On spanning connected graphs

Abstract

A k-container C(u, v) of G between u and v is a set of k internally disjoint paths between u and v. A k-container C(u, v) of G is a k*-container if the set of the vertices of all the paths in C(u, v) contains all the vertices of G. A graph G is k*-connected if there exists a k*-container between any two distinct vertices. Therefore, a graph is 1*-connected (respectively, 2*-connected) if and only if it is hamiltonian connected (respectively, hamiltonian). In this paper, a classical theorem of Ore, providing sufficient conditional for a graph to be hamiltonian (respectively, hamiltonian connected), is generalized to k*-connected graphs. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.