More aspects of arbitrarily partitionable graphs

Abstract

A graph G of order n is arbitrarily partitionable (AP) if, for every sequence (n1,...,np) partitioning n, there is a partition (V1,...,Vp) of V (G) such that G[Vi] is a connected graph of order ni for i=1,...,p. The property of being AP is related to other well-known graph notions, such as perfect matchings and Hamiltonian cycles, with which it shares several properties. This work is dedicated to studying two aspects behind AP graphs. On the one hand, we consider algorithmic aspects of AP graphs, which received some attention in previous works. We first establish the NP-hardness of the problem of partitioning a graph into connected subgraphs following a given sequence, for various new graph classes of interest. We then prove that the problem of deciding whether a graph is AP is in NP for several classes of graphs, confirming a conjecture of Barth and Fournier for these. On the other hand, we consider the weakening to APness of sufficient conditions for Hamiltonicity. While previous works have suggested that such conditions can sometimes indeed be weakened, we here point out cases where this is not true. This is done by considering conditions for Hamiltonicity involving squares of graphs, and claw-and net-free graphs.