English

The exact minimum total degree threshold for the square of a Hamilton cycle in digraphs

Combinatorics 2026-07-15 v1

Abstract

The P\'{o}sa-Seymour conjecture establishes the minimum degree threshold required to guarantee the presence of the kkth power of a Hamilton cycle in a graph. Following numerous partial results, Koml\'{o}s, S\'{a}rk\"{o}zy, and Szemer\'{e}di confirmed the conjecture holds for all sufficiently large graphs. Treglown later conjectured the analogous minimum semi-degree threshold for forcing the kkth power of a Hamilton cycle in a digraph. Subsequently, DeBiasio et al. proposed a conjecture on the minimum total degree threshold for the same problem. In this paper we settle the conjecture of DeBiasio et al. for k=2k=2. Specifically, we prove that every sufficiently large nn-vertex digraph with minimum total degree at least 8n/5c8n/5-c contains the square of a Hamilton cycle, where c=2c=2 if n2,4(mod5)n\equiv2,4\pmod 5, and c=1c=1 otherwise.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.13831,
  title  = {The exact minimum total degree threshold for the square of a Hamilton cycle in digraphs},
  author = {Zhilan Wang and Shuo Wei and Jin Yan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.13831},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

34 pages, 1 figure. We welcome any comments, corrections, and constructive suggestions on this manuscript