Cubic Graphs with Large Circumference Deficit

The circumference of a graph G is the length of a longest cycle. By exploiting our recent results on resistance of snarks, we construct infinite classes of cyclically 4‐, 5‐, and 6‐edge‐connected cubic graphs with circumference ratio bounded from above by 0.876, 0.960, and 0.990, respectively. In contrast, the dominating cycle conjecture implies that the circumference ratio of a cyclically 4‐edge‐connected cubic graph is at least 0.75. Up to our knowledge, no upper bounds on this ratio have been known before for cubic graphs with cyclic edge‐connectivity above 3. In addition, we construct snarks with large girth and large circumference deficit, solving Problem 1 proposed in [J. Hägglund and K. Markström, On stable cycles and cycle double covers of graphs with large circumference, Disc Math 312 (2012), 2540–2544].