Search

A connected graph G with at least two vertices is matching covered if each of its edges lies in a perfect matching. We say that an edge e in a matching covered graph G is removable if G-e is matching covered. A pair {e; f} of edges of a matching covered graph G is a removable doubleton if G-e-f is matching covered, but neither G-e nor G-f is. Removable edges and removable doubletons are called removable classes, introduced by Lovasz and Plummer in connection with ear decompositions of matching covered graphs. A 3-connected graph is a brick if the removal of any two distinct vertices, the left graph has a perfect matching. A brick G is wheel-like if G has a vertex h, such that every removable class of G has an edge incident with h. Lucchesi and Murty proposed a problem of characterizing wheel-like bricks. We show that every wheel-like brick may be obtained by splicing graphs whose underlying simple graphs are odd wheels in a certain manner. A matching covered graph is minimal if the removal of any edge, the left graph is not matching covered. Lovasz and Plummer proved that the minimum degree of a minimal matching covered bipartite graph different from K2 is 2 by ear decompositions in 1977. By the properties of wheel-like bricks, we prove that the minimum degree of a minimal matching covered graph other than K2 is 2 or 3.

A connected graph G is matching covered if every edge lies in some perfect matching of G. Lovasz proved that every matching covered graph G can be uniquely decomposed into a list of bricks (nonbipartite) and braces (bipartite) up to multiple edges. Denote by b(G) the number of bricks of G. An edge e of G is removable if G-e is also matching covered, and solitary (or forcing) if after the removal of the two end vertices of e, the left graph has a unique perfect matching. Furthermore, a removable edge e of a brick G is b-invariant if b(G-e) = 1. Lucchesi and Murty proposed a problem of characterizing bricks, distinct from K4, the prism and the Petersen graph, in which every b-invariant edge is forcing. We answer the problem for cubic bricks by showing that there are exactly ten cubic bricks, including K4, the prism and the Petersen graph, every b-invariant edge of which is forcing., Comment: 15 pages,10 figures

An edge e in a matching covered graph G is removable if G-e is matching covered; a pair {e; f} of edges of G is a removable doubleton if G-e-f is matching covered, but neither G-e nor G-f is. Removable edges and removable doubletons are called removable classes, which was introduced by Lovasz and Plummer in connection with ear decompositions of matching covered graphs. A brick is a nonbipartite matching covered graph without nontrivial tight cuts. A brick G is wheel-like if G has a vertex h, such that every removable class of G has an edge incident with h. Lucchesi and Murty conjectured that every planar wheel-like brick is an odd wheel. We present a proof of this conjecture in this paper.

A 3-connected graph is a brick if the graph obtained from it by deleting any two distinct vertices has a perfect matching. The importance of bricks stems from the fact that they are building blocks of the matching decomposition procedure of Kotzig, and Lovasz and Plummer. Lucchesi and Murty conjectured that there exists a positive integer N such that for every n>N, every brick on n vertices has at least n-1 perfect matchings. We present an infinite family of bricks such that for each even integer n (n > 17), there exists a brick with n vertices in this family that contains [0:625n] perfect matchings, showing that this conjecture fails.

An edge $e$ of a matching covered graph $G$ is removable if $G-e$ is also matching covered. The notion of removable edge arises in connection with ear decompositions of matching covered graphs introduced by Lov\'asz and Plummer. A nonbipartite matching covered graph $G$ is a brick if it is free of nontrivial tight cuts. Carvalho, Lucchesi, and Murty proved that every brick other than $K_4$ and $\overline{C_6}$ has at least $\Delta-2$ removable edges. A brick $G$ is near-bipartite if it has a pair of edges $\{e_1,e_2\}$ such that $G-\{e_1,e_2\}$ is a bipartite matching covered graph. In this paper, we show that in a near-bipartite brick $G$ with at least six vertices, every vertex of $G$, except at most six vertices of degree three contained in two disjoint triangles, is incident with at most two nonremovable edges; consequently, $G$ has at least $\frac{|V(G)|-6}{2}$ removable edges. Moreover, all graphs attaining this lower bound are characterized., Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure

A graph $G$ of order $n$ is said to be $k$-factor-critical for integers $1\leq k< n$, if the removal of any $k$ vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. A $k$-factor-critical graph is minimal if for every edge, the deletion of it results in a graph that is not $k$-factor-critical. In 1998, O. Favaron and M. Shi conjectured that every minimal $k$-factor-critical graph has minimum degree $k+1$. In this paper, we confirm the conjecture for minimal $k$-factor-critical claw-free graphs. Moreover, we show that every minimal $k$-factor-critical claw-free graph $G$ has at least $\frac{k-1}{2k}|V(G)|$ vertices of degree $k+1$ in the case of $(k+1)$-connected, yielding further evidence for S. Norine and R. Thomas' conjecture on the minimum degree of minimal bricks when $k=2$., Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures

Let $N\geq 2$ be an integer, a (1, $N$)-periodic graph $G$ is a periodic graph whose vertices can be partitioned into two sets $V_1=\{v\mid\sigma(v)=v\}$ and $V_2=\{v\mid\sigma^i(v)\neq v\ \mbox{for any}\ 1

