Hamiltonicity in connected regular graphs

In 1980, Jackson proved that every 2-connected $k$-regular graph with at most $3k$ vertices is Hamiltonian. This result has been extended in several papers. In this note, we determine the minimum number of vertices in a connected $k$-regular graph that is not Hamiltonian, and we also solve the analogous problem for Hamiltonian paths. Further, we characterize the smallest connected $k$-regular graphs without a Hamiltonian cycle.Comment: 5 page

On lower bounds for the matching number of subcubic graphs

We give a complete description of the set of triples (a,b,c) of real numbers with the following property. There exists a constant K such that a n_3 + b n_2 + c n_1 - K is a lower bound for the matching number of every connected subcubic graph G, where n_i denotes the number of vertices of degree i for each i