Longest cycles in almost claw-free graphs (Q1576574)

A claw of a (finite, undirected) graph \(G\) is an induced subgraph isomorphic with \(K_{1,3}\). It is said that \(G\) is almost claw-free if the domination number of the neighbourhood of each vertex is at most 2 and besides the centers of all claws of \(G\) form an independent set. Letting \(\delta\) denote the minimum degree of \(G\), the author establishes the following theorems. (1) Every 2-connected almost claw-free graph on \(n\) vertices contains a cycle of length at least \(\min\{n,2\delta+ 4\}\) and the bound \(2\delta+ 4\) is the best possible. (2) Every 3-connected almost claw-free graph on \(n\) vertices contains a cycle of length at least \(\min\{n, 4\delta\}\). It is noted that (1) generalizes a result of \textit{M. M. Matthews} and \textit{D. P. Sumner} [J. Graph Theory 9, 269-277 (1985; Zbl 0591.05041)] on claw-free graphs, while (2) improves one of the author.