Cycle reversals in oriented plane quadrangulations and orthogonal plane partitions

Aplane quadrangulation G is a simple plane graph such that each face ofG is quadrilateral. A (^*) -orientation D^*(G) ofG is an orientation ofG such that the outdegree of each vertex on G is 1 and the outdegrees of other vertices are all 2, where G denotes the outer 4-cycle ofG. In this paper, we shall show that every plane quadrangulationG has at least one (^*)-orientation. We also show that any two (*)-orientations ofG can be transformed into one another by a sequence of 4-cycle reversals. Moreover, we apply this fact toorthogonal plane partitions, which are partitions of a square into rectangles by straight segments.A research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.