English

Nowhere-zero flows on signed regular graphs

Combinatorics 2015-09-22 v4 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

We study the flow spectrum S(G){\cal S}(G) and the integer flow spectrum S(G)\overline{{\cal S}}(G) of signed (2t+1)(2t+1)-regular graphs. We show that if rS(G)r \in {\cal S}(G), then r=2+1tr = 2+\frac{1}{t} or r2+22t1r \geq 2 + \frac{2}{2t-1}. Furthermore, 2+1tS(G)2 + \frac{1}{t} \in {\cal S}(G) if and only if GG has a tt-factor. If GG has a 1-factor, then 3S(G)3 \in \overline{{\cal S}}(G), and for every t2t \geq 2, there is a signed (2t+1)(2t+1)-regular graph (H,σ)(H,\sigma) with 3S(H) 3 \in \overline{{\cal S}}(H) and HH does not have a 1-factor. If GG (K23)(\not = K_2^3) is a cubic graph which has a 1-factor, then {3,4}S(G)S(G)\{3,4\} \subseteq {\cal S}(G) \cap \overline{{\cal S}}(G). Furthermore, the following four statements are equivalent: (1) GG has a 1-factor. (2) 3S(G)3 \in {\cal S}(G). (3) 3S(G)3 \in \overline{{\cal S}}(G). (4) 4S(G)4 \in \overline{{\cal S}}(G). There are cubic graphs whose integer flow spectrum does not contain 5 or 6, and we construct an infinite family of bridgeless cubic graphs with integer flow spectrum {3,4,6}\{3,4,6\}. We show that there are signed graphs where the difference between the integer flow number and the flow number is greater than or equal to 1, disproving a conjecture of Raspaud and Zhu. The paper concludes with a proof of Bouchet's 6-flow conjecture for Kotzig-graphs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.1562,
  title  = {Nowhere-zero flows on signed regular graphs},
  author = {Michael Schubert and Eckhard Steffen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.1562},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

24 pages, 4 figures; final version; to appear in European J. Combinatorics

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:46:05.332Z