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In this paper, we show that for any positive integer $m$ and $k\in [2]$, let $G$ be a $(2m+2k+2)$-connected graph and let $a_1,\ldots , a_m, s, t$ be any distinct vertices of $G$, there are $k$ internally disjoint $s$-$t$ paths $P_1,…

Nielsen proved that the maximum number of maximal independent sets (MIS's) of size $k$ in an $n$-vertex graph is asymptotic to $(n/k)^k$, with the extremal construction a disjoint union of $k$ cliques with sizes as close to $n/k$ as…

Galvin showed that for all fixed $\delta$ and sufficiently large $n$, the $n$-vertex graph with minimum degree $\delta$ that admits the most independent sets is the complete bipartite graph $K_{\delta,n-\delta}$. He conjectured that except…

Let $\phi_c(G)$ be the circular flow number of a bridgeless graph $G$. In [Edge-colorings and circular flow numbers of regular graphs, J. Graph Theory 79 (2015) 1-7] it was proved that, for every $t \geq 1$, $G$ is a bridgeless…

Fix a positive integer $n$ and consider the bipartite graph whose vertices are the $3$-element subsets and the $2$-element subsets of $[n]=\{1,2,\dots,n\}$, and there is an edge between $A$ and $B$ if $A\subset B$. We prove that the…

Write ${\cal I}(G)$ for the set of independent sets of a graph $G$ and $i(G)$ for $|{\cal I}(G)|$. It has been conjectured (by Alon and Kahn) that for an $N$-vertex, $d$-regular graph $G$, $$ i(G) \leq \left(2^{d+1}-1\right)^{N/2d}. $$ If…

Determining the size of a maximum independent set of a graph $G$, denoted by $\alpha(G)$, is an NP-hard problem. Therefore, many attempts are made to find upper and lower bounds, or exact values of $\alpha (G)$ for special classes of…

Settling Kahn's conjecture (2001), we prove the following upper bound on the number $i(G)$ of independent sets in a graph $G$ without isolated vertices: \[ i(G) \le \prod_{uv \in E(G)} i(K_{d_u,d_v})^{1/(d_u d_v)}, \] where $d_u$ is the…

We prove that every $n$-vertex $K_t$-minor-free graph $G$ of maximum degree $\Delta$ has a set $F$ of $O(t^2(\log t)^{1/4}\sqrt{\Delta n})$ edges such that every component of $G - F$ has at most $n/2$ vertices. This is best possible up to…

We show that the number of independent sets in an N-vertex, d-regular graph is at most (2^{d+1} - 1)^{N/2d}, where the bound is sharp for a disjoint union of complete d-regular bipartite graphs. This settles a conjecture of Alon in 1991 and…

Erd\H{o}s, Hajnal and Szemer\'{e}di proved that any subset $G$ of vertices of a shift graph $\text{Sh}_{n}^{k}$ has the property that the independence number of the subgraph induced by $G$ satisfies $\alpha(\text{Sh}_{n}^{k}[G])\geq…

For a given positive integer t we consider graphs having maximal independent sets of precisely t distinct cardinalities and restrict our attention to those that have no vertices of degree one. In the situation when t is four or larger and…

For a graph $G$, a vertex subset $S$ is called a maximum generalized $k$-independent set if the induced subgraph $G[S]$ does not contain a $k$-tree as its subgraph, and the subset has maximum cardinality. The generalized $k$-independence…

A well-known result of Ajtai et al. from 1982 states that every $k$-graph $H$ on $n$ vertices, with girth at least five, and average degree $t^{k-1}$ contains an independent set of size $c n (\log t)^{1/(k-1)}/t$ for some $c>0$. In this…

Let $G$ be a triangle-free graph with $n$ vertices and average degree $t$. We show that $G$ contains at least \[ e^{(1-n^{-1/12})\frac{1}{2}\frac{n}{t}\ln t (\frac{1}{2}\ln t-1)} \] independent sets. This improves a recent result of the…

A set of cycles is called independent if no two of them have a common vertex. Let $S_{n, 2k-1}$ be the complete split graph, which is the join of a clique of size $2k-1$ with an independent set of size $n-2k+1$. In 1962, Erd\H{o}s and…

Hadwiger's conjecture implies that $n\le\alpha h$ for all graphs of order $n$, stability number $\alpha $, and Hadwiger number $h$. Combining ideas of Kawarabayashi et al. and Wood, we prove that $n\le (\alpha-1)(2h-5)+5$ for such graphs if…

Given a graph $G$, denote by $h(G)$ the smallest size of a subset of $V(G)$ which intersects every maximum independent set of $G$. We prove that any graph $G$ without induced matching of size $t$ satisfies $h(G)\le \omega(G)^{3t-3+o(1)}$.…

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph and $n$ a positive integer. Let $I_n(G)$ be the abstract simplicial complex whose simplices are the subsets of $V$ that do not contain an independent set of size $n$ in $G$. We study the collapsibility numbers of…

As a strengthening of Hadwiger's conjecture, Gerards and Seymour conjectured that every graph with no odd $K_t$ minor is $(t-1)$-colorable. We prove two weaker variants of this conjecture. Firstly, we show that for each $t \geq 2$, every…