3-Factor-criticality of vertex-transitive graphs

A graph of order $n$ is $p$-factor-critical, where $p$ is an integer of the same parity as $n$, if the removal of any set of $p$ vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. 1-Factor-critical graphs and 2-factor-critical graphs are factor-critical graphs and bicritical graphs, respectively. It is well known that every connected vertex-transitive graph of odd order is factor-critical and every connected non-bipartite vertex-transitive graph of even order is bicritical. In this paper, we show that a simple connected vertex-transitive graph of odd order at least 5 is 3-factor-critical if and only if it is not a cycle.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

4-Factor-criticality of vertex-transitive graphs

A graph of order $n$ is $p$-factor-critical, where $p$ is an integer of the same parity as $n$, if the removal of any set of $p$ vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. 1-factor-critical graphs and 2-factor-critical graphs are well-known factor-critical graphs and bicritical graphs, respectively. It is known that if a connected vertex-transitive graph has odd order, then it is factor-critical, otherwise it is elementary bipartite or bicritical. In this paper, we show that a connected vertex-transitive non-bipartite graph of even order at least 6 is 4-factor-critical if and only if its degree is at least 5. This result implies that each connected non-bipartite Cayley graphs of even order and degree at least 5 is 2-extendable.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figure

Extendable self-avoiding walks

The connective constant mu of a graph is the exponential growth rate of the number of n-step self-avoiding walks starting at a given vertex. A self-avoiding walk is said to be forward (respectively, backward) extendable if it may be extended forwards (respectively, backwards) to a singly infinite self-avoiding walk. It is called doubly extendable if it may be extended in both directions simultaneously to a doubly infinite self-avoiding walk. We prove that the connective constants for forward, backward, and doubly extendable self-avoiding walks, denoted respectively by mu^F, mu^B, mu^FB, exist and satisfy mu = mu^F = mu^B = mu^FB for every infinite, locally finite, strongly connected, quasi-transitive directed graph. The proofs rely on a 1967 result of Furstenberg on dimension, and involve two different arguments depending on whether or not the graph is unimodular.Comment: Accepted versio

Maximizing the minimum and maximum forcing numbers of perfect matchings of graphs

Let $G$ be a simple graph with $2n$ vertices and a perfect matching. The forcing number $f(G,M)$ of a perfect matching $M$ of $G$ is the smallest cardinality of a subset of $M$ that is contained in no other perfect matching of $G$. Among all perfect matchings $M$ of $G$, the minimum and maximum values of $f(G,M)$ are called the minimum and maximum forcing numbers of $G$, denoted by $f(G)$ and $F(G)$, respectively. Then $f(G)\leq F(G)\leq n-1$. Che and Chen (2011) proposed an open problem: how to characterize the graphs $G$ with $f(G)=n-1$. Later they showed that for bipartite graphs $G$, $f(G)=n-1$ if and only if $G$ is complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$. In this paper, we solve the problem for general graphs and obtain that $f(G)=n-1$ if and only if $G$ is a complete multipartite graph or $K^+_{n,n}$ ($K_{n,n}$ with arbitrary additional edges in the same partite set). For a larger class of graphs $G$ with $F(G)=n-1$ we show that $G$ is $n$-connected and a brick (3-connected and bicritical graph) except for $K^+_{n,n}$. In particular, we prove that the forcing spectrum of each such graph $G$ is continued by matching 2-switches and the minimum forcing numbers of all such graphs $G$ form an integer interval from $\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor$ to $n-1$