In 1972, Tutte posed the $3$-Flow Conjecture: that all $4$-edge-connected graphs have a nowhere zero $3$-flow. This was extended by Jaeger et al.(1992) to allow vertices to have a prescribed, possibly non-zero difference (modulo $3$) between the inflow and outflow. They conjectured that all $5$-edge-connected graphs with a valid prescription function have a nowhere zero $3$-flow meeting that prescription. Kochol (2001) showed that replacing $4$-edge-connected with $5$-edge-connected would suffice to prove the $3$-Flow Conjecture and Lovász et al.(2013) showed that both conjectures hold if the edge connectivity condition is relaxed to $6$-edge-connected. Both problems are still open for $5$-edge-connected graphs.
The $3$-Flow Conjecture was known to hold for planar graphs, as it is the dual of Grötzsch's Colouring Theorem. Steinberg and Younger (1989) provided the first direct proof using flows for planar graphs, as well as a proof for projective planar graphs. Richter et al.(2016) provided the first direct proof using flows of the Strong $3$-Flow Conjecture for planar graphs. We prove the Strong $3$-Flow Conjecture for projective planar graphs.
Whitney proved in 1931 that every 4-connected planar triangulation is hamiltonian. Later in 1979, Hakimi, Schmeichel and Thomassen conjectured that every such triangulation on $n$ vertices has at least $2(n - 2)(n - 4)$ hamiltonian cycles. Along this direction, Brinkmann, Souffriau and Van Cleemput established a linear lower bound on the number of hamiltonian cycles in 4-connected planar triangulations. In stark contrast, Alahmadi, Aldred and Thomassen showed that every 5-connected triangulation of the plane or the projective plane has exponentially many hamiltonian cycles. This gives the moti…
In a closed 2-cell embedding of a graph each face is homeomorphic to an open disk and is bounded by a cycle in the graph. The Orientable Strong Embedding Conjecture says that every 2-connected graph has a closed 2-cell embedding in some orientable surface. This implies both the Cycle Double Cover Conjecture and the Strong Embedding Conjecture. In this paper we prove that every 2-connected projective-planar cubic graph has a closed 2-cell embedding in some orientable surface. The three main ingredients of the proof are (1) a surgical method to convert nonorientable embeddings into orientable em…
It is well-known that every planar or projective planar graph can be 3-colored so that each color class induces a forest. This bound is sharp. In this paper, we show that there are in fact exponentially many 3-colorings of this kind for any (projective) planar graph. The same result holds in the setting of 3-list-colorings.
In 1975, Plesník characterized all triangle-free planar graphs as having a diameter $2$. We characterize all triangle-free projective-planar graphs having a diameter $2$ and discuss some applications. In particular, the main result is applied to calculate the analogue of clique numbers for graphs, namely, colored mixed graphs, having different types of arcs and edges.
In 1988 Fellows conjectured that if a finite, connected graph admits a finite planar emulator, then it admits a finite planar cover. We construct a finite planar emulator for K_{4,5} - 4K_2. Archdeacon showed that K_{4,5} - 4K_2 does not admit a finite planar cover; thus K_{4,5} - 4K_2 provides a counterexample to Fellows' Conjecture. It is known that Negami's Planar Cover Conjecture is true if and only if K_{1,2,2,2} admits no finite planar cover. We construct a finite planar emulator for K_{1,2,2,2}. The existence of a finite planar cover for K_{1,2,2,2} is still open.
Let k>0 be an integer, let H be a minor-minimal graph in the projective plane such that every homotopically non-trivial closed curve intersects H at least k times, and let G be the planar double cover of H obtained by lifting G into the universal covering space of the projective plane, the sphere. We prove that G is minor-minimal of branch-width 2k. We also exhibit examples of minor-minimal planar graphs of branch-width 6 that do not arise this way.
We prove that the Wiener Index $W(G)$ of a Maximal Planar graph $G$ with $n$ vertices satisfies $W(G) \leq \Big{\lfloor} \frac{1}{18}(n^3 + 3n^2) \Big{\rfloor}$ for $3 \leq n \leq 18$.
