English

Strong binding numbers and factors

Combinatorics 2025-08-27 v1

Abstract

Let GG be a simple graph. The kk-th neighborhood of a vertex subset SV(G)S \subseteq V(G), denoted Λk(S)\Lambda^k(S), is the set of vertices that are adjacent to at least kk vertices in SS. The kk-th binding number βk(G)\beta^k(G) is defined as the minimum ratio Λk(S)/S|\Lambda^k(S)|/|S| over all subsets SV(G)S \subseteq V(G) with Sk|S| \ge k and Λk(S)V(G)\Lambda^k(S) \ne V(G). This parameter generalizes the classical binding number introduced by Woodall. Andersen showed that the condition β1(G)1\beta^1(G) \ge 1 does not guarantee the existence of a 11-factor in GG, while Bar\'at et al. proved that β2(G)1\beta^2(G) \ge 1 suffices for the existence of a 22-factor. In this paper, we extend this result to general k2k \ge 2 by showing that any graph GG with even kV(G)k|V(G)| and βk(G)1\beta^k(G) \ge 1 contains a kk-factor. Moreover, if GG is additionally a split graph of even order, then it admits a (k+1)(k+1)-factor. We also prove that any graph GG with βk(G)1\beta^k(G) \ge 1 contains at least k1k-1 disjoint perfect or near-perfect matchings. Finally, for any bipartite graph GG with bipartition (X,Y)(X, Y), we introduce an analogue of the kk-th binding number and show that, under the condition βk(G,X)1\beta^k(G, X) \ge 1, the graph admits kk disjoint matchings, each covering XX.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.18555,
  title  = {Strong binding numbers and factors},
  author = {Guantao Chen and Mikhail Lavrov and Yuying Ma and Jennifer Vandenbussche and Hein van der Holst},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.18555},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

21 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:05:35.917Z