Critical vertices in k-connected digraphs

Abstract

It is proved that every non-complete, finite digraph of connectivity number k has a fragment F containing at most k critical vertices. The following result is a direct consequence: every k-connected, finite digraph D of minimum out- and indegree at least \(2k+ m- 1\) for positive integers k, m has a subdigraph H of minimum outdegree or minimum indegree at least \(m-1\) such that \(D - x\) is k-connected for all \(x \in V(H)\). For \(m = 1\), this implies immediately the existence of a vertex of indegree or outdegree less than 2k in a k-critical, finite digraph, which was proved in Mader (J Comb Theory (B) 53:260–272, 1991).