A set of vertices in a graph is a Hamiltonian subset if it induces a subgraph containing a Hamiltonian cycle. Kim, Liu, Sharifzadeh, and Staden proved that for large $d$, among all graphs with minimum degree $d$, $K_{d+1}$ minimises the number of Hamiltonian subsets. We prove a near optimal lower bound that takes also the order and the structure of a graph into account. For many natural graph classes, it provides a much better bound than the extremal one ($\approx 2^{d+1}$). Among others, our bound implies that an $n$-vertex $C_4$-free graph with minimum degree $d$ contains at least $n2^{d^{2-o(1)}}$ Hamiltonian subsets.

We prove a new sufficient pair degree condition for tight Hamiltonian cycles in $3$-uniform hypergraphs that (asymptotically) improves the best known pair degree condition due to Rödl, Ruciński, and Szemerédi. For graphs, Chvátal characterised all those sequences of integers for which every pointwise larger (or equal) degree sequence guarantees the existence of a Hamiltonian cycle. A step towards Chvátal’s theorem was taken by Pósa, who improved on Dirac’s tight minimum degree condition for Hamiltonian cycles by showing that a certain weaker condition on the degree sequence of a graph already yields a Hamiltonian cycle.

In this work, we take a similar step towards a full characterisation of all pair degree matrices that ensure the existence of tight Hamiltonian cycles in $3$-uniform hypergraphs by proving a $3$-uniform analogue of Pósa’s result. In particular, our result strengthens the asymptotic version of the result by Rödl, Ruciński, and Szemerédi.