Related papers: Solid bricks that every $b$-invariant edge is soli…
A graph $G$ is a brick if it is 3-connected and $G-\{u,v\}$ has a perfect matching for any two distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$. Lucchesi and Murty proposed a problem concerning the characterization of bricks, distinct from $K_4$,…
A connected graph G is matching covered if every edge lies in some perfect matching of G. Lovasz proved that every matching covered graph G can be uniquely decomposed into a list of bricks (nonbipartite) and braces (bipartite) up to…
A {\em brick} is a non-bipartite matching covered graph without non-trivial tight cuts. Bricks are building blocks of matching covered graphs. We say that an edge $e$ in a brick $G$ is {\em $b$-invariant} if $G-e$ is matching covered and a…
A cut $C:=\partial(X)$ of a matching covered graph $G$ is a separating cut if both its $C$-contractions $G/X$ and $G/\overline{X}$ are also matching covered. A brick is solid if it is free of nontrivial separating cuts. In 2004, we…
Lov\'asz (1987) proved that every matching covered graph $G$ may be uniquely decomposed into a list of bricks (nonbipartite) and braces (bipartite); we let $b(G)$ denote the number of bricks. An edge $e$ is removable if $G-e$ is also…
An edge e in a matching covered graph G is removable if G-e is matching covered; a pair {e; f} of edges of G is a removable doubleton if G-e-f is matching covered, but neither G-e nor G-f is. Removable edges and removable doubletons are…
A $3$-connected graph $G$ is a brick if, for any two vertices $u$ and $v$, the graph $G-\{u,v\}$ has a perfect matching. Deleting an edge $e$ from a brick $G$ results in a graph with zero, one or two vertices of degree two. The…
An edge $e$ of a matching covered graph $G$ is removable if $G-e$ is also matching covered. The notion of removable edge arises in connection with ear decompositions of matching covered graphs introduced by Lov\'asz and Plummer. A…
We say that a graph G is $(k,\ell)$-stable if removing $k$ vertices from it reduces its independence number by at most $\ell$. We say that G is tight $(k,\ell)$-stable if it is $(k,\ell)$-stable and its independence number equals…
A connected graph G with at least two vertices is matching covered if each of its edges lies in a perfect matching. We say that an edge e in a matching covered graph G is removable if G-e is matching covered. A pair {e; f} of edges of a…
A 3-connected graph is a brick if the graph obtained from it by deleting any two distinct vertices has a perfect matching. The importance of bricks stems from the fact that they are building blocks of the matching decomposition procedure of…
The cycles are the only $2$-connected graphs in which any two nonadjacent vertices form a vertex cut. We generalize this fact by proving that for every integer $k\ge 3$ there exists a unique graph $G$ satisfying the following conditions:…
An edge $e$ of a matching covered graph $G$ is removable if $G-e$ is also matching covered. Carvalho, Lucchesi, and Murty showed that every brick $G$ different from $K_4$ and $\overline{C_6}$ has at least $\Delta-2$ removable edges, where…
A graph $G$ is \emph{nonsingular (singular)} if its adjacency matrix $A(G)$ is nonsingular (singular). In this article, we consider the nonsingularity of block graphs, i.e., graphs in which every block is a clique. Extending the problem, we…
{ An edge $e$ in a matching covered graph $G$ is {\em removable} if $G-e$ is matching covered, which was introduced by Lov\'asz and Plummer in connection with ear decompositions of matching covered graphs. A {\it brick}} is a non-bipartite…
A graph is Berge if it has no induced odd cycle on at least 5 vertices and no complement of induced odd cycle on at least 5 vertices. A graph is perfect if the chromatic number equals the maximum clique number for every induced subgraph.…
An edge coloring of a graph $G$ is \emph{woody} if no cycle is monochromatic. The \emph{arboricity} of a graph $G$, denoted by $\arb (G)$, is the least number of colors needed for a woody coloring of $G$. A coloring of $G$ is \emph{strongly…
A graph G is perfect if for every induced subgraph H, the chromatic number of H equals the size of the largest complete subgraph of H, and G is Berge if no induced subgraph of G is an odd cycle of length at least 5 or the complement of one.…
Let $G$ be a graph and $A$ be its adjacency matrix. A graph $G$ is invertible if its adjacency matrix $A$ is invertible and the inverse of $G$ is a weighted graph with adjacency matrix $A^{-1}$. A signed graph $(G,\sigma)$ is a weighted…
A subgraph $G'$ of a graph $G$ is nice if $G-V(G')$ has a perfect matching. Nice subgraphs play a vital role in the theory of ear decomposition and matching minors of matching covered graphs. A vertex $u$ of a cubic graph is nice if $u$ and…