English

Removable trees and matchings in $k$-connected and $k$-edge-connected graphs

Combinatorics 2026-08-04 v1

Abstract

T. Hasunuma (J. Graph Theory, 2023) conjectured that if GG is a kk-connected (resp. kk-edge-connected) graph with minimum degree δ(G)k+m1\delta(G) \ge k + m - 1, and TT is a tree of order mm, then GG contains a removable copy of TT, that is, a subtree TT' isomorphic to TT such that GE(T)G - E(T') is kk-connected (resp. kk-edge-connected). We prove (a strengthening of) this conjecture. We also consider removable matchings in graphs with high minimum degree. We show, among others, that if GG is a kk-edge-connected graph on at least 2m2m vertices with minimum degree δ(G)k+m\delta(G) \ge k + m, then there exists a matching MM of size mm in GG for which GMG-M is kk-edge-connected.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2608.03643,
  title  = {Removable trees and matchings in $k$-connected and $k$-edge-connected graphs},
  author = {Adam D. W. Clay and Tibor Jordán},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.03643},
  year   = {2026}
}