A Closure for 1-Hamilton-Connectedness in Claw-Free Graphs

A graph G is 1-Hamilton-connected if G − x is Hamilton-connected for every vertex x ∈ V (G). In the paper we introduce a closure concept for 1-Hamiltonconnectedness in claw-free graphs. If G is a (new) closure of a claw-free graph G, then G is 1-Hamilton-connected if and only if G is 1-Hamilton-connected, G is the line graph of a multigraph, and for some x ∈ V (G), G − x is the line graph of a multigraph with at most two triangles or at most one double edge. As applications, we prove that Thomassen’s Conjecture (every 4-connected line graph is hamiltonian) is equivalent to the statement that every 4-connected claw-free graph is 1-Hamilton-connected, and we present results showing that every 5-connected claw-free graph with minimum degree at least 6 is 1-Hamilton-connected and that every 4-connected claw-free and hourglass-free graph is 1-Hamilton-connected.