Hamiltonian cycles in $k$-partite graphs

Abstract

Chen, Faudree, Gould, Jacobson, and Lesniak determined the minimum degree threshold for which a balanced $k$-partite graph has a Hamiltonian cycle. We give an asymptotically tight minimum degree condition for Hamiltonian cycles in arbitrary $k$-partite graphs in which all parts have at most $n/2$ vertices (a necessary condition). To do this, we first prove a general result which both simplifies the process of checking whether a graph $G$ is a robust expander and gives useful structural information in the case when $G$ is not a robust expander. Then we use this result to prove that any $k$-partite graph satisfying the minimum degree condition is either a robust expander or else contains a Hamiltonian cycle directly.

18 pages, 2 figures; (v3) the title of the paper changed to reflect the expanded scope of the paper; (v4) to appear in Journal of Graph Theory