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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.18536 |
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| _version_ | 1866918397098328064 |
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| author | Ai, Jiangdong Chen, Bin Chen, Ming Zhao, Tianxiao |
| author_facet | Ai, Jiangdong Chen, Bin Chen, Ming Zhao, Tianxiao |
| contents | In 1959, Erdős and Gallai showed that every $2$-connected graph $G$ contains a cycle of length at least $\frac{2|E(G)|}{|V(G)|-1}$. This result was subsequently extended to weighted graphs by Bondy and Fan in 1991. A natural local variant of this problem arises by considering, for each edge $e\in E(G)$, the quantity $c(e)$, defined as the length of the longest cycle in $G$ containing $e$ (with $c(e)=2$ if $e$ is a bridge). Zhao and Zhang recently proved that for every graph $G$ on $n$ vertices satisfies $\sum_{e\in E(G)}\frac{1}{c(e)}\le \frac{n-1}{2}.$
In this note, we establish a weighted generalization of this inequality. For a weighted graph $(G,w)$ with positive edge weights, let $C_w(e)$ denote the maximum weight of a cycle containing $e$ (setting $C_w(e)=2w(e)$ if $e$ is a bridge). We prove that $$ \sum_{e\in E(G)}\frac{w(e)}{C_w(e)}\le \frac{n-1}{2}. $$ Our result can be viewed as a weighted local analogue of the Bondy-Fan theorem, thereby establishing a correspondence between the global and local perspectives. Furthermore, we present a broad class of graphs attaining equality and derive necessary conditions for equality. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_18536 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A weighted cycle-localization inequality Ai, Jiangdong Chen, Bin Chen, Ming Zhao, Tianxiao Combinatorics In 1959, Erdős and Gallai showed that every $2$-connected graph $G$ contains a cycle of length at least $\frac{2|E(G)|}{|V(G)|-1}$. This result was subsequently extended to weighted graphs by Bondy and Fan in 1991. A natural local variant of this problem arises by considering, for each edge $e\in E(G)$, the quantity $c(e)$, defined as the length of the longest cycle in $G$ containing $e$ (with $c(e)=2$ if $e$ is a bridge). Zhao and Zhang recently proved that for every graph $G$ on $n$ vertices satisfies $\sum_{e\in E(G)}\frac{1}{c(e)}\le \frac{n-1}{2}.$ In this note, we establish a weighted generalization of this inequality. For a weighted graph $(G,w)$ with positive edge weights, let $C_w(e)$ denote the maximum weight of a cycle containing $e$ (setting $C_w(e)=2w(e)$ if $e$ is a bridge). We prove that $$ \sum_{e\in E(G)}\frac{w(e)}{C_w(e)}\le \frac{n-1}{2}. $$ Our result can be viewed as a weighted local analogue of the Bondy-Fan theorem, thereby establishing a correspondence between the global and local perspectives. Furthermore, we present a broad class of graphs attaining equality and derive necessary conditions for equality. |
| title | A weighted cycle-localization inequality |
| topic | Combinatorics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.18536 |