)-critical graphs using M-alternating paths are presented.     

Clique-transversal sets in 4-regular claw-free graphs

A clique-transversal set D of a graph G is a set of vertices of G such that D meets all cliques of G. The clique-transversal number, denoted by τ _c (G), is the minimum cardinality of a clique-transversal set in G. In this paper we give the exact value of the clique-transversal number for the line graph of a complete graph. Also, we give a lower bound on the clique-transversal number for 4-regular claw-free graphs and characterize the extremal graphs achieving the lower bound.     

Perfect Matchings of Regular Bipartite Graphs

Let G be a regular bipartite graph and . We show that there exist perfect matchings of G containing both, an odd and an even number of edges from X if and only if the signed graph , that is a graph G with exactly the edges from X being negative, is not equivalent to . In fact, we prove that for a given signed regular bipartite graph with minimum signature, it is possible to find perfect matchings that contain exactly no negative edges or an arbitrary one preselected negative edge. Moreover, if the underlying graph is cubic, there exists a perfect matching with exactly two preselected negative edges. As an application of our results we show that each signed regular bipartite graph that contains an unbalanced circuit has a 2‐cycle‐cover such that each cycle contains an odd number of negative edges.     

Regular bipartite graphs are antimagic

A labeling of a graph G is a bijection from E(G) to the set {1, 2,… |E(G)|}. A labeling is antimagic if for any distinct vertices u and v, the sum of the labels on edges incident to u is different from the sum of the labels on edges incident to v. We say a graph is antimagic if it has an antimagic labeling. In 1990, Hartsfield and Ringel conjectured that every connected graph other than K₂ is antimagic. In this article, we show that every regular bipartite graph (with degree at least 2) is antimagic. Our technique relies heavily on the Marriage Theorem. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 60: 173–182, 2009     

Tutte sets in graphs I: Maximal tutte sets and D‐graphs

A well‐known formula of Tutte and Berge expresses the size of a maximum matching in a graph G in terms of what is usually called the deficiency of G. A subset X of V(G) for which this deficiency is attained is called a Tutte set of G. While much is known about maximum matchings, less is known about the structure of Tutte sets. In this article, we study the structural aspects of maximal Tutte sets in a graph G. Towards this end, we introduce a related graph D(G). We first show that the maximal Tutte sets in G are precisely the maximal independent sets in its D‐graph D(G), and then continue with the study of D‐graphs in their own right, and of iterated D‐graphs. We show that G is isomorphic to a spanning subgraph of D(G), and characterize the graphs for which G?D(G) and for which D(G)?D²(G). Surprisingly, it turns out that for every graph G with a perfect matching, D³(G)?D²(G). Finally, we characterize bipartite D‐graphs and comment on the problem of characterizing D‐graphs in general. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55: 343–358, 2007     

Matching graphs

The matching graph M(G) of a graph G is that graph whose vertices are the maximum matchings in G and where two vertices M₁ and M₂ of M(G) are adjacent if and only if |M₁ − M₂| = 1. When M(G) is connected, this graph models a metric space whose metric is defined on the set of maximum matchings in G. Which graphs are matching graphs of some graph is not known in general. We determine several forbidden induced subgraphs of matching graphs and add even cycles to the list of known matching graphs. In another direction, we study the behavior of sequences of iterated matching graphs. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Graph Theory 29: 73–86, 1998     

Maximal and minimal entry in the principal eigenvector for the distance matrix of a graph

Let G=(V,E) be a simple, connected and undirected graph with vertex set V(G) and edge set E(G). Also let D(G) be the distance matrix of a graph G (Jane?i? et al., 2007) [13]. Here we obtain Nordhaus–Gaddum-type result for the spectral radius of distance matrix of a graph.A sharp upper bound on the maximal entry in the principal eigenvector of an adjacency matrix and signless Laplacian matrix of a simple, connected and undirected graph are investigated in Das (2009) [4] and Papendieck and Recht (2000) [15]. Generally, an upper bound on the maximal entry in the principal eigenvector of a symmetric nonnegative matrix with zero diagonal entries and without zero diagonal entries are investigated in Zhao and Hong (2002) [21] and Das (2009) [4], respectively. In this paper, we obtain an upper bound on minimal entry in the principal eigenvector for the distance matrix of a graph and characterize extremal graphs. Moreover, we present the lower and upper bounds on maximal entry in the principal eigenvector for the distance matrix of a graph and characterize extremal graphs.     

Induced Matching Extendable Graph Powers

A graph G is called induced matching extendable (shortly, IM-extendable) if every induced matching of G is included in a perfect matching of G. A graph G is called strongly IM-extendable if every spanning supergraph of G is IM-extendable. The k-th power of a graph G, denoted by G^k, is the graph with vertex set V(G) in which two vertices are adjacent if and only if the distance between them in G is at most k. We obtain the following two results which give positive answers to two conjectures of Yuan. Result 1. If a connected graph G with |V(G)| even is locally connected, then G² is strongly IM-extendable. Result 2. If G is a 2-connected graph with |V(G)| even, then G³ is strongly IM-extendable. Research Supported by NSFC Fund 10371102.     

Induced matching extendable graphs

We say that a simple graph G is induced matching extendable, shortly IM-extendable, if every induced matching of G is included in a perfect matching of G. The main results of this paper are as follows: (1) For every connected IM-extendable graph G with |V(G)| ≥ 4, the girth g(G) ≤ 4. (2) If G is a connected IM-extendable graph, then |E(G)| ≥ ${3\over 2}|V(G)| - 2$; the equality holds if and only if G ≅ T × K₂, where T is a tree. (3) The only 3-regular connected IM-extendable graphs are C_n × K₂, for n ≥ 3, and C_2n(1, n), for n ≥ 2, where C_2n(1, n) is the graph with 2n vertices x₀, x₁, …, x_2n−1, such that x_ix_j is an edge of C_2n(1, n) if either |i − j| ≡ 1 (mod 2n) or |i − j| ≡ n (mod 2n). © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Graph Theory 28: 203–213, 1998     

A greedy algorithm for finding a large 2‐matching on a random cubic graph

A 2‐matching of a graph G is a spanning subgraph with maximum degree two. The size of a 2‐matching U is the number of edges in U and this is at least where n is the number of vertices of G and κ denotes the number of components. In this article, we analyze the performance of a greedy algorithm 2greedy for finding a large 2‐matching on a random 3‐regular graph. We prove that with high probability, the algorithm outputs a 2‐matching U with .