English

Hamiltonian cycles in tough $(P_2\cup P_3)$-free graphs

Combinatorics 2019-01-10 v1

Abstract

Let t>0t>0 be a real number and GG be a graph. We say GG is tt-tough if for every cutset SS of GG, the ratio of S|S| to the number of components of GSG-S is at least tt. Determining toughness is an NP-hard problem for arbitrary graphs. The Toughness Conjecture of Chv\'atal, stating that there exists a constant t0t_0 such that every t0t_0-tough graph with at least three vertices is hamiltonian, is still open in general. A graph is called (P2P3)(P_2\cup P_3)-free if it does not contain any induced subgraph isomorphic to P2P3P_2\cup P_3, the union of two vertex-disjoint paths of order 2 and 3, respectively. In this paper, we show that every 15-tough (P2P3)(P_2\cup P_3)-free graph with at least three vertices is hamiltonian.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1901.02475,
  title  = {Hamiltonian cycles in tough $(P_2\cup P_3)$-free graphs},
  author = {Songling Shan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.02475},
  year   = {2019}
}