Nonempty intersection of longest paths in graphs without forbidden pairs

Abstract: In 1966, Gallai asked whether all longest paths in a connected graph have a nonempty intersection. The answer to this question is not true in general and various counterexamples have been found. However, there is a positive solution to Gallai's question for many well-known classes of graphs such as split graphs, series parallel graphs, and $2K_2$-free graphs. Among all the graph classes that support Gallai's question, almost all of them were shown to be Hamiltonian under certain conditions. This observation motivates us to investigate Gallai's question in graphs that are "close" to Hamiltonicity properties. Let ${R,S}$ be a pair of connected graphs. In particular, in this paper, we show that Gallai's question is affirmative for all connected ${R,S}$-free graphs such that every 2-connected ${R,S}$-free graph is Hamiltonian. These pairs ${R,S}$ were completely characterized in 1990s.