Let $G$ be a group. The permutability graph of subgroups of $G$, denoted by $Γ(G)$, is a graph having all the proper subgroups of $G$ as its vertices, and two subgroups are adjacent in $Γ(G)$ if and only if they permute. In this paper, we classify the finite groups whose permutability graphs are toroidal or projective-planar. In addition, we classify the finite groups whose permutability graph does not contain one of $K_{3,3}$, $K_{1,5}$, $C_6$, $P_5$, or $P_6$ as a subgraph.
Merker conjectured that if $k \ge 2$ is an integer and $G$ a 3-connected cubic planar graph of circumference at least $k$, then the set of cycle lengths of $G$ must contain at least one element of the interval $[k, 2k+2]$. We here prove that for every even integer $k \ge 6$ there is an infinite family of counterexamples.
Planar functions in odd characteristic were introduced by Dembowski and Ostrom in order to construct finite projective planes in 1968. They were also used in the constructions of DES-like iterated ciphers, error-correcting codes, and signal sets. Recently, a new notion of pseudo-planar functions in even characteristic was proposed by Zhou. These new pseudo-planar functions, as an analogue of planar functions in odd characteristic, also bring about finite projective planes. There are three known infinite families of pseudo-planar monomial functions constructed by Schmidt and Zhou, and Scherr an…
We consider the class F of 2-connected non-planar K_{3,3}-subdivision-free graphs that are embeddable in the projective plane. We show that these graphs admit a unique decomposition as a graph K_5 (the core) where the edges are replaced by two-pole networks constructed from 2-connected planar graphs. A method to enumerate these graphs in the labelled case is described. Moreover, we enumerate the homeomorphically irreducible graphs in F and homeomorphically irreducible 2-connected planar graphs. Particular use is made of two-pole directed series-parallel networks. We also show that the number m…
We initiate a systematic study of the fractional vertex-arboricity of planar graphs and demonstrate connections to open problems concerning both fractional coloring and the size of the largest induced forest in planar graphs. In particular, the following three long-standing conjectures concern the size of a largest induced forest in a planar graph, and we conjecture that each of these can be generalized to the setting of fractional vertex-arboricity. In 1979, Albertson and Berman conjectured that every planar graph has an induced forest on at least half of its vertices, in 1987, Akiyama and Wa…
In 1972, Tutte posed the $3$-Flow Conjecture: that all $4$-edge-connected graphs have a nowhere zero $3$-flow. This was extended by Jaeger et al.(1992) to allow vertices to have a prescribed, possibly non-zero difference (modulo $3$) between the inflow and outflow. They conjectured that all $5$-edge-connected graphs with a valid prescription function have a nowhere zero $3$-flow meeting that prescription (we call this the Strong $3$-Flow Conjecture). Kochol (2001) showed that replacing $4$-edge-connected with $5$-edge-connected would suffice to prove the $3$-Flow Conjecture and Lovász et al.(2…
The linear arboricity la(G) of a graph G is the minimum number of linear forests that partition the edges of G. In 1984, Akiyama et al. stated the Linear Arboricity Conjecture (LAC), that the linear arboricity of any simple graph of maximum degree $Δ$ is either $\lceil \tfracΔ{2} \rceil$ or $\lceil \tfrac{Δ+1}{2} \rceil$. In [J. L. Wu. On the linear arboricity of planar graphs. J. Graph Theory, 31:129-134, 1999] and [J. L. Wu and Y. W. Wu. The linear arboricity of planar graphs of maximum degree seven is four. J. Graph Theory, 58(3):210-220, 2008.] it was proven that LAC holds for all planar g…
An \emph{equitable coloring} of a graph is a proper vertex coloring such that the sizes of every two color classes differ by at most 1. Chen, Lih, and Wu conjectured that every connected graph $G$ with maximum degree $Δ\geq 2$ has an equitable coloring with $Δ$ colors, except when $G$ is a complete graph or an odd cycle or $Δ$ is odd and $G=K_{Δ,Δ}.$ Nakprasit proved the conjecture holds for planar graphs with maximum degree at least 9. Zhu and Bu proved that the conjecture holds for every $C_3$-free planar graph with maximum degree at least 8 and for every planar graph without $C_4$ and $C_5$…
Wegner conjectured in 1977 that the square of every planar graph with maximum degree at most $3$ is $7$-colorable. We prove this conjecture using the discharging method and computational techniques to verify reducible configurations.
