The Hamiltonian Cycle in $K_{1,r}$-free Split Graphs -- A Dichotomy

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the well-studied Hamiltonian cycle problem (HCYCLE), and present an interesting dichotomy result on split graphs. T. Akiyama et al. (1980) have shown that HCYCLE is NP-complete in planar bipartite graphs with maximum degree $3$. Using this reduction, we show that HCYCLE is NP-complete in split graphs. In particular, we show that the problem is NP-complete in $K_{1,5}$-free split graphs. Further, we present polynomial-time algorithms for Hamiltonian cycle in $K_{1,3}$-free and $K_{1,4}$-free split graphs. We believe that the structural results presented in this paper can be used to show similar dichotomy result for Hamiltonian path problem (HPATH) and other variants of HCYCLE.