Factors and Connected Factors in Tough Graphs with High Isolated Toughness

In this paper, we show that every $1$-tough graph with order and isolated toughness at least $r+1$ has a factor whose degrees are $r$, except for at most one vertex with degree $r+1$. Using this result, we conclude that every $3$-tough graph with order and isolated toughness at least $r+1$ has a connected factor whose degrees lie in the set $\{r,r+1\}$, where $r\ge 3$. Also, we show that this factor can be found $m$-tree-connected, when $G$ is a $(2m+\epsilon)$-tough graph with order and isolated toughness at least $r+1$, where $r\ge (2m-1)(2m/\epsilon+1)$ and $\epsilon > 0$. Next, we prove that every $(m+\epsilon)$-tough graph of order at least $2m$ with high enough isolated toughness admits an $m$-tree-connected factor with maximum degree at most $2m+1$. From this result, we derive that every $(2+\epsilon)$-tough graph of order at least three with high enough isolated toughness has a spanning Eulerian subgraph whose degrees lie in the set $\{2,4\}$. In addition, we provide a family of $5/3$-tough graphs with high enough isolated toughness having no connected even factors with bounded maximum degree

Edge-Stable Equimatchable Graphs

A graph $G$ is \emph{equimatchable} if every maximal matching of $G$ has the same cardinality. We are interested in equimatchable graphs such that the removal of any edge from the graph preserves the equimatchability. We call an equimatchable graph $G$ \emph{edge-stable} if $G\setminus {e}$, that is the graph obtained by the removal of edge $e$ from $G$, is also equimatchable for any $e \in E(G)$. After noticing that edge-stable equimatchable graphs are either 2-connected factor-critical or bipartite, we characterize edge-stable equimatchable graphs. This characterization yields an $O(\min(n^{3.376}, n^{1.5}m))$ time recognition algorithm. Lastly, we introduce and shortly discuss the related notions of edge-critical, vertex-stable and vertex-critical equimatchable graphs. In particular, we emphasize the links between our work and the well-studied notion of shedding vertices, and point out some open questions

Spanning Trees and Spanning Eulerian Subgraphs with Small Degrees. II

Let $G$ be a connected graph with $X\subseteq V(G)$ and with the spanning forest $F$. Let $\lambda\in [0,1]$ be a real number and let $\eta:X\rightarrow (\lambda,\infty)$ be a real function. In this paper, we show that if for all $S\subseteq X$, $\omega(G\setminus S)\le\sum_{v\in S}\big(\eta(v)-2\big)+2-\lambda(e_G(S)+1)$, then $G$ has a spanning tree $T$ containing $F$ such that for each vertex $v\in X$, $d_T(v)\le \lceil\eta(v)-\lambda\rceil+\max\{0,d_F(v)-1\}$, where $\omega(G\setminus S)$ denotes the number of components of $G\setminus S$ and $e_G(S)$ denotes the number of edges of $G$ with both ends in $S$. This is an improvement of several results and the condition is best possible. Next, we also investigate an extension for this result and deduce that every $k$-edge-connected graph $G$ has a spanning subgraph $H$ containing $m$ edge-disjoint spanning trees such that for each vertex $v$, $d_H(v)\le \big\lceil \frac{m}{k}(d_G(v)-2m)\big\rceil+2m$, where $k\ge 2m$; also if $G$ contains $k$ edge-disjoint spanning trees, then $H$ can be found such that for each vertex $v$, $d_H(v)\le \big\lceil \frac{m}{k}(d_G(v)-m)\big\rceil+m$, where $k\ge m$. Finally, we show that strongly $2$-tough graphs, including $(3+1/2)$-tough graphs of order at least three, have spanning Eulerian subgraphs whose degrees lie in the set $\{2,4\}$. In addition, we show that every $1$-tough graph has spanning closed walk meeting each vertex at most $2$ times and prove a long-standing conjecture due to Jackson and Wormald (1990).Comment: 46 pages, Keywords: Spanning tree; spanning Eulerian; spanning closed walk; connected factor; toughness; total exces

On factors of 4-connected claw-free graphs

We consider the existence of several different kinds of factors in 4-connected claw-free graphs. This is motivated by the following two conjectures which are in fact equivalent by a recent result of the third author. Conjecture 1 (Thomassen): Every 4-connected line graph is Hamiltonian, i.e. has a connected 2-factor. Conjecture 2 (Matthews and Sumner): Every 4-connected claw-free graph is hamiltonian. We first show that Conjecture 2 is true within the class of hourglass-free graphs, i.e. graphs that do not contain an induced subgraph isomorphic to two triangles meeting in exactly one vertex. Next we show that a weaker form of Conjecture 2 is true, in which the conclusion is replaced by the conclusion that there exists a connected spanning subgraph in which each vertex has degree two or four. Finally we show that Conjecture 1 and 2 are equivalent to seemingly weaker conjectures in which the conclusion is replaced by the conclusion that there exists a spanning subgraph consisting of a bounded number of paths. \u