An outstanding folklore conjecture asserts that, for any prime $p$, up to isomorphism the projective plane $PG(2,\mathbb{F}_p)$ over the field $\mathbb{F}_p := \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ is the unique projective plane of order $p$. Let $π$ be any projective plane of order $p$. For any partial linear space ${\cal X}$, define the inclusion number $i({\cal X},π)$ to be the number of isomorphic copies of ${\cal X}$ in $π$. In this paper we prove that if ${\cal X}$ has at most $\log_2 p$ lines, then $i({\cal X},π)$ can be written as an explicit rational linear combination (depending only on ${\cal X}$…
It was conjectured by Hajós that graphs containing no $K_5$-subdivision are 4-colorable. Previous results show that any possible minimum counterexample to Hajós' conjecture, called Hajós graph, is 4-connected but not 5-connected. In this paper, we show that if a Hajós graph admits a 4-cut or 5-cut with a planar side then the planar side must be small or contains a special wheel. This is a step in our effort to reduce Hajós' conjecture to the Four Color Theorem.
Thomassen conjectured that triangle-free planar graphs have exponentially many 3-colorings. Recently, he disproved his conjecture by providing examples of such graphs with $n$ vertices and at most $2^{15n/\log_2 n}$ 3-colorings. We improve his construction, giving examples of such graphs with at most $64^{n^{log_{9/2} 3}}<64^{n^{0.731}}$ 3-colorings. We conjecture this exponent is optimal.
A biased graph is a graph with a class of selected circles ("cycles", "circuits"), called "balanced", such that no theta subgraph contains exactly two balanced circles. A biased graph has two natural matroids, the frame matroid and the lift matroid. A classical question in matroid theory is whether a matroid can be embedded in a projective geometry. There is no known general answer, but for matroids of biased graphs it is possible to give algebraic criteria. Zaslavsky has previously given such criteria for embeddability of biased-graphic matroids in Desarguesian projective spaces; in this pape…
Bishnoi conjectured that if a minimal t-fold blocking set in a projective plane of prime power order has maximal size then it is either a projective plane minus one point, the complement of a Baer subplane or a unital. In this note we prove this conjecture.
The 3-Decomposition Conjecture states that every connected cubic graph can be decomposed into a spanning tree, a 2-regular subgraph and a matching. We show that this conjecture holds for the class of connected plane cubic graphs.
We study the existence of hamiltonian cycles in plane cubic graphs G having a facial 2-factor Q. Thus hamiltonicity in G is transformed into the existence of a (quasi) spanning tree of faces in the contraction G/Q. In particular, we study the case where G is the leapfrog extension (called vertex envelope in (Discrete Math., 309(14):4793-4809, 2009)) of a plane cubic graph G_0. As a consequence we prove hamiltonicity in the leapfrog extension of planar cubic cyclically 4-edge-connected bipartite graphs. This and other results of this paper establish partial solutions of Barnette's Conjecture ac…
A graph is called dispersable if it has a book embedding in which each page has maximum degree 1 and the number of pages is the maximum degree. Bernhart and Kainen conjectured every k-regular bipartite graph is dispersable. Forty years later, Alam, Bekos, Gronemann, Kaufmann, and Pupyrev have disproved this conjecture, identifying nonplanar 3- and 4-regular bipartite graphs that are not dispersable. They also proved all cubic planar bipartite 3-connected graphs are dispersable and conjectured that the connectivity condition could be relaxed. We prove that every cubic planar bipartite multigrap…
Fullerene graphs, i.e., 3-connected planar cubic graphs with pentagonal and hexagonal faces, are conjectured to be Hamiltonian. This is a special case of a conjecture of Barnette and Goodey, stating that 3-connected planar graphs with faces of size at most 6 are Hamiltonian. We prove the conjecture.
