Hamiltonian cycles in 2-tough $2K_2$-free graphs

Abstract

A graph $G$ is called a $2K_2$-free graph if it does not contain $2K_2$ as an induced subgraph. In 2014, Broersma, Patel and Pyatkin showed that every 25-tough $2K_2$-free graph on at least three vertices is Hamiltonian. Recently, Shan improved this result by showing that 3-tough is sufficient instead of 25-tough. In this paper, we show that every 2-tough $2K_2$-free graph on at least three vertices is Hamiltonian, which was conjectured by Gao and Pasechnik.