Improved bound on the number of edges of diameter-$k$-critical graphs

TL;DR

This paper improves the upper bound on the number of edges in diameter-$k$-critical graphs, showing they have at most approximately $rac{n^2}{2k}$ edges, refining previous bounds for such graphs.

Contribution

It provides a tighter asymptotic upper bound on edges of diameter-$k$-critical graphs, advancing understanding of their structure.

Findings

Bound for diameter-$k$-critical graphs improved to $rac{n^2}{2k}+o(n^2)$

Previous bounds for diameter-2 and diameter-3-critical graphs are extended and refined

Results contribute to the broader understanding of graph diameter and edge extremal properties.

Abstract

A graph is diameter-$k$-critical if its diameter equals $k$ and the deletion of any edge increases its diameter. The Murty-Simon Conjecture states that for any diameter-2-critical graph $G$ of order $n$, $e(G) \leq \lfloor \frac{n^2}{4}\rfloor$, with equality if and only if $G \cong K_{\lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor,\lceil \frac{n}{2}\rceil}$. F\"uredi (JGT,1992) proved that this conjecture is true for sufficiently large $n$. Over two decades later, Loh and Ma (JCT-B, 2016) proved that $e(G) \leq \frac{n^2}{6}+o(n^2)$ for diameter-3-critical graphs $G$, and $e(G) \leq \frac{3n^2}{k}$ for diameter-$k$-critical graphs $G$ with $k \geq 4$. In this paper, we improve the bound for diameter-$k$-critical graphs to $ \frac{n^2}{2k}+o(n^2)$.