Excessive factorizations of bipartite multigraphs

An excessive factorization of a multigraph G is a set F={F₁,F₂,…,F_r} of 1-factors of G whose union is E(G) and, subject to this condition, r is minimum. The integer r is called the excessive index of G and denoted by . We set if an excessive factorization does not exist. Analogously, let m be a fixed positive integer. An excessivem]-factorization is a set M={M₁,M₂,…,M_k} of matchings of G, all of size m, whose union is E(G) and, subject to this condition, k is minimum. The integer k is denoted by and called the excessive m]-index of G. Again, we set if an excessive m]-factorization does not exist. In this paper we shall prove that, for bipartite multigraphs, both the parameters and are computable in polynomial time, and we shall obtain an efficient algorithm for finding an excessive factorization and excessive m]-factorization, respectively, of any bipartite multigraph.