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Perfect matchings of line graphs with small maximum degree

Combinatorics 2009-06-23 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

Let GG be a connected graph with vertex set V(G)={v1,v2,...,vν}V(G)=\{v_1,v_2,...,v_{\nu}\}, which may have multiple edges but have no loops, and 2dG(vi)32\leq d_G(v_i)\leq 3 for i=1,2,...,νi=1,2,...,\nu, where dG(v)d_G(v) denotes the degree of vertex vv of GG. We show that if GG has an even number of edges, then the number of perfect matchings of the line graph of GG equals 2n/2+12^{n/2+1}, where nn is the number of 3-degree vertices of GG. As a corollary, we prove that the number of perfect matchings of a connected cubic line graph with nn vertices equals 2n/6+12^{n/6+1} if n>4n>4, which implies the conjecture by Lov\'asz and Plummer holds for the connected cubic line graphs. As applications, we enumerate perfect matchings of the Kagom\'e lattices, 3.12.123.12.12 lattices, and Sierpinski gasket with dimension two in the context of statistical physics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.3873,
  title  = {Perfect matchings of line graphs with small maximum degree},
  author = {Weigen Yan and Fuji Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.3873},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

20 pages, 12 figures