A graph $G$ is a $k$-tree if either $G$ is the complete graph on $k+1$ vertices, or $G$ has a vertex $v$ whose neighborhood is a clique of order $k$ and the graph obtained by removing $v$ from $G$ is also a $k$-tree. Clearly, a $k$-tree has at least $k+1$ vertices, and $G$ is a 1-tree (usual tree) if and only if it is a $1$-connected graph and has no $K_3$-minor. In this paper, motivated by some properties of 2-trees, we obtain a characterization of $k$-trees as follows: if $G$ is a graph with at least $k+1$ vertices, then $G$ is...

Let $L(n,d)$ denote the minimum possible number of leaves in a tree of order $n$ and diameter $d.$ Lesniak (1975) gave the lower bound $B(n,d)=\lceil 2(n-1)/d\rceil$ for $L(n,d).$ When $d$ is even, $B(n,d)=L(n,d).$ But when $d$ is odd, $B(n,d)$ is smaller than $L(n,d)$ in general. For example, $B(21,3)=14$ while $L(21,3)=19.$ In this note, we determine $L(n,d)$ using new ideas. We also consider the converse problem and determine the minimum possible diameter of a tree with given order and number of leaves.

Let $G$ be a finite group. The main supergraph $𝒮\left(G\right)$ is a graph with vertex set $G$ in which two vertices $x$ and $y$ are adjacent if and only if $o\left(x\right)\mid o\left(y\right)$ or $o\left(y\right)\mid o\left(x\right)$. In this paper, we will show that $G\cong Sz\left(q\right)$ if and only if $𝒮\left(G\right)\cong 𝒮\left(Sz\right(q\left)\right)$, where $q=2^{2m+1}\ge 8$.

Let $G_1$ and $G_2$ be two given graphs. The Ramsey number $R(G_1,G_2)$ is the least integer $r$ such that for every graph $G$ on $r$ vertices, either $G$ contains a $G_1$ or $\overline{G}$ contains a $G_2$. Parsons gave a recursive formula to determine the values of $R(P_n,K_{1,m})$, where $P_n$ is a path on $n$ vertices and $K_{1,m}$ is a star on $m+1$ vertices. In this note, we study the Ramsey numbers $R(P_n,K_1\vee F_m)$, where $F_m$ is a linear forest on $m$ vertices. We determine the exact values of $R(P_n,K_1\vee F_m)$ for the cases $m\le n$ and $m\ge 2n$, and for the case that $F_m$ has no odd component. Moreover, we...

Let $T$ be a tree with $n$ vertices. To each edge of $T$ we assign a weight which is a positive definite matrix of some fixed order, say, $s$. Let $D_{ij}$ denote the sum of all the weights lying in the path connecting the vertices $i$ and $j$ of $T$. We now say that $D_{ij}$ is the distance between $i$ and $j$. Define $D:=\left[D_{ij}\right]$, where $D_{ii}$ is the $s\times s$ null matrix and for $i\ne j$, $D_{ij}$ is the distance between $i$ and $j$. Let $G$ be an arbitrary connected weighted graph with $n$ vertices, where each weight is a positive definite matrix of order...

Let $G$ be a finite group. The main supergraph $𝒮\left(G\right)$ is a graph with vertex set $G$ in which two vertices $x$ and $y$ are adjacent if and only if $o\left(x\right)\mid o\left(y\right)$ or $o\left(y\right)\mid o\left(x\right)$. In this paper, we will show that $G{\cong }^2{G}_2\left(3^{2n+1}\right)$ if and only if $𝒮\left(G\right)\cong 𝒮{(}^2{G}_2\left(3^{2n+1}\right))$. As a main consequence of our result we conclude that Thompson’s problem is true for the small Ree group ${}^2{G}_2\left(3^{2n+1}\right)$.

