Split-Twin Extensions Preserving Seymour Vertices
Abstract
The Second Neighborhood Conjecture of Seymour asserts that every oriented graph contains a vertex~ satisfying . We introduce \emph{Pisa graphs} -- strongly connected oriented graphs~ with -- named after the Leaning Tower of Pisa, as these graphs stand at the precise boundary between satisfying and potentially violating the conjecture. We prove that a Pisa graph containing a vertex of outdegree one must have underlying graph~. We verify computationally that every Pisa graph on at most seven vertices has underlying graph isomorphic to either~ or~ minus a matching, and conjecture this holds in general. Partial structural results are presented, including a decomposition formula for the sum of all vertex margins, and a connection to blowup constructions for potential counterexamples due to Zelenskyi, Darmosiuk and Nalivayko.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.21563,
title = {Split-Twin Extensions Preserving Seymour Vertices},
author = {Stanisław M. S. Halkiewicz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.21563},
year = {2026}
}