Related papers: Covering a cubic graph with perfect matchings
If $G$ is a bridgeless cubic graph, Fulkerson conjectured that we can find 6 perfect matchings $M_1,...,M_6$ of $G$ with the property that every edge of $G$ is contained in exactly two of them and Berge conjectured that its edge set can be…
A conjecture of Berge suggests that every bridgeless cubic graph can have its edges covered with at most five perfect matchings. Since three perfect matchings suffice only when the graph in question is $3$-edge-colourable, the rest of cubic…
Berge Conjecture states that every bridgeless cubic graph has 5 perfect matchings such that each edge is contained in at least one of them. In this paper, we show that Berge Conjecture holds for two classes of cubic graphs, cubic graphs…
A conjecture of Berge and Fulkerson (1971) states that every cubic bridgeless graph contains 6 perfect matchings covering each edge precisely twice, which easily implies that every cubic bridgeless graph has three perfect matchings with…
If $G$ is a bridgeless cubic graph, Fulkerson conjectured that we can find 6 perfect matchings (a{\em Fulkerson covering}) with the property that every edge of $G$ is contained in exactly two of them. A consequence of the Fulkerson…
The perfect matching index of a cubic graph $G$, denoted by $\pi(G)$, is the smallest number of perfect matchings that cover all the edges of $G$. According to the Berge-Fulkerson conjecture, $\pi(G)\le5$ for every bridgeless cubic…
For a bridgeless cubic graph $G$, $m_3(G)$ is the ratio of the maximum number of edges of $G$ covered by the union of $3$ perfect matchings to $|E(G)|$. We prove that for any $r\in [4/5, 1)$, there exist infinitely many cubic graphs $G$…
Let $G$ be a bridgeless cubic graph. The Berge--Fulkerson Conjecture (1970s) states that $G$ admits a list of six perfect matchings such that each edge of $G$ belongs to exactly two of these perfect matchings. If answered in the…
We study two measures of uncolourability of cubic graphs, their colouring defect and perfect matching index. The colouring defect of a cubic graph $G$ is the smallest number of edges left uncovered by three perfect matchings; the perfect…
The classical Berge-Fulkerson conjecture states that any bridgeless cubic graph $G$ admits a list of six perfect matchings such that each edge of $G$ belongs to two of the perfect matchings from the list. In this short note, we discuss two…
A long-standing conjecture of Berge suggests that every bridgeless cubic graph can be expressed as a union of at most five perfect matchings. This conjecture trivially holds for $3$-edge-colourable cubic graphs, but remains widely open for…
We show that every cubic bridgeless graph with n vertices has at least 3n/4-10 perfect matchings. This is the first bound that differs by more than a constant from the maximal dimension of the perfect matching polytope.
Petersen's seminal work in 1891 asserts that the edge-set of a cubic graph can be covered by distinct perfect matchings if and only if it is bridgeless. Actually, it is known that for a very large fraction of bridgeless cubic graphs, every…
The problem of establishing the number of perfect matchings necessary to cover the edge-set of a cubic bridgeless graph is strictly related to a famous conjecture of Berge and Fulkerson. In this paper we prove that deciding whether this…
We show that every cubic bridgeless graph G has at least 2^(|V(G)|/3656) perfect matchings. This confirms an old conjecture of Lovasz and Plummer. This version of the paper uses a different definition of a burl from the journal version of…
The Berge-Fulkerson conjecture states that every bridgeless cubic graph can be covered with six perfect matchings such that each edge is covered exactly twice. An equivalent reformulation is that it's possible to find a 6-cycle 4-cover. In…
It is proved that for $n \geq 6$, the number of perfect matchings in a simple connected cubic graph on $2n$ vertices is at most $4 f_{n-1}$, with $f_n$ being the $n$-th Fibonacci number. The unique extremal graph is characterized as well.…
A conjecture of Fan and Raspaud [3] asserts that every bridgeless cubic graph con-tains three perfect matchings with empty intersection. Kaiser and Raspaud [6] sug-gested a possible approach to this problem based on the concept of a…
We discuss the question whether the existence of perfect matchings in a cubic graph can be seen from the spectrum of its adjacency matrix. For regular graphs in general and for three edge-disjoint perfect matchings in a cubic graph (that…
Let m be a positive integer and let G be a cubic graph of order 2n. We consider the problem of covering the edge-set of G with the minimum number of matchings of size m. This number is called excessive [m]-index of G in literature. The case…