Online packing of the three largest trees

Abstract

For every $n\ge4$, arbitrary trees of orders $n,n-1,n-2$ can be packed into $K_n$ online, in decreasing order of size: each tree must be embedded before the next is revealed, and earlier embeddings cannot be changed. This strengthens the classical three-tree packing theorem of Hobbs, Bourgeois and Kasiraj (1987). In particular, the second tree is embedded without knowing the third, and the resulting pair of copies can be extended to accommodate every possible third tree. Our strategy is to embed the first two trees so that their union is $2$-degenerate. We prove that the complement of every $2$-degenerate graph on $n$ vertices contains every tree of order $n-2$, which guarantees the final move. The main ingredient is an embedding lemma for spiders whose center must occupy a prescribed vertex having degree at most two in the forbidden graph. We then extend this lemma to arbitrary trees by induction.