English

Edge colorings and circular flows on regular graphs

Combinatorics 2023-04-18 v1

Abstract

Let ϕc(G)\phi_c(G) be the circular flow number of a bridgeless graph GG. In [Edge-colorings and circular flow numbers of regular graphs, J. Graph Theory 79 (2015) 1-7] it was proved that, for every t1t \geq 1, GG is a bridgeless (2t+1)(2t+1)-regular graph with ϕc(G){2+1t,2+22t1}\phi_c(G) \in \{2+\frac{1}{t}, 2 + \frac{2}{2t-1}\} if and only if GG has a perfect matching MM such that GMG-M is bipartite. This implies that GG is a class 1 graph. For t=1t=1, all graphs with circular flow number bigger than 4 are class 2 graphs. We show for all t1t \geq 1, that 2+22t1=inf{ϕc(G) ⁣:G is a (2t+1)-regular class 2 graph}2 + \frac{2}{2t-1} = \inf \{ \phi_c(G)\colon G \text{ is a } (2t+1) \text{-regular class } 2 \text{ graph}\}. This was conjectured to be true in [Edge-colorings and circular flow numbers of regular graphs, J. Graph Theory 79 (2015) 1-7]. Moreover we prove that inf{ϕc(G) ⁣:G\inf\{ \phi_c(G)\colon G is a (2t+1) (2t+1)-regular class 11 graph with no perfect matching whose removal leaves a bipartite graph}=2+22t1 \} = 2 + \frac{2}{2t-1}. We further disprove the conjecture that every (2t+1)(2t+1)-regular class 11 graph has circular flow number at most 2+2t2+\frac{2}{t}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2001.02484,
  title  = {Edge colorings and circular flows on regular graphs},
  author = {Davide Mattiolo and Eckhard Steffen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.02484},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

17 pages; submitted for publication

R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:05:52.482Z