A proper coloring $c:V\left(G\right)\to \{1,2,...,k\}$, $k\ge 2$ of a graph $G$ is called a graceful $k$-coloring if the induced edge coloring $c^{\text{'}}:E\left(G\right)\to \{1,2,...,k-1\}$ defined by $c^{\text{'}}\left(uv\right)=|c\left(u\right)-c\left(v\right)|$ for each edge $uv$ of $G$ is also proper. The minimum integer $k$ for which $G$ has a graceful $k$-coloring is the graceful chromatic number ${\chi }_g\left(G\right)$. It is known that if $T$ is a tree with maximum degree $\Delta$, then ${\chi }_g\left(T\right)\le \lceil \frac{5}{3}\Delta \rceil$ and this bound is best possible. It is shown for each integer $\Delta \ge 2$ that there is an infinite class of trees $T$ with maximum degree $\Delta$ such that ${\chi }_g\left(T\right)=\lceil \frac{5}{3}\Delta \rceil$. In particular, we investigate for each...

For a connected graph $G=(V,E)$ and a set $S\subseteq V\left(G\right)$ with at least two vertices, an $S$-Steiner tree is a subgraph $T=(V^{\text{'}},E^{\text{'}})$ of $G$ that is a tree with $S\subseteq V^{\text{'}}$. If the degree of each vertex of $S$ in $T$ is equal to 1, then $T$ is called a pendant $S$-Steiner tree. Two $S$-Steiner trees are if they share no vertices other than $S$ and have no edges in common. For $S\subseteq V\left(G\right)$ and $\left|S\right|\ge 2$, the pendant tree-connectivity ${\tau }_G\left(S\right)$ is the maximum number of internally disjoint pendant $S$-Steiner trees in $G$, and for $k\ge 2$, the $k$-pendant tree-connectivity ${\tau }_k\left(G\right)$ is the...

Let $ex(n,G)$ denote the maximum number of edges in a graph on $n$ vertices which does not contain $G$ as a subgraph. Let $P_i$ denote a path consisting of $i$ vertices and let $m{P}_i$ denote $m$ disjoint copies of $P_i$. In this paper we count $ex(n,3P_4)$.

For any two positive integers $n$ and $k\ge 2$, let $G(n,k)$ be a digraph whose set of vertices is $\{0,1,...,n-1\}$ and such that there is a directed edge from a vertex $a$ to a vertex $b$ if $a^k\equiv b(modn)$. Let $n={\prod }_{i=1}^r{p}_i^{e_i}$ be the prime factorization of $n$. Let $P$ be the set of all primes dividing $n$ and let $P_1,P_2\subseteq P$ be such that $P_1\cup P_2=P$ and $P_1\cap P_2=\varnothing$. A fundamental constituent of $G(n,k)$, denoted by $G_{P_2}^{*}(n,k)$, is a subdigraph of $G(n,k)$ induced on the set of vertices which are multiples of ${\prod }_{p_i\in P_2}{p}_i$ and are relatively prime to all primes $q\in P_1$. L. Somer and M. Křížek proved that the trees attached...

Let $G$ be a finite group and construct a graph $\Delta \left(G\right)$ by taking $G\setminus \left\{1\right\}$ as the vertex set of $\Delta \left(G\right)$ and by drawing an edge between two vertices $x$ and $y$ if $\langle x,y\rangle$ is cyclic. Let $K\left(G\right)$ be the set consisting of the universal vertices of $\Delta \left(G\right)$ along the identity element. For a solvable group $G$, we present a necessary and sufficient condition for $K\left(G\right)$ to be nontrivial. We also develop a connection between $\Delta \left(G\right)$ and $K\left(G\right)$ when $\left|G\right|$ is divisible by two distinct primes and the diameter of $\Delta \left(G\right)$ is 2.

For a fixed positive integer $k$ and $G=(V,E)$ a connected graph of order $n$, whose minimum vertex degree is at least $k$, a set $S\subseteq V$ is a total $k$-dominating set, also known as a $k$-tuple total dominating set, if every vertex $v\in V$ has at least $k$ neighbors in $S$. The minimum size of a total $k$-dominating set for $G$ is called the total $k$-domination number of $G$, denoted by ${\gamma }_{kt}\left(G\right)$. The total $k$-domination problem is to determine a minimum total $k$-dominating set of $G$. Since the exact problem is in general quite difficult...