Relative length of longest paths and longest cycles in triangle-free graphs.

Abstract

In this paper, we study triangle-free graphs. Let G=(V,E) be an arbitrary triangle-free graph with minimum degree at least two and σ4(G)|V(G)|+2. We first show that either for any path P in G there exists a cycle C such that |VPVC|1, or G is isomorphic to exactly one exception. Using this result, we show that for any set S of at most δ vertices in G there is a cycle C such that SVC.