Cycle-saturated graphs with minimum number of edges

Abstract

A graph $G$ is called $H$-saturated if it does not contain any copy of $H$, but for any edge $e$ in the complement of $G$ the graph $G+e$ contains some $H$. The minimum size of an $n$-vertex $H$-saturated graph is denoted by $\sat(n,H)$. We prove $$\sat(n,C_k) = n + n/k + O((n/k^2) + k^2)$$ holds for all $n\geq k\geq 3$, where $C_k$ is a cycle with length $k$. We have a similar result for semi-saturated graphs $$\ssat(n,C_k) = n + n/(2k) + O((n/k^2) + k).$$ We conjecture that our three constructions are optimal.