Ore-degree threshold for the square of a Hamiltonian cycle

A classic theorem of Dirac from 1952 states that every graph with minimum degree at least n/2 contains a Hamiltonian cycle. In 1963, P\'osa conjectured that every graph with minimum degree at least 2n/3 contains the square of a Hamiltonian cycle. In 1960, Ore relaxed the degree condition in the Dirac's theorem by proving that every graph with $deg(u) + deg(v) \geq n$ for every $uv \notin E(G)$ contains a Hamiltonian cycle. Recently, Ch\^au proved an Ore-type version of P\'osa's conjecture for graphs on $n\geq n_0$ vertices using the regularity--blow-up method; consequently the $n_0$ is very large (involving a tower function). Here we present another proof that avoids the use of the regularity lemma. Aside from the fact that our proof holds for much smaller $n_0$, we believe that our method of proof will be of independent interest.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure. In addition to some fixed typos, this updated version contains a simplified "connecting lemma" in Section 3.

Embedding graphs having Ore-degree at most five

Let $H$ and $G$ be graphs on $n$ vertices, where $n$ is sufficiently large. We prove that if $H$ has Ore-degree at most 5 and $G$ has minimum degree at least $2n/3$ then $H\subset G.$Comment: accepted for publication at SIAM J. Disc. Mat

On some intriguing problems in Hamiltonian graph theory -- A survey

We survey results and open problems in Hamiltonian graph theory centred around three themes: regular graphs, $t$-tough graphs, and claw-free graphs

Completion and deficiency problems

Given a partial Steiner triple system (STS) of order $n$, what is the order of the smallest complete STS it can be embedded into? The study of this question goes back more than 40 years. In this paper we answer it for relatively sparse STSs, showing that given a partial STS of order $n$ with at most $r \le \varepsilon n^2$ triples, it can always be embedded into a complete STS of order $n+O(\sqrt{r})$, which is asymptotically optimal. We also obtain similar results for completions of Latin squares and other designs. This suggests a new, natural class of questions, called deficiency problems. Given a global spanning property $\mathcal{P}$ and a graph $G$, we define the deficiency of the graph $G$ with respect to the property $\mathcal{P}$ to be the smallest positive integer $t$ such that the join $G\ast K_t$ has property $\mathcal{P}$. To illustrate this concept we consider deficiency versions of some well-studied properties, such as having a $K_k$-decomposition, Hamiltonicity, having a triangle-factor and having a perfect matching in hypergraphs. The main goal of this paper is to propose a systematic study of these problems; thus several future research directions are also given