Results on <Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>-continuous graphs

For any nontrivial connected graph F and any graph G, the F-degree of a vertex v in G is the number of copies of F in G containing v. G is called F-continuous if and only if the F-degrees of any two adjacent vertices in G differ by at most 1; G is F-regular if the F-degrees of all vertices in G are the same. This paper classifies all P ₄-continuous graphs with girth greater than 3. We show that for any nontrivial connected graph F other than the star K _1,k , k ⩾ 1, there exists a regular graph that is not F-continuous. If F is 2-connected, then there exists a regular F-continuous graph that is not F-regular.      

Nowhere-Zero 5-Flows and Even (1,2)-Factors

A graph G = (V, E) admits a nowhere-zero k-flow if there exists an orientation H = (V, A) of G and an integer flow ${\varphi:A \to \mathbb{Z}}$ such that for all ${a \in A, 0 < |\varphi(a)| < k}$ . Tutte conjectured that every bridgeless graphs admits a nowhere-zero 5-flow. A (1,2)-factor of G is a set ${F \subseteq E}$ such that the degree of any vertex v in the subgraph induced by F is 1 or 2. Let us call an edge of G, F-balanced if either it belongs to F or both its ends have the same degree in F. Call a cycle of G F-even if it has an even number of F-balanced edges. A (1,2)-factor F of G is even if each cycle of G is F-even. The main result of the paper is that a cubic graph G admits a nowhere-zero 5-flow if and only if G has an even (1,2)-factor.     

Almost all 5-regular graphs have a 3-flow

Tutte conjectured in 1972 that every 4-edge–connected graph has a nowhere-zero 3-flow. This has long been known to be equivalent to the conjecture that every 5-regular 4-edge–connected graph has an edge orientation in which every in-degree is either 1 or 4. We show that the assertion of the conjecture holds asymptotically almost surely for random 5-regular graphs. It follows that the conjecture holds for almost all 4-edge–connected 5-regular graphs.     

Extensions on 2-edge connected 3-regular up-embeddable graphs

1.IntroductionLetHbea3-regulargraph.Forel,e2,e3EE(H)(el,eZande3areallowedtobethesame),weaddthreenewvenicesal)wZandw3inel,eZande3respectively.ChoosingueV(H),andthenjoiningutofi(i=1,2,3),weatlastobtaina3-regulargraphG.Or,inotherwords,wesaythatGisobtainedfromHbyanM-extension.DenoteG=M(u)(H)(seeFig.1).LetHbea3-regulargraph.Takingel,eZEE(H)(elandeZareallowedtobethesame),weputtwodistinctvenicestvian0dwZinelandeZrespectively,andaddtwodistinctvenicesu,v4V(H),thenjoinutoal,joinvtowZandjoin…     

Uniqueness of maximal dominating cycles in 3-regular graphs and of hamiltonian cycles in 4-regular graphs

We construct 3-regular (cubic) graphs G that have a dominating cycle C such that no other cycle C₁ of G satisfies V(C) ? V(C₁). By a similar construction we obtain loopless 4-regular graphs having precisely one hamiltonian cycle. The basis for these constructions are considerations on the uniqueness of a cycle decomposition compatible with a given eulerian trail in some eulerian graph.     

Minimum cycle coverings and integer flows

It was conjectured by Fan that if a graph G = (V,E) has a nowhere-zero 3-flow, then G can be covered by two even subgraphs of total size at most |V| + |E| - 3. This conjecture is proved in this paper. It is also proved in this paper that the optimum solution of the Chinese postman problem and the solution of minimum cycle covering problem are equivalent for any graph admitting a nowhere-zero 4-flow.     

Tutte’s 5-flow conjecture for highly cyclically connected cubic graphs

In 1954, Tutte conjectured that every bridgeless graph has a nowhere-zero 5-flow. Let ω(G) be the minimum number of odd cycles in a 2-factor of a bridgeless cubic graph G. Tutte’s conjecture is equivalent to its restriction to cubic graphs with ω≥2. We show that if a cubic graph G has no edge cut with fewer than edges that separates two odd cycles of a minimum 2-factor of G, then G has a nowhere-zero 5-flow. This implies that if a cubic graph G is cyclically n-edge connected and , then G has a nowhere-zero 5-flow.     

Non-separating 2-factors of an even-regular graph

For a 2-factor F of a connected graph G, we consider G−F, which is the graph obtained from G by removing all the edges of F. If G−F is connected, F is said to be a non-separating 2-factor. In this paper we study a sufficient condition for a 2r-regular connected graph G to have such a 2-factor. As a result, we show that a 2r-regular connected graph G has a non-separating 2-factor whenever the number of vertices of G does not exceed 2r²+r.     

