Proof of a conjecture of Bauer, Fan and Veldman

For a 1-tough graph $G$ we define $\sigma_3(G) = \min\{\deg(u) + \deg(v)+ \deg(w):$ $\{u, v, w\}$ is an independent set of vertices$\}$ and $NC2(G)=\min \{|N(u)\cup N(v)|: d(u,v)=2\}$. D. Bauer, G. Fan and H.J.Veldman proved that $c(G)\geq \min\{n,2NC2(G)\}$ for any 1-tough graph $G$ with $\sigma_3(G)\geq n\geq 3$, where $c(G)$ is the circumference of $G$ (D. Bauer, G. Fan and H.J.Veldman,Hamiltonian properties of graphs with large neighborhood unions,Discrete Mathematics, 1991). They also conjectured a stronger upper bound for the circumference: $c(G)\geq\min\{n,2NC2(G)+4\}$.In this paper, we prove this conjecture.