English

Longest odd cycles in non-bipartite $C_{2k+1}$-free graphs

Combinatorics 2025-08-25 v1

Abstract

In strengthening a result of Andr\'asfai, Erd\H{o}s and S\'os in 1974, H\"{a}ggkvist proved that if GG is an nn-vertex C2k+1C_{2k+1}-free graph with minimum degree δ(G)>2n2k+3\delta(G)>\frac{2n}{2k+3} and n>(k+22)(2k+3)(3k+2)n>\binom{k+2}{2}(2k+3)(3k+2), then GG contains no odd cycle of length greater than k+12\frac{k+1}{2}. This result has many applications.In this paper, we consider a similar problem by replacing minimum degree condition with edge number condition. We prove that for integers n,k,rn,k,r with k2,3r2kk\geq 2,3\leq r\leq 2k and n2(r+2)(r+1)(r+2k)n \geq 2\left(r+2\right)\left(r+1\right)\left(r+2k\right), if GG is an nn-vertex C2k+1C_{2k+1}-free graph with e(G)(nr+1)24+(r2)e(G) \geq \left\lfloor\frac{(n-r+1)^2}{4}\right\rfloor+\binom{r}{2}, then GG contains no odd cycle of length greater than rr. The construction shows that the result is best possible. This extends a result of Brandt [Discrete Applied Mathematics 79 (1997)], and a result of Bollob\'as and Thomason [Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B. 77 (1999)], and a result of Caccetta and Jia [Graphs Combin. 18 (2002)] and independently proving by Lin, Ning and Wu [Combin. Probab. Comput. 30 (2021)]. Recently, Ren, Wang, Yang, and the second author [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 38 (2024)] show that for 3r2k3\leq r\leq 2k and n318(r2)2kn\geq 318(r-2)^2k, every nn-vertex C2k+1C_{2k+1}-free graph with e(G)(nr+1)24+(r2)e(G) \geq \left\lfloor\frac{(n-r+1)^2}{4}\right\rfloor+\binom{r}{2} can be made bipartite by deleting at most r2r-2 vertices or deleting at most (r22)+(r22)\binom{\lfloor\frac{r}{2}\rfloor}{2}+\binom{\lceil\frac{r}{2}\rceil}{2} edges. As an application, we derive this result and provide a simple proof.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.16199,
  title  = {Longest odd cycles in non-bipartite $C_{2k+1}$-free graphs},
  author = {Rui Wang and Shipeng Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.16199},
  year   = {2025}
}