Rainbow connection in 33-connected graphs

An edge-colored graph $G$ is rainbow connected if any two vertices are connected by a path whose edges have distinct colors. The rainbow connection number of a connected graph $G$, denoted by $rc(G)$, is the smallest number of colors that are needed in order to make $G$ rainbow connected. In this paper, we proved that $rc(G)\leq 3(n+1)/5$ for all $3$-connected graphs.Comment: 7 page

A Tur\'an-type problem on degree sequence

Given $p\geq 0$ and a graph $G$ whose degree sequence is $d_1,d_2,\ldots,d_n$, let $e_p(G)=\sum_{i=1}^n d_i^p$. Caro and Yuster introduced a Tur\'an-type problem for $e_p(G)$: given $p\geq 0$, how large can $e_p(G)$ be if $G$ has no subgraph of a particular type. Denote by $ex_p(n,H)$ the maximum value of $e_p(G)$ taken over all graphs with $n$ vertices that do not contain $H$ as a subgraph. Clearly, $ex_1(n,H)=2ex(n,H)$, where $ex(n,H)$ denotes the classical Tur\'an number, i.e., the maximum number of edges among all $H$-free graphs with $n$ vertices. Pikhurko and Taraz generalize this Tur\'an-type problem: let $f$ be a non-negative increasing real function and $e_f(G)=\sum_{i=1}^n f(d_i)$, and then define $ex_f(n,H)$ as the maximum value of $e_f(G)$ taken over all graphs with $n$ vertices that do not contain $H$ as a subgraph. Observe that $ex_f(n,H)=ex(n,H)$ if $f(x)=x/2$, $ex_f(n,H)=ex_p(n,H)$ if $f(x)=x^p$. Bollob\'as and Nikiforov mentioned that it is important to study concrete functions. They gave an example $f(x)=\phi(k)={x\choose k}$, since $\sum_{i=1}^n{d_i\choose k}$ counts the $(k+1)$-vertex subgraphs of $G$ with a dominating vertex. Denote by $T_r(n)$ the $r$-partite Tur\'an graph of order $n$. In this paper, using the Bollob\'as--Nikiforov's methods, we give some results on $ex_{\phi}(n,K_{r+1})$ $(r\geq 2)$ as follows: for $k=1,2$, $ex_\phi(n,K_{r+1})=e_\phi(T_r(n))$; for each $k$, there exists a constant $c=c(k)$ such that for every $r\geq c(k)$ and sufficiently large $n$, $ex_\phi(n,K_{r+1})=e_\phi(T_r(n))$; for a fixed $(r+1)$-chromatic graph $H$ and every $k$, when $n$ is sufficiently large, we have $ex_\phi(n,H)=e_\phi(n,K_{r+1})+o(n^{k+1})$.Comment: 9 page

Complete solution to a problem on the maximal energy of unicyclic bipartite graphs

The energy of a simple graph $G$, denoted by $E(G)$, is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. Denote by $C_n$ the cycle, and $P_n^{6}$ the unicyclic graph obtained by connecting a vertex of $C_6$ with a leaf of $P_{n-6}$\,. Caporossi et al. conjecture that the unicyclic graph with maximal energy is $P_n^6$ for $n=8,12,14$ and $n\geq 16$. In``Y. Hou, I. Gutman and C. Woo, Unicyclic graphs with maximal energy, {\it Linear Algebra Appl.} {\bf 356}(2002), 27--36", the authors proved that $E(P_n^6)$ is maximal within the class of the unicyclic bipartite $n$-vertex graphs differing from $C_n$\,. And they also claimed that the energy of $C_n$ and $P_n^6$ is quasi-order incomparable and left this as an open problem. In this paper, by utilizing the Coulson integral formula and some knowledge of real analysis, especially by employing certain combinatorial techniques, we show that the energy of $P_n^6$ is greater than that of $C_n$ for $n=8,12,14$ and $n\geq 16$, which completely solves this open problem and partially solves the above conjecture.Comment: 8 page

On the maximal energy tree with two maximum degree vertices

For a simple graph $G$, the energy $E(G)$ is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of its adjacent matrix. For $\Delta\geq 3$ and $t\geq 3$, denote by $T_a(\Delta,t)$ (or simply $T_a$) the tree formed from a path $P_t$ on $t$ vertices by attaching $\Delta-1$ $P_2$'s on each end of the path $P_t$, and $T_b(\Delta, t)$ (or simply $T_b$) the tree formed from $P_{t+2}$ by attaching $\Delta-1$ $P_2$'s on an end of the $P_{t+2}$ and $\Delta -2$ $P_2$'s on the vertex next to the end. In [X. Li, X. Yao, J. Zhang and I. Gutman, Maximum energy trees with two maximum degree vertices, J. Math. Chem. 45(2009), 962--973], Li et al. proved that among trees of order $n$ with two vertices of maximum degree $\Delta$, the maximal energy tree is either the graph $T_a$ or the graph $T_b$, where $t=n+4-4\Delta\geq 3$. However, they could not determine which one of $T_a$ and $T_b$ is the maximal energy tree. This is because the quasi-order method is invalid for comparing their energies. In this paper, we use a new method to determine the maximal energy tree. It turns out that things are more complicated. We prove that the maximal energy tree is $T_b$ for $\Delta\geq 7$ and any $t\geq 3$, while the maximal energy tree is $T_a$ for $\Delta=3$ and any $t\geq 3$. Moreover, for $\Delta=4$, the maximal energy tree is $T_a$ for all $t\geq 3$ but $t=4$, for which $T_b$ is the maximal energy tree. For $\Delta=5$, the maximal energy tree is $T_b$ for all $t\geq 3$ but $t$ is odd and $3\leq t\leq 89$, for which $T_a$ is the maximal energy tree. For $\Delta=6$, the maximal energy tree is $T_b$ for all $t\geq 3$ but $t=3,5,7$, for which $T_a$ is the maximal energy tree. One can see that for most $\Delta$, $T_b$ is the maximal energy tree, $\Delta=5$ is a turning point, and $\Delta=3$ and 4 are exceptional cases.Comment: 16 page