Bipartite subgraphs of triangle-free subcubic graphs

Suppose G is a graph with n vertices and m edges. Let n' be the maximum number of vertices in an induced bipartite subgraph of G and let m' be the maximum number of edges in a spanning bipartite subgraph of G. Then b(G) = m'/m is called the bipartite density of G, and b*(G) = n'/n is called the bipartite ratio of G. This paper proves that every 2-connected triangle-free subcubic graph, apart from seven exceptions, has b(G) >= 17/21. Every 2-connected triangle-free subcubic graph other than the Petersen graph and the dodecahedron has b*(G) >= 5/7. The bounds that b*(G) >= 5/7 and b(G) >= 17/21 are tight in the sense that there are infinitely many 2-connected triangle-free cubic graphs G for which b(G) = 17/21 and b*(G) = 5/7. On the other hand, if G is not cubic (i.e., G have vertices of degree at most 2), then the strict inequalities b*(G) >= 5/7 and b(G) >= 17/21 hold, with a few exceptions. Nevertheless. the bounds are still sharp in the sense that for any epsilon > 0, there are infinitely many 2-connected subcubic graphs G with minimum degree 2 such that b*(G) < 5/7 + epsilon and b(G) < 17/21 + epsilon. The bound that b(G) >= 17/21 is a common improvement of an earlier result of Bondy and Locke and a recent result of Xu and Yu: Bondy and Locke proved that every triangle-free cubic graph other than the Petersen graph and the dodecahedron has b(G) > 4/5. XU and Yu confirmed a conjecture of Bondy and Locke and proved that every 2-connected triangle free subcubic graph with minimum degree 2 apart from five exceptions has b(G) > 4/5. The bound b*(G) > 5/7 is a strengthening of a well-known result (first proved by Fajtlowicz and by Staton, and with a few new proofs found later) which says that any triangle-free subcubic graph G has independence ratio at least 5/14. The proofs imply a linear time algorithm that finds an induced bipartite subgraph H of G with |V(H)|/|V(G)| >= 5/7 and a spanning bipartite subgraph H' of G with |E(H')|/|E(G)| >= 17/21. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.