In 1968, Gallai conjectured that the edges of any connected graph with $n$ vertices can be partitioned into $\lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil$ paths. We show that this conjecture is true for every planar graph. More precisely, we show that every connected planar graph except $K_3$ and $K_5^-$ ($K_5$ minus one edge) can be decomposed into $\lfloor \frac{n}{2} \rfloor$ paths.
There are two conjectures concerning planar graph colourings that are strengthenings of the four colour theorem. One concerns signed graph colouring and is proposed by Máčajová, Raspaud and Škoviera. It asserts that every signed planar graph is $4$-colourable. Another concerns list colouring and is proposed by Kündgen and Ramamurthi which asserts that if $L$ is a $2$-list assignment of a planar graph $G$, then there is an $L$-colouring of $G$ such that each colour class induces a bipartite graph. In this note we prove that the first conjecture implies the second one.
A graph is intrinsically projectively linked (IPL) if its every embedding in projective space contains a nonsplit link. Some minor-minimal IPL graphs have been found previously. We determine that no minor-minimal IPL graphs on 16 edges exists and identify new minor-minimal IPL graphs by applying $Δ-Y$ exchanges to $K_{7}-2e$. We prove that for a nonouter-projective-planar graph $G$, $G+\bar{K}_{2}$ is IPL and describe the necessary and sufficient conditions on a projective planar graph $G$ such that $G+\bar{K}_{2}$ is IPL. Lastly, we deduce conditions for $f(G + \bar{K_{2}})$ to have no nonspl…
The planar embedding conjecture asserts that any planar metric admits an embedding into L_1 with constant distortion. This is a well-known open problem with important algorithmic implications, and has received a lot of attention over the past two decades. Despite significant efforts, it has been verified only for some very restricted cases, while the general problem remains elusive. In this paper we make progress towards resolving this conjecture. We show that every planar metric of non-positive curvature admits a constant-distortion embedding into L_1. This confirms the planar embedding conje…
A path cover is a decomposition of the edges of a graph into edge-disjoint simple paths. Gallai conjectured that every connected $n$-vertex graph has a path cover with at most $\lceil n/2 \rceil$ paths. We prove Gallai's conjecture for series-parallel graphs. For the class of planar 3-trees we show how to construct a path cover with at most $\lfloor 5n/8 \rfloor$ paths, which is an improvement over the best previously known bound of $\lfloor 2n/3 \rfloor$.
An acyclic edge coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper edge coloring such that no bichromatic cycles are produced. The acyclic edge coloring conjecture by Fiam{č}ik (1978) and Alon, Sudakov and Zaks (2001) states that every simple graph with maximum degree $Δ$ is acyclically edge $(Δ+ 2)$-colorable. Despite many milestones, the conjecture remains open even for planar graphs. In this paper, we confirm affirmatively the conjecture on planar graphs without intersecting triangles. We do so by first showing, by discharging methods, that every planar graph without intersecting triangles must have at le…
The reconfiguration graph $R_k(G)$ of the $k$-colourings of a graph $G$ has as vertex set the set of all possible $k$-colourings of $G$ and two colourings are adjacent if they differ on the colour of exactly one vertex. Cereceda conjectured ten years ago that, for every $k$-degenerate graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, $R_{k+2}(G)$ has diameter $\mathcal{O}({n^2})$. The conjecture is wide open, with a best known bound of $\mathcal{O}({k^n})$, even for planar graphs. We improve this bound for planar graphs to $2^{\mathcal{O}({\sqrt{n}})}$. Our proof can be transformed into an algorithm that runs in $2^…
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 $\lfloor (n+1)/2\rfloor$. Gallai's Conjecture has been verified for many classes of graphs. In particular, Lovász (1968) verified this conjecture for graphs with at most one vertex with even degree, and Pyber (1996) verified it for graphs in which every cycle contains a vertex with odd degree. Recently, Bonamy and Perrett (2016) verified Gallai's Conjecture for g…
A long-standing conjecture is that any transitive finite projective plane is Desarguesian. We make a contribution towards a proof of this conjecture by showing that a group acting transitively on the the points of a non-Desarguesianprojective plane must not contain any components.
