Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:54:19.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Homeomorphically Irreducible Spanning Trees in Locally Connected Graphs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2012

GUANTAO CHEN
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, USA (e-mail: gchen@gsu.edu)
HAN REN
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
SONGLING SHAN
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, USA (e-mail: gchen@gsu.edu)

Abstract

A spanning tree T of a graph G is called a homeomorphically irreducible spanning tree (HIST) if T does not contain vertices of degree 2. A graph G is called locally connected if, for every vertex vV(G), the subgraph induced by the neighbourhood of v is connected. In this paper, we prove that every connected and locally connected graph with more than 3 vertices contains a HIST. Consequently, we confirm the following conjecture due to Archdeacon: every graph that triangulates some surface has a HIST, which was proposed as a question by Albertson, Berman, Hutchinson and Thomassen.

Type
Paper
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1]Albertson, M. O., Berman, D. M., Hutchinson, J. P. and Thomassen, C. (1990) Graphs with homeomorphically irreducible spanning trees. J. Graph Theory 14 247258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2]Bondy, J. A. and Murty, U. S. R. (2008) Graph Theory, Vol. 244 of Graduate Texts in Mathematics, Springer.Google Scholar
[3]Beineke, L. W. and Wilson, R. J., eds (2009) Topics in Topological Graph Theory, Vol. 128 of Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
[4]Davidow, A. L., Hutchinson, J. P. and Huneke, J. P. (1995) Planar and toroidal graphs with homeomorphically irreducible spanning trees. In Graph Theory, Combinatorics, and Algorithms: Kalamazoo 1992, Vols 1 & 2, Wiley–Interscience, pp. 265276.Google Scholar
[5]Hill, A. (1974) Graphs with homeomorphically irreducible spanning trees. In Combinatorics: Proc. British Combinatorial Conference, Aberystwyth 1973, Vol. 13 of London Mathematical Society Lecture Notes, Cambridge University Press, pp. 6168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[6]Hwang, F. K., Richards, D. S. and Winter, P. (1992) The Steiner Tree Problem, Vol. 53 of Annals of Discrete Mathematics, North-Holland.Google Scholar
[7]Malkevitch, J. (1979) Spanning trees in polytopal graphs. In Second International Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics, New York 1978, Vol. 319 of Ann. New York Acad. Sci., New York Academy of Sciences, pp. 362367.Google Scholar
[8]Ringel, G. (1978) Nonexistence of graph embeddings. In Theory and Applications of Graphs: Proc. International Conference, Kalamazoo 1976, Vol. 642 of Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Springer, pp. 465476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar