Minimum $k$-critical-bipartite graphs: the irregular Case

Abstract

We study the problem of finding a minimum $k$-critical-bipartite graph of order $(n,m)$: a bipartite graph $G=(U,V;E)$, with $|U|=n$, $|V|=m$, and $n>m>1$, which is $k$-critical-bipartite, and the tuple $(|E|, \Delta_U, \Delta_V)$, where $\Delta_U$ and $\Delta_V$ denote the maximum degree in $U$ and $V$, respectively, is lexicographically minimum over all such graphs. $G$ is $k$-critical-bipartite if deleting at most $k=n-m$ vertices from $U$ yields $G'$ that has a complete matching, i.e., a matching of size $m$. Cichacz and Suchan solved the problem for biregular bipartite graphs. Here, we extend their results to bipartite graphs that are not biregular. We also prove tight lower bounds on the connectivity of $k$-critical-bipartite graphs.