The total-chromatic number of some families of snarks

The total-chromatic numberχ_T(G) is the least number of colours needed to colour the vertices and edges of a graph G such that no incident or adjacent elements (vertices or edges) receive the same colour. It is known that the problem of determining the total-chromatic number is NP-hard, and it remains NP-hard even for cubic bipartite graphs. Snarks are simple connected bridgeless cubic graphs that are not 3-edge-colourable. In this paper, we show that the total-chromatic number is 4 for three infinite families of snarks, namely, the Flower Snarks, the Goldberg Snarks, and the Twisted Goldberg Snarks. This result reinforces the conjecture that all snarks have total-chromatic number 4. Moreover, we give recursive procedures to construct a total-colouring that uses 4 colours in each case.     

Computing the Automorphic Chromatic Index of Certain Snarks

The automorphic G-chromatic index of a graph Γ is the minimum integer m for which Γ has a proper edge-coloring with m colors which is preserved by the full automorphism group G of Γ. We determine the automorphic G-chromatic index of each member of four infinite classes of snarks: type I Blanu?a snarks, type II Blanu?a snarks, Flower snarks and Goldberg snarks.     

On Coloring Problems of Snark Families

Snarks are cubic bridgeless graphs of chromatic index 4 which had their origin in the search of counterexamples to the Four Color Theorem. In 2003, Cavicchioli et al. proved that for snarks with less than 30 vertices, the total chromatic number is 4, and proposed the problem of finding (if any) the smallest snark which is not 4-total colorable. Since then, only two families of snarks have had their total chromatic number determined to be 4, namely the Flower Snark family and the Goldberg family.We prove that the total chromatic number of the Loupekhine family is 4. We study the dot product, a known operation to construct snarks. We consider families of snarks using the dot product, particularly subfamilies of the Blanusa families, and obtain a 4-total coloring for each family. We study edge coloring properties of girth trivial snarks that cannot be extended to total coloring. We classify the snark recognition problem as CoNP-complete and establish that the chromatic number of a snark is 3.     

The circular chromatic index of some class 2 graphs

In this paper we consider the circular edge coloring of four families of Class 2 graphs. For the first two we establish the exact value of the circular chromatic index. For the next two, namely Goldberg and Isaacs snarks we derive an upper bound on this graph invariant. Finally, we consider the computational complexity of some problems related to circular edge coloring.     

Infinite Classes of Dihedral Snarks

Flower snarks and Goldberg snarks are two infinite families of cyclically 5–edge–connected cubic graphs with girth at least five and chromatic index four. For any odd integer k, k > 3, there is a Flower snark, say J _k , of order 4k and a Goldberg snark, say B _k , of order 8k. We determine the automorphism groups of J _k and B _k for every k and prove that they are isomorphic to the dihedral group D _4k of order 4k. Research performed within the activity of INdAM–GNSAGA with the financial support of the Italian Ministry MIUR, project “Strutture Geometriche, Combinatoria e loro Applicazioni”.     

Families of Dot-Product Snarks on Orientable Surfaces of Low Genus

We introduce a generalized dot product and provide some embedding conditions under which the genus of a graph does not rise under a dot product with the Petersen graph. Using these conditions, we disprove a conjecture of Tinsley and Watkins on the genus of dot products of the Petersen graph and show that both Grünbaum’s Conjecture and the Berge-Fulkerson Conjecture hold for certain infinite families of snarks. Additionally, we determine the orientable genus of four known snarks and two known snark families, construct a new example of an infinite family of snarks on the torus, and construct ten new examples of infinite families of snarks on the 2-holed torus; these last constructions allow us to show that there are genus-2 snarks of every even order n ≥ 18.     

A survey on snarks and new results: Products,reducibility and a computer search

In this paper we survey recent results and problems of both theoretical and algorithmic character on the construction of snarks—non-trivial cubic graphs of class two, of cyclic edge-connectivity at least 4 and with girth ≥ 5. We next study the process, also considered by Cameron, Chetwynd, Watkins, Isaacs, Nedela, and Sˇkoviera, of splitting a snark into smaller snarks which compose it. This motivates an attempt to classify snarks by recognizing irreducible and prime snarks and proving that all snarks can be constructed from them. As a consequence of these splitting operations, it follows that any snark (other than the Petersen graph) of order ≤ 26 can be built as either a dot product or a square product of two smaller snarks. Using a new computer algorithm we have confirmed the computations of Brinkmann and Steffen on the classification of all snarks of order less than 30. Our results recover the well-known classification of snarks of order not exceeding 22. Finally, we prove that any snark G of order ≤ 26 is almost Hamiltonian, in the sense that G has at least one vertex v for which G \ v is Hamiltonian. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 28: 57–86, 1998     

On characterizing Vizing's edge colouring bound

We consider multigraphs G for which equality holds in Vizing's classical edge colouring bound χ′(G)≤Δ + µ, where Δ denotes the maximum degree and µ denotes the maximum edge multiplicity of G. We show that if µ is bounded below by a logarithmic function of Δ, then G attains Vizing's bound if and only if there exists an odd subset S?V(G) with |S|≥3, such that |E[S]|>((|S| ? 1)/2)(Δ + µ ? 1). The famous Goldberg–Seymour conjecture states that this should hold for all µ≥2. We also prove a similar result concerning the edge colouring bound χ′(G)≤Δ + ?µ/?g/2??, due to Steffen (here g denotes the girth of the underlying graph). Finally we give a general approximation towards the Goldberg‐Seymour conjecture in terms of Δ and µ. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 69:160‐168, 2012     

Decomposition of snarks

There are several methods for constructing snarks (cubic graphs with chromatic index 4). We study the reverse process of splitting a snark into smaller snarks which compose it. We also introduce the notion of a “prime” snark.     

