English

On $2$-cycles of graphs

Combinatorics 2022-12-06 v5

Abstract

Let G=(V,E)G=(V,E) be a finite undirected graph. Orient the edges of GG in an arbitrary way. A 22-cycle on GG is a function d:E2Zd : E^2\to \mathbb{Z} such for each edge ee, d(e,)d(e, \cdot) and d(,e)d(\cdot, e) are circulations on GG, and d(e,f)=0d(e, f) = 0 whenever ee and ff have a common vertex. We show that each 22-cycle is a sum of three special types of 22-cycles: cycle-pair 22-cycles, Kuratowski 22-cycles, and quad 22-cycles. In case that the graph is Kuratowski connected, we show that each 22-cycle is a sum of cycle-pair 22-cycles and at most one Kuratowski 22-cycle. Furthermore, if GG is Kuratowski connected, we characterize when every Kuratowski 22-cycle is a sum of cycle-pair 22-cycles. A 22-cycles dd on GG is skew-symmetric if d(e,f)=d(f,e)d(e,f) = -d(f,e) for all edges e,fEe,f\in E. We show that each 22-cycle is a sum of two special types of skew-symmetric 22-cycles: skew-symmetric cycle-pair 22-cycles and skew-symmetric quad 22-cycles. In case that the graph is Kuratowski connected, we show that each skew-symmetric 22-cycle is a sum of skew-symmetric cycle-pair 22-cycles. Similar results like this had previously been obtained by one of the authors for symmetric 22-cycles. Symmetric 22-cycles are 22-cycles dd such that d(e,f)=d(f,e)d(e,f)=d(f,e) for all edges e,fEe,f\in E.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1711.04232,
  title  = {On $2$-cycles of graphs},
  author = {Serguei Norine and Robin Thomas and Hein van der Holst},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.04232},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:43:13.144Z