Connected $k$-factors in bipartite graphs

Abstract

Let $k,l$ be two positive integers. An $S_{k,l}$ is a graph obtained from disjoint $K_{1,k}$ and $K_{1,l}$ by adding an edge between the $k$-degree vertex in $K_{1,k}$ and the $l$-degree vertex in $K_{1,l}$. An {\em $S_{k,l}$-free} graph is a graph containing no induced subgraph isomorphic to $S_{k,l}$. In this note, we show that, for any positive integers $k,l$ with $2\leqslant k\leqslant l$, there exists a constant $c=c(k,l)$ such that every connected balanced $S_{k,l}$-free bipartite graph with minimum degree at least $c$ contains a connected $k$-factor.