Matching Preclusion and Conditional Matching Preclusion Problems for Twisted Cubes

The matching preclusion number of a graph is the minimum number of edges whose deletion results in a graph that has neither perfect matchings nor almost-perfect matchings. For many interconnection networks, the optimal sets are precisely those induced by a single vertex. Recently, the conditional matching preclusion number of a graph was introduced to look for obstruction sets beyond those induced by a single vertex. It is defined to be the minimum number of edges whose deletion results in a graph with no isolated vertices that has neither perfect matchings nor almost-perfect matchings. In this paper, we find the matching preclusion number and the conditional matching preclusion number for twisted cubes, an improved version of the well-known hypercube. Moreover, we also classify all the optimal matching preclusion sets

On the central levels problem

The \emph{central levels problem} asserts that the subgraph of the $(2m+1)$-dimensional hypercube induced by all bitstrings with at least $m+1-\ell$ many 1s and at most $m+\ell$ many 1s, i.e., the vertices in the middle $2\ell$ levels, has a Hamilton cycle for any $m\geq 1$ and $1\le \ell\le m+1$. This problem was raised independently by Buck and Wiedemann, Savage, Gregor and {\v{S}}krekovski, and by Shen and Williams, and it is a common generalization of the well-known \emph{middle levels problem}, namely the case $\ell=1$, and classical binary Gray codes, namely the case $\ell=m+1$. In this paper we present a general constructive solution of the central levels problem. Our results also imply the existence of optimal cycles through any sequence of $\ell$ consecutive levels in the $n$-dimensional hypercube for any $n\ge 1$ and $1\le \ell \le n+1$. Moreover, extending an earlier construction by Streib and Trotter, we construct a Hamilton cycle through the $n$-dimensional hypercube, $n\geq 2$, that contains the symmetric chain decomposition constructed by Greene and Kleitman in the 1970s, and we provide a loopless algorithm for computing the corresponding Gray code

Extending perfect matchings to Hamiltonian cycles in line graphs

A graph admitting a perfect matching has the Perfect-Matching-Hamiltonian property (for short the PMH-property) if each of its perfect matchings can be extended to a Hamiltonian cycle. In this paper we establish some sufficient conditions for a graph $G$ in order to guarantee that its line graph $L(G)$ has the PMH-property. In particular, we prove that this happens when $G$ is (i) a Hamiltonian graph with maximum degree at most $3$, (ii) a complete graph, or (iii) an arbitrarily traceable graph. Further related questions and open problems are proposed along the paper.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

On a family of quartic graphs: Hamiltonicity, matchings and isomorphism with circulants

A pairing of a graph $G$ is a perfect matching of the underlying complete graph $K_{G}$. A graph $G$ has the PH-property if for each one of its pairings, there exists a perfect matching of $G$ such that the union of the two gives rise to a Hamiltonian cycle of $K_G$. In 2015, Alahmadi et al. proved that the only three cubic graphs having the PH-property are the complete graph $K_{4}$, the complete bipartite graph $K_{3,3}$, and the $3$-dimensional cube $\mathcal{Q}_{3}$. Most naturally, the next step is to characterise the quartic graphs that have the PH-property, and the same authors mention that there exists an infinite family of quartic graphs (which are also circulant graphs) having the PH-property. In this work we propose a class of quartic graphs on two parameters, $n$ and $k$, which we call the class of accordion graphs $A[n,k]$, and show that the quartic graphs having the PH-property mentioned by Alahmadi et al. are in fact members of this general class of accordion graphs. We also study the PH-property of this class of accordion graphs, at times considering the pairings of $G$ which are also perfect matchings of $G$. Furthermore, there is a close relationship between accordion graphs and the Cartesian product of two cycles. Motivated by a recent work by Bogdanowicz (2015), we give a complete characterisation of those accordion graphs that are circulant graphs. In fact, we show that $A[n,k]$ is not circulant if and only if both $n$ and $k$ are even, such that $k\geq 4$.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure