The generalized 3-connectivity of Cartesian product graphs

The generalized connectivity of a graph, which was introduced recently by Chartrand et al., is a generalization of the concept of vertex connectivity. Let $S$ be a nonempty set of vertices of $G$, a collection $\{T_1,T_2,...,T_r\}$ of trees in $G$ is said to be internally disjoint trees connecting $S$ if $E(T_i)\cap E(T_j)=\emptyset$ and $V(T_i)\cap V(T_j)=S$ for any pair of distinct integers $i,j$, where $1\leq i,j\leq r$. For an integer $k$ with $2\leq k\leq n$, the $k$-connectivity $\kappa_k(G)$ of $G$ is the greatest positive integer $r$ for which $G$ contains at least $r$ internally disjoint trees connecting $S$ for any set $S$ of $k$ vertices of $G$. Obviously, $\kappa_2(G)=\kappa(G)$ is the connectivity of $G$. Sabidussi showed that $\kappa(G\Box H) \geq \kappa(G)+\kappa(H)$ for any two connected graphs $G$ and $H$. In this paper, we first study the 3-connectivity of the Cartesian product of a graph $G$ and a tree $T$, and show that $(i)$ if $\kappa_3(G)=\kappa(G)\geq 1$, then $\kappa_3(G\Box T)\geq \kappa_3(G)$; $(ii)$ if $1\leq \kappa_3(G)< \kappa(G)$, then $\kappa_3(G\Box T)\geq \kappa_3(G)+1$. Furthermore, for any two connected graphs $G$ and $H$ with $\kappa_3(G)\geq\kappa_3(H)$, if $\kappa(G)>\kappa_3(G)$, then $\kappa_3(G\Box H)\geq \kappa_3(G)+\kappa_3(H)$; if $\kappa(G)=\kappa_3(G)$, then $\kappa_3(G\Box H)\geq \kappa_3(G)+\kappa_3(H)-1$. Our result could be seen as a generalization of Sabidussi's result. Moreover, all the bounds are sharp.