A graph G is diameter-2-critical if its diameter is two and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. In this paper we characterize the diameter-2-critical graphs with no induced path on five vertices. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter-2-critical graph of order n is at most n2/4 and that the extremal graphs are the complete bipartite graphs with partite sets whose cardinality differs by at most one. We use an association with total domination to prove that if G is a diameter-2-critical graph with no induced path P5, then G is triangle-free. As a consequence, we observe that the Murty-Simon Conjecture is true for P5-free, diameter-2-critical graphs by Turán's Theorem. Finally we characterize these graphs by characterizing their complements.

The total domination number γt(G) of a graph G is the minimum cardinality of a set S of vertices, so that every vertex of G is adjacent to a vertex in S. In this article, we determine an optimal upper bound on the total domination number of a graph with diameter 2. We show that for every graph G on n vertices with diameter 2, γt(G)≤1+nln(n). This bound is optimal in the sense that given any ε>0, there exist graphs G with diameter 2 of all sufficiently large even orders n such that γt(G)>(14+ε)nln(n).

A graph is diameter-2-critical if its diameter is two and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. Let G be a diameter-2-critical graph of order n. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in G is at most ⌊n 2/4⌋ and that the extremal graphs are the complete bipartite graphs K ⌊n/2⌋,⌊n/2⌉. Fan [Discrete Math. 67 (1987), 235-240] proved the conjecture for n ≤ 24 and for n = 26, while Füredi [J. Graph Theory 16 (1992), 81-98] proved the conjecture for n > n 0 where n 0 is a tower of 2's of height about 1014. The conjecture has yet to be proven for other values of n. Let Δ denote the maximum degree of G. We prove the following maximum degree theorems for diameter-2-critical graphs. If Δ ≥ 0.7 n, then the Murty-Simon Conjecture is true. If n ≥ 2000 and Δ ≥ 0.6789 n, then the Murty-Simon Conjecture is true.

A graph G is diameter-2-critical if its diameter is two and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. The complete graph on four vertices minus one edge is called a diamond, and a diamond-free graph has no induced diamond subgraph. In this paper we use an association with total domination to characterize the diameter-2-critical graphs whose complements are diamond-free. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter-2-critical graph G of order n is at most ⌊ n24⌋ and that the extremal graphs are the complete bipartite graphs K⌊ n2⌋n2⌉. As a consequence of our characterization, we prove the Murty-Simon conjecture for graphs whose complements are diamond-free.

A graph $$G$$G is diameter 2-critical if its diameter is two and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter-2-critical graph G of order n is at most ⌊n2/4⌋ and that the extremal graphs are the complete bipartite graphs K⌊n/2⌋,⌈n/2⌉. We survey the progress made to date on this conjecture, concentrating mainly on recent results developed from associating the conjecture to an equivalent one involving total domination.

A graph G is diameter-2-critical if its diameter is two and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter-2-critical graph G of order n is at most ⌊n2/4⌋ and that the extremal graphs are the complete bipartite graphs K⌊n/2⌋,⌈n/2⌉. A graph is t-edge-critical, abbreviated 3tEC, if its total domination number is 3 and the addition of any edge decreases the total domination number. It is known that proving the Murty–Simon Conjecture is equivalent to proving that the number of edges in a 3tEC graph of order n is greater than ⌈n(n-2)/4⌉. We study a family F of 3tEC graphs of diameter 2 for which every pair of nonadjacent vertices dominates the graph. We show that the graphs in F are precisely the bull-free 3tEC graphs and that the number of edges in such graphs is at least ⌊(n2-4)/4⌋, proving the conjecture for this family. We characterize the extremal graphs, and conjecture that this improved bound is in fact a lower bound for all 3tEC graphs of diameter 2. Finally we slightly relax the requirement in the definition of F—instead of requiring that all pairs of nonadjacent vertices dominate to requiring that only most of these pairs dominate—and prove the Murty–Simon equivalent conjecture for these 3tEC graphs.

A graph G is diameter 2-critical if its diameter is two and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter 2-critical graph of order n is at most n2/4 and that the extremal graphs are complete bipartite graphs with equal size partite sets. We use an important association with total domination to prove the conjecture for the graphs whose complements have vertex connectivity k for k∈1,2,3.

A graph G is diameter-2-critical if its diameter is two and the deletion of any edge increases the diameter. In this paper we characterize the diameter-2-critical graphs with no antihole of length four, that is, the diameter-2-critical graphs whose complements have no induced 4-cycle. Murty and Simon conjectured that the number of edges in a diameter-2-critical graph of order n is at most n 2/4 and that the extremal graphs are complete bipartite graphs with equal size partite sets. As a consequence of our characterization, we prove the Murty-Simon Conjecture for graphs with no antihole of length four.