English

Degree sequences realizing labelled perfect matchings

Combinatorics 2025-10-02 v1

Abstract

Let nNn\in \mathbb{N} and d1d2dn1d_1 \geq d_2 \geq d_n\geq 1 be integers. There is characterization of when (d1,d1,,dn)(d_1, d_1, \ldots, d_n) is the degree sequence of a graph containing a perfect matching, due to results of Lov\'{a}sz (1974) and Erd\H{o}s and Gallai (1960). But \emph{which} perfect matchings can be realized in the labelled graph? Here we find the extremal answers to this question, showing that the sequence (d1,d2,,dn)(d_1, d_2, \ldots, d_n): (1) can realize a perfect matching iff it can realize {(1,n),(2,n1),,(n/2,n/2+1)}\{(1, n), (2,n-1), \ldots, (n/2, n/2+1)\}, and; (2) can realize any perfect matching iff it can realize {(1,2),(3,4),,(n1,n)}\{(1, 2), (3,4), \ldots, (n-1, n)\}. Our main result is a characterization of when (2) occurs, extending the work of Lov\'{a}sz and Erd\H{o}s and Gallai. Separately, we are also able to establish a conjecture of Yin and Busch, Ferrera, Hartke, Jacobsen, Kaul, and West about packing graphic sequences, establishing a degree-sequence analog of the Sauer-Spencer packing theorem. We conjecture an hh-factor analog of our main result, and discuss implications for packing hh disjoint perfect matchings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.01110,
  title  = {Degree sequences realizing labelled perfect matchings},
  author = {Joseph Briggs and Jessica McDonald and Songling Shan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.01110},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T06:11:09.148Z