Related papers: Cubic graphs with colouring defect 3
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Many conjectures and open problems in graph theory can either be reduced to cubic graphs or are directly stated for cubic graphs. Furthermore, it is known that for a lot of problems, a counterexample must be a snark, i.e. a bridgeless cubic…
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…
We introduce a new invariant of a cubic graph - its regular colouring defect - which is defined as the smallest number of edges left uncovered by any collection of three perfect matchings that have no edge in common. This invariant is a…
There are many hard conjectures in graph theory, like Tutte's 5-flow conjecture, and the 5-cycle double cover conjecture, which would be true in general if they would be true for cubic graphs. Since most of them are trivially true for…
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…
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…
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…
The essential requirement for a cubic graph to be called a snark is that it can not be edge-coloured with three colours. To avoid trivial cases, varying restrictions on the connectivity are imposed. Snarks are not only interesting in…
In this paper we further our understanding of the structure of class two cubic graphs, or snarks, as they are commonly known. We do this by investigating their 3-critical subgraphs, or as we will call them, minimal conflicting subgraphs. We…
A normal 5-edge-coloring of a cubic graph is a coloring such that for every edge the number of distinct colors incident to its end-vertices is 3 or 5 (and not 4). The well known Petersen Coloring Conjecture is equivalent to the statement…
A snark is a bridgeless cubic graph which is not 3-edge-colourable. The oddness of a bridgeless cubic graph is the minimum number of odd components in any 2-factor of the graph. Lukot'ka, M\'acajov\'a, Maz\'ak and \v{S}koviera showed in…
For many of the unsolved problems concerning cycles and matchings in graphs it is known that it is sufficient to prove them for \emph{snarks}, the class of nontrivial 3-regular graphs which cannot be 3-edge coloured. In the first part of…
In this note we construct two infinite snark families which have high oddness and low circumference compared to the number of vertices. Using this construction, we also give a counterexample to a suggested strengthening of Fulkerson's…
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…
In a (proper) edge-coloring of a bridgeless cubic graph G an edge e is rich (resp. poor) if the number of colors of all edges incident to end-vertices of e is 5 (resp. 3). An edge-coloring of G is is normal if every edge of G is either rich…
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…