An edge cut $C$ of a graph $G$ is {\it tight} if $|C \cap M|=1$ for every perfect matching $M$ of $G$.~Barrier cuts and 2-separation cuts are called {\it ELP-cuts}, which are two important types of tight cuts in matching covered graphs.~Edmonds, Lov\'asz and Pulleyblank proved that if a matching covered graph has a nontrivial tight cut, then it also has a nontrivial ELP-cut.~Carvalho, Lucchesi, and Murty made a stronger conjecture: given any nontrivial tight cut $C$ in a matching covered graph $G$, there exists a nontrivial ELP-cut $D$ in $G$ which does not cross $C$.~We confirm the conjecture in this paper., Comment: This version submitted to publication to JCT-B in September, 2019

A {\em brick} is a non-bipartite matching covered graph without non-trivial tight cuts. Bricks are building blocks of matching covered graphs. We say that an edge $e$ in a brick $G$ is {\em $b$-invariant} if $G-e$ is matching covered and a tight cut decomposition of $G-e$ contains exactly one brick. A 2-edge-connected cubic graph is {\em essentially 4-edge-connected} if it does not contain nontrivial 3-cuts. A brick $G$ is {\em near-bipartite} if it has a pair of edges $\{e_1, e_2\}$ such that $G-\{e_1,e_2\}$ is bipartite and matching covered. Kothari, de Carvalho, Lucchesi and Little proved that each essentially 4-edge-connected cubic non-near-bipartite brick $G$, distinct from the Petersen graph, has at least $|V(G)|$ $b$-invariant edges. Moreover, they made a conjecture: every essentially 4-edge-connected cubic near-bipartite brick $G$, distinct from $K_4$, has at least $|V(G)|/2$ $b$-invariant edges. We confirm the conjecture in this paper. Furthermore, all the essentially 4-edge-connected cubic near-bipartite bricks, the numbers of $b$-invariant edges of which attain the lower bound, are presented.

A connected graph $G$, of order two or more, is matching covered if each edge lies in some \pema. The tight cut decomposition of a matching covered graph $G$ yields a list of bricks and braces; as per a theorem of Lov{\'a}sz~\cite{lova87}, this list is unique (up to multiple edges); $b(G)$ denotes the number of bricks, and $c_4(G)$ denotes the number of braces that are isomorphic to the cycle $C_4$ (up to multiple edges). Two edges $e$ and $f$ are mutually dependent if, for each perfect matching $M$, $e \in M$ if and only if $f \in M$; Carvalho, Lucchesi and Murty investigated this notion in their landmark paper~\cite{clm99}. For any matching covered graph $G$, mutual dependence is an equivalence relation, and it partitions $E(G)$ into equivalence classes; this equivalence class partition is denoted by $\mathcal{E}_G$ and we refer to its parts as equivalence classes of $G$; we use $\varepsilon(G)$ to denote the cardinality of the largest equivalence class. The operation of `splicing' may be used to construct bigger matching covered graphs from smaller ones; see~\cite{lckm18}; `tight splicing' is a stronger version of `splicing'. (These are converses of the notions of `separating cut' and `tight cut'.) In this article, we answer the following basic question: if a matching covered graph $G$ is obtained by `splicing' (or by `tight splicing') two smaller matching covered graphs, say~$G_1$~and~$G_2$, then how is $\mathcal{E}_G$ related to $\mathcal{E}_{G_1}$ and to $\mathcal{E}_{G_2}$ (and vice versa)? As applications of our findings: firstly, we establish tight upper bounds on $\varepsilon(G)$ in terms of $b(G)$ and $c_4(G)$; secondly, we answer a recent question of He, Wei, Ye and Zhai~\cite{hwyz19}, in the affirmative, by constructing graphs that have arbitrarily high $\kappa(G)$~and~$\varepsilon(G)$ simultaneously, where $\kappa(G)$ denotes the vertex-connectivity.

Given a graph $G$, denote by $\Delta$ and $\chi^\prime$ the maximum degree and the chromatic index of $G$, respectively. A simple graph $G$ is called {\it edge-$\Delta$-critical} if $\chi^\prime(G)=\Delta+1$ and $\chi^\prime(H)\le\Delta$ for every proper subgraph $H$ of $G$. We proved that every edge chromatic critical graph of order $n$ with maximum degree at least $\frac{2n}{3}+12$ is Hamiltonian., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1708.01279

Given a graph $G$, denote by $\Delta$, $\bar{d}$ and $\chi^\prime$ the maximum degree, the average degree and the chromatic index of $G$, respectively. A simple graph $G$ is called {\it edge-$\Delta$-critical} if $\chi^\prime(G)=\Delta+1$ and $\chi^\prime(H)\le\Delta$ for every proper subgraph $H$ of $G$. Vizing in 1968 conjectured that if $G$ is edge-$\Delta$-critical, then $\bar{d}\geq \Delta-1+ \frac{3}{n}$. We show that $$ \begin{displaystyle} \avd \ge \begin{cases} 0.69241\D-0.15658 \quad\,\: \mbox{ if } \Delta\geq 66, 0.69392\D-0.20642\quad\;\,\mbox{ if } \Delta=65, \mbox{ and } 0.68706\D+0.19815\quad\! \quad\mbox{if } 56\leq \Delta\leq64. \end{cases} \end{displaystyle} $$ This result improves the best known bound $\frac{2}{3}(\Delta +2)$ obtained by Woodall in 2007 for $\Delta \geq 56$. Additionally, Woodall constructed an infinite family of graphs showing his result cannot be improved by well-known Vizing's Adjacency Lemma and other known edge-coloring techniques. To over come the barrier, we follow the recently developed recoloring technique of Tashkinov trees to expand Vizing fans technique to a larger class of trees., Comment: 23 pages