Spanning Connectivity of the Power of a Graph and Hamilton-Connected Index of a Graph

Abstract

Let G = (V, E) be a connected graph. The hamiltonian index h(G) (Hamilton-connected index hc(G)) of G is the least nonnegative integer k for which the iterated line graph L k (G) is hamiltonian (Hamilton-connected). In this paper we show the following. (a) If |V(G)| ? k + 1 ? 4, then in G k , for any pair of distinct vertices {u, v}, there exists k internally disjoint (u, v)-paths that contains all vertices of G; (b) for a tree T, h(T) ≤ hc(T) ≤ h(T) + 1, and for a unicyclic graph G, h(G) ≤ hc(G) ≤ max{h(G) + 1, k? + 1}, where k? is the length of a longest path with all vertices on the cycle such that the two ends of it are of degree at least 3 and all internal vertices are of degree 2; (c) we also characterize the trees and unicyclic graphs G for which hc(G) = h(G) + 1.