Edge-dominating cycles, k-walks and Hamilton prisms in 2K22K_2-free graphs

We show that an edge-dominating cycle in a $2K_2$-free graph can be found in polynomial time; this implies that every 1/(k-1)-tough $2K_2$-free graph admits a k-walk, and it can be found in polynomial time. For this class of graphs, this proves a long-standing conjecture due to Jackson and Wormald (1990). Furthermore, we prove that for any \epsilon>0 every (1+\epsilon)-tough $2K_2$-free graph is prism-Hamiltonian and give an effective construction of a Hamiltonian cycle in the corresponding prism, along with few other similar results.Comment: LaTeX, 8 page

Toughness and hamiltonicity in kk-trees

We consider toughness conditions that guarantee the existence of a hamiltonian cycle in $k$-trees, a subclass of the class of chordal graphs. By a result of Chen et al.\ 18-tough chordal graphs are hamiltonian, and by a result of Bauer et al.\ there exist nontraceable chordal graphs with toughness arbitrarily close to $\frac{7}{4}$. It is believed that the best possible value of the toughness guaranteeing hamiltonicity of chordal graphs is less than 18, but the proof of Chen et al.\ indicates that proving a better result could be very complicated. We show that every 1-tough 2-tree on at least three vertices is hamiltonian, a best possible result since 1-toughness is a necessary condition for hamiltonicity. We generalize the result to $k$-trees for $k\ge 2$: Let $G$ be a $k$-tree. If $G$ has toughness at least $\frac{k+1}{3},$ then $G$ is hamiltonian. Moreover, we present infinite classes of nonhamiltonian 1-tough $k$-trees for each $k\ge 3

Properties of minimally tt-tough graphs

A graph $G$ is minimally $t$-tough if the toughness of $G$ is $t$ and the deletion of any edge from $G$ decreases the toughness. Kriesell conjectured that for every minimally $1$-tough graph the minimum degree $\delta(G)=2$. We show that in every minimally $1$-tough graph $\delta(G)\le\frac{n+2}{3}$. We also prove that every minimally $1$-tough claw-free graph is a cycle. On the other hand, we show that for every $t \in \mathbb{Q}$ any graph can be embedded as an induced subgraph into a minimally $t$-tough graph

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

The spectrum and toughness of regular graphs

In 1995, Brouwer proved that the toughness of a connected $k$-regular graph $G$ is at least $k/\lambda-2$, where $\lambda$ is the maximum absolute value of the non-trivial eigenvalues of $G$. Brouwer conjectured that one can improve this lower bound to $k/\lambda-1$ and that many graphs (especially graphs attaining equality in the Hoffman ratio bound for the independence number) have toughness equal to $k/\lambda$. In this paper, we improve Brouwer's spectral bound when the toughness is small and we determine the exact value of the toughness for many strongly regular graphs attaining equality in the Hoffman ratio bound such as Lattice graphs, Triangular graphs, complements of Triangular graphs and complements of point-graphs of generalized quadrangles. For all these graphs with the exception of the Petersen graph, we confirm Brouwer's intuition by showing that the toughness equals $k/(-\lambda_{min})$, where $\lambda_{min}$ is the smallest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the graph.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, accepted to Discrete Applied Mathematics, special issue dedicated to the "Applications of Graph Spectra in Computer Science" Conference, Centre de Recerca Matematica (CRM), Bellaterra, Barcelona, June 16-20, 201