Perfect double covers with paths of length four

It is shown that for any 4-regular graph G there is a collection F of paths of length 4 such that each edge of G belongs to exactly two of the paths and each vertex of G occurs exactly twice as an endvertex of a path of F. This proves a special case of a conjecture of Bondy. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On the vertex face total chromatic number of planar graphs

Let G be a planar graph. The vertex face total chromatic number _χ13(G) of G is the least number of colors assigned to V(G)∪F(G) such that no adjacent or incident elements receive the same color. The main results of this paper are as follows: (1) We give the vertex face total chromatic number for all outerplanar graphs and modulus 3-regular maximal planar graphs. (2) We prove that if G is a maximal planar graph or a lower degree planar graph, i.e., ∠(G) ≤ 3, then _χ13(G) ≤ 6. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Tutte's 5-flow conjecture for the projective plane

Heawood proved that every planar graph with no 1-cycles is vertex 5-colorable, which is equivalent to the statement that every planar graph with no 1-bonds has a nowhere-zero 5-flow. Tutte has conjectured that every graph with no 1-bonds has a nowhere-zero 5-flow. We show that Tutte's 5-Flow Conjecture is true for all graphs embeddable in the real projective plane.     

Acyclic vertex coloring of graphs of maximum degree 5

An acyclic vertex coloring of a graph is a proper vertex coloring such that there are no bichromatic cycles. The acyclic chromatic number of G, denoted a(G), is the minimum number of colors required for acyclic vertex coloring of graph G. For a family F of graphs, the acyclic chromatic number of F, denoted by a(F), is defined as the maximum a(G) over all the graphs G∈F. In this paper we show that a(F)=8 where F is the family of graphs of maximum degree 5 and give a linear time algorithm to achieve this bound.     

Hamilton decompositions of some line graphs

The main result of this paper completely settles Bermond's conjecture for bipartite graphs of odd degree by proving that if G is a bipartite (2k + 1)-regular graph that is Hamilton decomposable, then the line graph, L(G), of G is also Hamilton decomposable. A similar result is obtained for 5-regular graphs, thus providing further evidence to support Bermond's conjecture. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An upper bound for domination number of 5-regular graphs

Let G = (V, E) be a simple graph. A subset S ⊆ V is a dominating set of G, if for any vertex u ∈ V-S, there exists a vertex v ∈ S such that uv ∈ E. The domination number, denoted by γ(G), is the minimum cardinality of a dominating set. In this paper we will prove that if G is a 5-regular graph, then γ(G) ⩽ 5/14n.     

Cycle covers of graphs with a nowhere-zero 4-flow

It is shown that the edges of a simple graph with a nowhere-zero 4-flow can be covered with cycles such that the sum of the lengths of the cycles is at most |E(G)| + |V(G)| ?3. This solves a conjecture proposed by G. Fan.     

Decomposition of the Flow Polynomial

The flow polynomials denote the number of nowhere-zero flows on graphs, and are related to the well-known Tutte polynomials and chromatic polynomials. We will show the decomposition of the flow polynomials by edge-cuts and vertex-cuts of size 2 or 3. Moreover by using this decomposition, we will consider what kind of graphs have the same flow polynomials. Another application of the decomposition results is that if a bridgeless graph G does not admit a nowhere-zero k-flow and G has a small vertex- or edge-cut, then a proper bridgeless subgraph of G (a graph minor) does not admit a nowhere-zero k-flow either.     

Three-regular subgraphs of four-regular graphs

Berge conjectured that every finite simple 4-regular graph G contains a 3-regular subgraph. We prove that this conjecture is true if the cyclic edge connectivity λ^c(G) of G is at least 10. Also we prove that if G is a smallest counterexample, then λ^c(G) is either 6 or 8.     

A Note on 5-Cycle Double Covers

The strong cycle double cover conjecture states that for every circuit C of a bridgeless cubic graph G, there is a cycle double cover of G which contains C. We conjecture that there is even a 5-cycle double cover S of G which contains C, i.e. C is a subgraph of one of the five 2-regular subgraphs of S. We prove a necessary and sufficient condition for a 2-regular subgraph to be contained in a 5-cycle double cover of G.     

Adjacent strong edge colorings and total colorings of regular graphs

It is conjectured that χas(G) = χt(G) for every k-regular graph G with no C5 component (k 2). This conjecture is shown to be true for many classes of graphs, including: graphs of type 1; 2-regular, 3-regular and (|V (G)| - 2)-regular graphs; bipartite graphs; balanced complete multipartite graphs; k-cubes; and joins of two matchings or cycles.     

Well-covered graphs and factors

A maximum independent set of vertices in a graph is a set of pairwise nonadjacent vertices of largest cardinality α. Plummer [Some covering concepts in graphs, J. Combin. Theory 8 (1970) 91-98] defined a graph to be well-covered, if every independent set is contained in a maximum independent set of G. Every well-covered graph G without isolated vertices has a perfect [1,2]-factor F_G, i.e. a spanning subgraph such that each component is 1-regular or 2-regular. Here, we characterize all well-covered graphs G satisfying α(G)=α(F_G) for some perfect [1,2]-factor F_G. This class contains all well-covered graphs G without isolated vertices of order n with α?(n-1)/2, and in particular all very well-covered graphs.