Operadic structure on Hamiltonian paths and cycles

Abstract

We study Hamiltonian paths and cycles in undirected graphs from an operadic viewpoint. We show that the graphical collection $\mathsf{Ham}$ encoding directed Hamiltonian paths in connected graphs admits an operad-like structure, called a contractad. Similarly, we construct the graphical collection of Hamiltonian cycles $\mathsf{CycHam}$ that forms a right module over the contractad $\mathsf{Ham}$. We use the machinery of contractad generating series for counting Hamiltonian paths/cycles for particular types of graphs.