Induced nets and Hamiltonicity of claw-free graphs

Abstract: The connected graph of degree sequence 3,3,3,1,1,1 is called a net, and the vertices of degree 1 in a net is called its endvertices. Broersma conjectured in 1993 that a 2-connected graph G with no induced K_{1,3} is hamiltonian if every endvertex of each induced net of G has degree at least (|V(G)|-2)/3. In this paper we prove this conjecture in the affirmative.