English

Existence of cycles of length divisible by 3 or 4

Combinatorics 2026-05-05 v1

Abstract

Dean conjectured that for each integer k3k \ge 3, every graph with minimum degree at least kk has a cycle whose length is divisible by kk; this conjecture is known to be true for all k5k\neq 5. For k{3,4}k\in\{3,4\}, stronger statements are true: every graph with minimum degree at least 22 and at most k2k-2 vertices of degree 22 has a cycle whose length is divisible by kk. We further strengthen these results by characterizing all graphs with minimum degree at least 22 and at most three vertices of degree 22 that have no cycle of length divisible by kk, for each k{3,4}k\in\{3,4\}. As a corollary, we obtain that every graph with minimum degree at least 22 and at most two vertices of degree 22 has a cycle whose length is divisible by 33, and that every graph on at least nine vertices with minimum degree at least 22 and at most three vertices of degree 22 has a cycle whose length is divisible by 44.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.02731,
  title  = {Existence of cycles of length divisible by 3 or 4},
  author = {Ilkyoo Choi and Hojin Chu and Ringi Kim and Boram Park},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.02731},
  year   = {2026}
}