Spectral and size conditions for spanning k-trees in tough graphs

Mathematics > Combinatorics [Submitted on 18 Jun 2026] Title:Spectral and size conditions for spanning k-trees in tough graphs View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:The toughness of a graph is a crucial parameter for characterizing its structural properties. The toughness of a non-complete graph $G$ is defined as $\tau(G) = \min \{ \dfrac{|S|}{c(G - S)} : S \subseteq V(G), c(G-S) > 1 \}$, where $c(G)$ denotes the number of components of $G$. We define $\tau(K_n) = \infty$. A graph $G$ is said to be $\tau$-tough if $|S| \ge \tau \cdot c(G-S)$ for every vertex cut $S$ of $G$. Let $k \ge 3$ be an integer. For $\frac{1}{k-\eta}$-tough graphs with $\eta \in \{0, 1\}$, Liu, Fan and Shu \cite{a34} derived sufficient conditions in terms of the spectral radius and the signless Laplacian spectral radius for the existence of a spanning $k$-tree. Jia and Lu \cite{a24}, for the case $\frac{1}{k-1} \leq \tau(G) < \frac{1}{k-2}$, established sufficient conditions in terms of the spectral radius and the signless Laplacian spectral radius for the existence of a spanning $k$-tree. Motivated by these results, in this paper, we further investigate sufficient conditions for the existence of a spanning $k$-tree when $\frac{1}{k} \leq \tau(G) < \frac{1}{k-1}$. Specifically, for a connected $\frac{t}{t(k-1)+1}$-tough graph of sufficiently large order $n$ (where $t \ge 1$ is an integer), we provide sufficient conditions for the existence of a spanning $k$-tree in terms of the spectral radius and the signless Laplacian spectral radius. Furthermore, we establish a lower bound on the size (number of edges) to guarantee the existence of a spanning $k$-tree. References & Citations Loading... Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Recommenders and Search Tools Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.