English

Graph Puzzles I.1: Oriented Berge-Fulkerson Conjecture

Combinatorics 2026-03-25 v3

Abstract

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 this paper we discuss the oriented version (o6c4c) of the latter statement, pose it as a conjecture and prove it for the family of Isaacs flower snarks. Similarly to the case of oriented cycle double cover, we can always construct an orientable surface (possibly with boundary) from an o6c4c solution. If the o6c4c solution itself splits into two (not necessarily oriented) cycle double covers, then it's also possible to build another pair of orientable surfaces (also possibly with boundaries). Finally we show how to build a ribbon graph, and for some special o6c4c cases we show that this ribbon graph corresponds to an oriented 6-cycle double cover. Github: https://github.com/gexahedron/cycle-double-covers

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.05348,
  title  = {Graph Puzzles I.1: Oriented Berge-Fulkerson Conjecture},
  author = {Nikolay Ulyanov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.05348},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

v3 updates: renamed series name, fixed typos, fixed references, added updates about new proofs

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:01:31.966Z