The completion numbers of hamiltonicity and pancyclicity in random graphs

Let μ(G) denote the minimum number of edges whose addition to G results in a Hamiltonian graph, and let μ^(G) denote the minimum number of edges whose addition to G results in a pancyclic graph. We study the distributions of μ(G),μ^(G) in the context of binomial random graphs. Letting d=d(n):=n⋅p, we prove that there exists a function f:R+→[0,1] of order f(d)=12de−d+e−d+O(d6e−3d) such that, if G∼G(n,p) with 20≤d(n)≤0.4logn, then with high probability μ(G)=(1+o(1))⋅f(d)⋅n. Let ni(G) denote the number of degree i vertices in G. A trivial lower bound on μ(G) is given by the expression n0(G)+⌈12n1(G)⌉. In the denser regime of random graphs, we show that if np−13logn−2loglogn→∞ and G∼G(n,p) then, with high probability, μ(G)=n0(G)+⌈12n1(G)⌉. For completion to pancyclicity, we show that if G∼G(n,p) and np≥20 then, with high probability, μ^(G)=μ(G). Finally, we present a polynomial time algorithm such that, if G∼G(n,p) and np≥20, then, with high probability, the algorithm returns a set of edges of size μ(G) whose addition to G results in a pancyclic (and therefore also Hamiltonian) graph.