Related papers: Path decompositions of oriented graphs

We consider the problem of decomposing the edges of a directed graph into as few paths as possible. There is a natural lower bound for the number of paths needed in an edge decomposition of a directed graph $D$ in terms of its degree…

In 1976, Alspach, Mason, and Pullman conjectured that any tournament $T$ of even order can be decomposed into exactly ${\rm ex}(T)$ paths, where ${\rm ex}(T):= \frac{1}{2}\sum_{v\in V(T)}|d_T^+(v)-d_T^-(v)|$. We prove this conjecture for…

We consider a generalisation of Kelly's conjecture which is due to Alspach, Mason, and Pullman from 1976. Kelly's conjecture states that every regular tournament has an edge decomposition into Hamilton cycles, and this was proved by K\"uhn…

We show that the edges of any $d$-regular graph can be almost decomposed into paths of length roughly $d$, giving an approximate solution to a problem of Kotzig from 1957. Along the way, we show that almost all of the vertices of a…

A path decomposition of a graph $G$ is a collection of edge-disjoint paths of $G$ that covers the edge set of $G$. Gallai (1968) conjectured that every connected graph on $n$ vertices admits a path decomposition of cardinality at most…

Gallai's conjecture asserts that every connected graph on $n$ vertices can be decomposed into $\frac{n+1}{2}$ paths. For general graphs (possibly disconnected), it was proved that every graph on $n$ vertices can be decomposed into…

In 2006, Bar\'at and Thomassen posed the following conjecture: for each tree $T$, there exists a natural number $k_T$ such that, if $G$ is a $k_T$-edge-connected graph and $|E(G)|$ is divisible by $|E(T)|$, then $G$ admits a decomposition…

We settle the Path Decomposition Conjecture (P.D.C.) due to Tibor Gallai for minimally connected graphs, i.e. trees. We use this validity for trees and settle the P. D. C. using induction on the number of edges for all connected graphs. We…

The well-known 1-2-3 Conjecture asserts that the edges of every graph without isolated edges can be weighted with $1$, $2$ and $3$ so that adjacent vertices receive distinct weighted degrees. This is open in general. We prove that every…

We make progress on three long standing conjectures from the 1960s about path and cycle decompositions of graphs. Gallai conjectured that any connected graph on $n$ vertices can be decomposed into at most $\left\lceil…

A $T$-decomposition of a graph $G$ is a set of edge-disjoint copies of $T$ in $G$ that cover the edge set of $G$. Graham and H\"aggkvist (1989) conjectured that any $2\ell$-regular graph $G$ admits a $T$-decomposition if $T$ is a tree with…

Tibor Gallai conjectured that the edge set of every connected graph $G$ on $n$ vertices can be partitioned into $\lceil n/2\rceil$ paths. Let $\mathcal{G}_{k}$ be the class of all $2k$-regular graphs of girth at least $2k-2$ that admit a…

Let $G$ be a graph of order $n$. A path decomposition $\mathcal{P}$ of $G$ is a collection of edge-disjoint paths that covers all the edges of $G$. Let $p(G)$ denote the minimum number of paths needed in a path decomposition of $G$. Gallai…

A longest path in a graph is called a detour. It is easy to see that a connected graph of minimum degree at least $2$ and order at least $4$ has at least $4$ detours. We prove that if the number of detours in such a graph of order at least…

In 1985, Mader conjectured the existence of a function $f$ such that every digraph with minimum out-degree at least $f(k)$ contains a subdivision of the transitive tournament of order $k$. This conjecture is still completely open, as the…

A path (resp. cycle) decomposition of a graph $G$ is a set of edge-disjoint paths (resp. cycles) of $G$ that covers the edge set of $G$. Gallai (1966) conjectured that every graph on $n$ vertices admits a path decomposition of size at most…

Let $D$ be a digraph. Given a set of vertices $S \subseteq V(D)$, an $S$-path partition $\mathcal{P}$ of $D$ is a collection of paths of $D$ such that $\{V(P) \colon P \in \mathcal{P}\}$ is a partition of $V(D)$ and $|V(P) \cap S| = 1$ for…

A locally irregular graph is a graph whose adjacent vertices have distinct degrees. It was conjectured that every connected graph is edge decomposable to $3$ locally irregular subgraphs, unless it belongs to a certain family of exceptions,…

A graph is \textit{rigid} if it only admits the identity endomorphism. We show that for every $d\ge 3$ there exist infinitely many mutually rigid $d$-regular graphs of arbitrary odd girth $g\geq 7$. Moreover, we determine the minimum order…

Gallai's path decomposition conjecture states that the edges of any connected graph on n vertices can be decomposed into at most (n+1)/2 paths. We confirm that conjecture for all graphs with maximum degree at most five.