English

Abstract

Let T be a tree. Then a vertex of T with degree one is a leaf of T and a vertex of degree at least three is a branch vertex of T. The set of leaves of T is denoted by L(T) and the set of branch vertices of T is denoted by B(T). For two distinct vertices u, v of T, let PT[u, v] denote the unique path in T connecting u and v. Let T be a tree with B(T) ≠ ∅. For each leaf x of T, let yx denote the nearest branch vertex to x. We delete V(PT[x, yx]) {yx} from T for all x ∈ L(T). The resulting subtree of T is called the reducible stem of T and denoted by R_Stem(T). We give sharp sufficient conditions on the degree sum for a graph to have a spanning tree whose reducible stem has a few branch vertices.