Hamiltonism and Partially Square Graphs

 Given a graph G, we define its partially square graph G ^* as the graph obtained by adding edges uv whenever the vertices u and v have a common neighbor x satisfying the condition N _Gx]⊆N _Gu]∪N _G v], where N _Gx]=N _G(x)∪{x}. In particular, this condition is satisfied if x does not center a claw (an induced K _1,3). Obviously G⊆G ^*⊆G ², where G ² is the square of G. We prove that a k-connected graph (k≥2) G is hamiltonian if the independence number α(G ^*) of G ^* does not exceed k. If we replace G ^* by G we get a well known result of Chvátal and Erdo?s. If G is claw-free and G ^* is replaced by G ² then we obtain a result of Ainouche, Broersma and Veldman. Relationships between connectivity of G and independence number of G ^* for other hamiltonian properties are also given in this paper. Received: June 17, 1996 Revised: October 30, 1998