For a connected graph $G$ of order $n\ge 3$ and an ordering $s{v}_1$, $v_2,\cdots ,v_n$ of the vertices of $G$, $d\left(s\right)={\sum }_{i=1}^{n-1}d(v_i,v_{i+1})$, where $d(v_i,v_{i+1})$ is the distance between $v_i$ and $v_{i+1}$. The traceable number $t\left(G\right)$ of $G$ is defined by $t\left(G\right)=min\left\}d\left(s\right)\right\{,$ where the minimum is taken over all sequences $s$ of the elements of $V\left(G\right)$. It is shown that if $G$ is a nontrivial connected graph of order $n$ such that $l$ is the length of a longest path in $G$ and $p$ is the maximum size of a spanning linear forest in $G$, then $2n-2-p\le t\left(G\right)\le 2n-2-l$ and both these bounds are sharp. We establish a formula for the traceable...

For a nontrivial connected graph $G$ of order $n$ and a linear ordering $s{v}_1,v_2,...,v_n$ of vertices of $G$, define $d\left(s\right)={\sum }_{i=1}^{n-1}d(v_i,v_{i+1})$. The traceable number $t\left(G\right)$ of a graph $G$ is $t\left(G\right)=min\left\{d\right(s\left)\right\}$ and the upper traceable number $t^{+}\left(G\right)$ of $G$ is $t^{+}\left(G\right)=max\left\{d\left(s\right)\right\},$ where the minimum and maximum are taken over all linear orderings $s$ of vertices of $G$. We study upper traceable numbers of several classes of graphs and the relationship between the traceable number and upper traceable number of a graph. All connected graphs $G$ for which $t^{+}\left(G\right)-t\left(G\right)=1$ are characterized and a formula for...

Let $G$ be a finite connected graph with minimum degree $\delta$. The leaf number $L\left(G\right)$ of $G$ is defined as the maximum number of leaf vertices contained in a spanning tree of $G$. We prove that if $\delta \ge \frac{1}{2}(L\left(G\right)+1)$, then $G$ is 2-connected. Further, we deduce, for graphs of girth greater than 4, that if $\delta \ge \frac{1}{2}\left(L\right(G)+1)$, then $G$ contains a spanning path. This provides a partial solution to a conjecture of the computer program Graffiti.pc [DeLaVi na and Waller, Spanning trees with many leaves and average distance, Electron. J. Combin....

By a ternary system we mean an ordered pair $(W,R)$, where $W$ is a finite nonempty set and $R\subseteq W\times W\times W$. By a signpost system we mean a ternary system $(W,R)$ satisfying the following conditions for all $x,y,z\in W$: if $(x,y,z)\in R$, then $(y,x,x)\in R$ and $(y,x,z)\notin R$; if $x\ne y$, then there exists $t\in W$ such that $(x,t,y)\in R$. In this paper, a signpost system is used as a common description of a connected graph and a spanning tree of the graph. By a ct-pair we mean an ordered pair $(G,T)$, where $G$ is a connected graph and $T$ is a spanning tree of $G$. If $(G,T)$ is a ct-pair, then by...