(4) seems to be asking for a proof of:
Any $5$-vertex induced subgraph of the Petersen graph contains an edge.
This essentially asks for the size of the largest independent set. A formal proof of this would consist of computing all $\binom{10}{5}$ such induced subgraphs and observing that they have an edge. I'll give a more mathematician-friendly proof below.
We can interpret the Petersen graph as a Kneser graph; the vertices are $2$-subsets of $\{1,2,3,4,5\}$ and the edges are between disjoint subsets. This is depicted below:
If we take an independent sets of size $k$ of the Petersen graph, we can draw it as a $k$-edge subgraph of $K_5$ (on the vertex set $\{1,2,3,4,5\}$). For example, the independent set of size $4$ given by $$\big\{\{1,2\},\{1,3\},\{1,4\},\{1,5\}\big\}$$ corresponds to the subgraph
of $K_5$.
Claim: An independent set of size $k$ of the Petersen graph is equivalent to a $k$-edge subgraph of $K_5$ for which each edge shares an endpoint with every other edge.
If two edges existed in the subgraph of $K_5$ which do not share an endpoint, e.g. $12$ and $34$, they would correspond to two vertices of the Petersen graph joined by an edge (i.e., not an independent set), $\{1,2\}$ and $\{3,4\}$ in our example.
To complete the proof, we need to show there are no $5$-edge subgraphs $H$ of $K_5$ that satisfy the claim.
To begin with, we observe that $H$ contains a cycle (since acyclic graphs on $n$ vertices must have $n-1$ or fewer edges). If $H$ contains a $4$-cycle or a $5$-cycle, then the claim is not satisfied. Hence $H$ contains a $3$-cycle.
Suppose $a,b,c$ are the vertices of the $3$-cycle, and $uv$ is an edge in $H$ not in this triangle. One of the following must be true:
- $u=a$, in which case $v \in \{b,c\}$ (otherwise $uv$ and $bc$ do not share an endpoint), contradicting the assumption that $uv$ does not belong to the $3$-cycle. (Similarly for $u=b$ and $u=c$.)
- $u \not\in \{a,b,c\}$, in which case, the claim implies $v \in \{a,b\}$, $v \in \{a,c\}$ and $v \in \{b,c\}$, which is impossible, giving a contradiction.
We conclude that the Petersen graph has no $5$-vertex independent sets.
Best Answer
Hint: what's the independence number of the complement?