Fulkersonʼs Conjecture and Loupekine snarks

Fulkersonʼs Conjecture says that every bridgeless cubic graph has six perfect matchings such that each edge belongs to exactly two of them. In 1976, F. Loupekine created a method for constructing new snarks from already known ones. We consider an infinite family of snarks built with Loupekineʼs method, and verify Fulkersonʼs Conjecture for this family.     

Generation of Cubic Graphs and Snarks with Large Girth

We describe two new algorithms for the generation of all non‐isomorphic cubic graphs with girth at least that are very efficient for and show how these algorithms can be restricted to generate snarks with girth at least k. Our implementation of these algorithms is more than 30, respectively 40 times faster than the previously fastest generator for cubic graphs with girth at least six and seven, respectively. Using these generators we have also generated all nonisomorphic snarks with girth at least six up to 38 vertices and show that there are no snarks with girth at least seven up to 42 vertices. We present and analyze the new list of snarks with girth 6.     

Snarks and Flow-Critical Graphs

It is well-known that a 2-edge-connected cubic graph has a 3-edge-colouring if and only if it has a 4-flow. Snarks are usually regarded to be, in some sense, the minimal cubic graphs without a 3-edge-colouring. We defined the notion of 4-flow-critical graphs as an alternative concept towards minimal graphs. It turns out that every snark has a 4-flow-critical snark as a minor. We verify, surprisingly, that less than 5% of the snarks with up to 28 vertices are 4-flow-critical. On the other hand, there are infinitely many 4-flow-critical snarks, as every flower-snark is 4-flow-critical. These observations give some insight into a new research approach regarding Tutteʼs Flow Conjectures.     

A counterexample to the odd 2–factored snarks conjecture

A snark is a cubic cyclically 4–edge connected graph with edge chromatic number four and girth at least five. We say that a graph G is odd 2–factored if for each 2–factor F of G each cycle of F is odd. In this extended abstract, we present a method for constructing odd 2–factored snarks. In particular, we construct two families of odd 2–factored snarks of order 26 and 34 that disprove a previous conjecture by some of the authors.     

Altitude of regular graphs with girth at least five

The altitude of a graph G is the largest integer k such that for each linear ordering f of its edges, G has a (simple) path P of length k for which f increases along the edge sequence of P. We determine a necessary and sufficient condition for cubic graphs with girth at least five to have altitude three and show that for r?4, r-regular graphs with girth at least five have altitude at least four. Using this result we show that some snarks, including all but one of the Blanus?a type snarks, have altitude three while others, including the flower snarks, have altitude four. We construct an infinite class of 4-regular graphs with altitude four.     

Decompositions and reductions of snarks

According to M. Gardner [“Mathematical Games: Snarks, Boojums, and Other Conjectures Related to the Four-Color-Map Theorem,” Scientific American, vol. 234 (1976), pp. 126–130], a snark is a nontrivial cubic graph whose edges cannot be properly colored by three colors. The problem of what “nontrivial” means is implicitly or explicitly present in most papers on snarks, and is the main motivation of the present paper. Our approach to the discussion is based on the following observation. If G is a snark with a k-edge-cut producing components G₁ and G₂, then either one of G₁ and G₂ is not 3-edge-colorable, or by adding a “small” number of vertices to either component one can obtain snarks G₁ and G₂ whose order does not exceed that of G. The two situations lead to a definition of a k-reduction and k-decomposition of G. Snarks that for m < k do not admit m-reductions, m-decompositions, or both are k-irreducible, k-indecomposable, and k-simple, respectively. The irreducibility, indecomposability, and simplicity provide natural measures of nontriviality of snarks closely related to cyclic connectivity. The present paper is devoted to a detailed investigation of these invariants. The results give a complete characterization of irreducible snarks and characterizations of k-simple snarks for k ≤ 6. A number of problems that have arisen in this research conclude the paper. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Cayley Snarks and Almost Simple Groups

A Cayley snark is a cubic Cayley graph which is not 3-edge-colourable. In the paper we discuss the problem of the existence of Cayley snarks. This problem is closely related to the problem of the existence of non-hamiltonian Cayley graphs and to the question whether every Cayley graph admits a nowhere-zero 4-flow. So far, no Cayley snarks have been found. On the other hand, we prove that the smallest example of a Cayley snark, if it exists, comes either from a non-abelian simple group or from a group which has a single non-trivial proper normal subgroup. The subgroup must have index two and must be either non-abelian simple or the direct product of two isomorphic non-abelian simple groups. Received January 18, 2000 Research partially supported by VEGA grant 1/3213/96 Research partially supported by VEGA grants 1/3213/96 and 1/4318/97     

New conjectures on perfect matchings in cubic graphs

We propose three new conjectures on perfect matchings in cubic graphs. The weakest conjecture is implied by a well-known conjecture of Berge and Fulkerson. The other two conjectures are a strengthening of the first one. All conjectures are trivially verified for 3-edge-colorable cubic graphs and by computer for all snarks of order at most 34.     

关于共轭Goldberg问题的一点注记

对于(p,q)算子范数,我们考虑由Goldberg定义的常数c(称为Goldberg常数)的确定问题.该问题(即求常数c的精确值或它的一个可以达到的最小上界问题)由Moshe Goldberg于1986年提出,且至今仍未能彻底解决.本文给出了常数c的一个上界,改进了Goldberg在1986年所得出的结果.