Sharp threshold for Hamilton cycles in randomly perturbed sparse graphs

Abstract

We determine the sharp threshold for Hamilton cycles in randomly perturbed sparse graphs. For any $α=α(n)=o(1)$, let $G_α$ be an $n$-vertex graph with minimum degree $δ(G_α)\geαn$. We prove that if $$p\ge(1+\varepsilon)\frac{\log(1/α)}{n},$$ then the union $G_α\cup G(n,p)$ is Hamiltonian asymptotically almost surely. This significantly strengthens a recent result of Hahn-Klimroth, Maesaka, Mogge, Mohr, and Parczyk by improving the leading constant from 6 to the optimal value of 1. Crucially, we show that this bound on $p$ is best possible when $αn\rightarrow\infty$, thereby establishing the exact probability threshold for Hamiltonicity in this sparse regime. Our proof relies on a robust random expansion lemma, Pósa's booster lemma, and a sprinkling argument.