Order plus size of τ‐critical graphs

Let $G=\left(V,E\right)$ be a $\tau$‐critical graph with $\tau \left(G\right)=t$. Erd?s and Gallai proved that $\mid V\mid \le 2t$ and the bound $\mid E\mid \le \left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{t+1}{2}\right)$ was obtained by Erd?s, Hajnal, and Moon. We give here the sharp combined bound $\mid E\mid +\mid V\mid \le \left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{t+2}{2}\right)$ and find all graphs with equality.