INDUCED MATCHINGS IN GRAPHS OF BOUNDED MAXIMUM DEGREE.

For a graph G, let vs(G) be the size of a largest induced matching of G. We prove that vs(G) ≥ n(G)/(⌈Δ/2⌇+1)(⌈Δ/2⌇+1) for every graph of sufficiently large maximum degree Δ and without isolated vertices. This bound is sharp. Moreover, there is a polynomial-time algorithm which computes induced matchings of the size stated above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]