Related papers: Quest for graphs of Frank number $3$

An edge $e$ of a graph $G$ is called deletable for some orientation $o$ if the restriction of $o$ to $G-e$ is a strong orientation. Inspired by a problem of Frank, in 2021 H\"orsch and Szigeti proposed a new parameter for $3$-edge-connected…

In an orientation $O$ of the graph $G$, an arc $e$ is deletable if and only if $O-e$ is strongly connected. For a $3$-edge-connected graph $G$, the Frank number is the minimum $k$ for which $G$ admits $k$ strongly connected orientations…

We attempt to generalize a theorem of Nash-Williams stating that a graph has a $k$-arc-connected orientation if and only if it is $2k$-edge-connected. In a strongly connected digraph we call an arc {\it deletable} if its deletion leaves a…

A graph $G$ is $k$-{\em critical} if it has chromatic number $k$, but every proper subgraph of $G$ is $(k-1)$--colorable. Let $f_k(n)$ denote the minimum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $k$-critical graph. In a very recent paper, we gave a…

The colouring defect of a cubic graph, introduced by Steffen in 2015, is the minimum number of edges that are left uncovered by any set of three perfect matchings. Since a cubic graph has defect $0$ if and only if it is $3$-edge-colourable,…

Let $G$ and $H$ be simple 3-connected graphs such that $G$ has an $H$-minor. An edge $e$ in $G$ is called {\it $H$-deletable} if $G\backslash e$ is 3-connected and has an $H$-minor. The main result in this paper establishes that, if $G$ has…

The oddness of a cubic graph is the smallest number of odd circuits in a 2-factor of the graph. This invariant is widely considered to be one of the most important measures of uncolourability of cubic graphs and as such has been repeatedly…

The colouring defect of a cubic graph is the smallest number of edges left uncovered by any set of three perfect matchings. While $3$-edge-colourable graphs have defect $0$, those that cannot be $3$-edge-coloured (that is, snarks) are known…

A graph G is called (2k, k)-connected if G is 2k-edge-connected and G-v is k-edge-connected for every vertex v. The study of (2k, k)-connected graphs is motivated by a conjecture of Frank which states that a graph has a 2-vertex-connected…

We estimate the minimum number of vertices of a cubic graph with given oddness and cyclic connectivity. We prove that a bridgeless cubic graph $G$ with oddness $\omega(G)$ other than the Petersen graph has at least $5.41\cdot\omega(G)$…

The family of snarks -- connected bridgeless cubic graphs that cannot be 3-edge-coloured -- is well-known as a potential source of counterexamples to several important and long-standing conjectures in graph theory. These include the cycle…

Let $G$ be a $3$-connected graph with a $3$-connected (or sufficiently small) simple minor $H$. We establish that $G$ has a forest $F$ with at least $\left\lceil(|G|-|H|+1)/2\right\rceil$ edges such that $G/e$ is $3$-connected with an…

A tree $T$ in an edge-colored graph is a {\it proper tree} if no two adjacent edges of $T$ receive the same color. Let $G$ be a connected graph of order $n$ and $k$ be a fixed integer with $2\le k\le n$. For a vertex subset $S \subseteq…

A 3-graph $\mathcal{F}$ is \emph{$U(s, 2s+1)$} if for any $s$ edges $e_1,...,e_s\in E(\mathcal{F})$, $|e_1\cup...\cup e_s|\leq 2s+1$. Frankl and Kupavskii (2020) proposed the following conjecture: For any $3$-graph $\mathcal{F}$ with $n$…

Snarks are $2$-connected cubic graphs that do not admit a proper $3$-edge-coloring. For a cubic graph $G$, its resistance $r(G)$ is the minimum number of edges whose removal results in a $3$-edge-colorable graph, while its flow resistance…

For a given snark G and edge e of G, we can form a cubic graph G_e using an operation we call "edge subtraction". The number of 3-edge-colourings of G_e is 18 * \psi(G,e) for some nonnegative integer \psi(G,e). Given snarks G_1 and G_2, we…

An {\em odd subgraph} of a graph is a subgraph in which every vertex has odd degree. A graph $G$ is said to be {\em odd $k$-edge-colorable} if there exists an edge-coloring $E(G) \rightarrow \{1,2, \ldots, k\}$ such that each non-empty…

A bridgeless cubic graph $G$ is said to have a 2-bisection if there exists a 2-vertex-colouring of $G$ (not necessarily proper) such that: (i) the colour classes have the same cardinality, and (ii) the monochromatic components are either an…

Let $G$ be a bridgeless cubic graph. The \textit{resistance} of $G$, denoted $r(G)$, is the minimum number of edges which can be removed from $G$ in order to render 3-edge-colourability. The \textit{oddness} of $G$, denoted $\omega(G)$, is…

An oriented graph $\overrightarrow{G}$ is pushably $k$-critical if it is not pushably $k$-colorable, but every proper subgraph of $\overrightarrow{G}$ is. The main result of this article is that every pushably $3$-critical oriented graph on…