Barnette's Conjecture claims that all cubic, 3-connected, planar, bipartite graphs are Hamiltonian. We give a translation of this conjecture into the matching-theoretic setting. This allows us to relax the requirement of planarity to give the equivalent conjecture that all cubic, 3-connected, Pfaffian, bipartite graphs are Hamiltonian. A graph, other than the path of length three, is a brace if it is bipartite and any two disjoint edges are part of a perfect matching. Our perspective allows us to observe that Barnette's Conjecture can be reduced to cubic, planar braces. We show a similar reduc…
Given a finite cover f:tilde{G} \to G and an embedding of tilde{G} in the plane, Negami conjectures that G embeds in P^2. Negami proved this conjecture for regular covers. In this paper we define two properties (Propserties V and E), depending on the cover tilde{G} and its embedding into S^2, and generalize Negami's result by showing: (1) If Properties V and E are fulfilled then G embeds in P^2. (2) Regular covers always fulfill Properties V and E. We give an example of an irregular cover fulfilling Properties V and E. Covers not fulfilling Properties V and E are discussed as well.
We prove Anzis and Tohaneanu conjecture, that is the Dirac-Motzkin conjecture for supersolvable line arrangements in the projective plane over an arbitrary field of characteristic zero. Moreover, we show that a divisionally free arrangements of lines contain at least one double point, that can be regarded as the Sylvester-Gallai theorem for some free arrangements. This is a corollary of a general result that if you add a line to a free projective line arrangement, then that line has to contain at least one double point. Also we prove some conjectures and one open problems related to supersolva…
The study of finite projective planes involves planar functions, namely, functions f : F_q --> F_q such that, for each nonzero a in F_q, the function c --> f(c+a) - f(c) is a bijection on F_q. Planar functions are also used in the construction of DES-like cryptosystems, where they are called perfect nonlinear functions. We determine all planar functions on F_q of the form c --> c^t, under the assumption that q >= (t-1)^4. This implies two conjectures of Hernando, McGuire and Monserrat. Our arguments also yield a new proof of a conjecture of Segre and Bartocci from 1971 about monomial hyperoval…
Classical planar functions are functions from a finite field to itself and give rise to finite projective planes. They exist however only for fields of odd characteristic. We study their natural counterparts in characteristic two, which we also call planar functions. They again give rise to finite projective planes, as recently shown by the second author. We give a characterisation of planar functions in characteristic two in terms of codes over $\mathbb{Z}_4$. We then specialise to planar monomial functions $f(x)=cx^t$ and present constructions and partial results towards their classification…
We obtain a complete description of the planar cubic Cayley graphs, providing an explicit presentation and embedding for each of them. This turns out to be a rich class, comprising several infinite families. We obtain counterexamples to conjectures of Mohar, Bonnington and Watkins. Our analysis makes the involved graphs accessible to computation, corroborating a conjecture of Droms.
Let $L_{a,b}$ be a line in the Euclidean plane with slope $a$ and intercept $b$. The dimension spectrum $\spec(L_{a,b})$ is the set of all effective dimensions of individual points on $L_{a,b}$. The dimension spectrum conjecture states that, for every line $L_{a,b}$, the spectrum of $L_{a,b}$ contains a unit interval. In this paper we prove that the dimension spectrum conjecture is true. Let $(a,b)$ be a slope-intercept pair, and let $d = \min\{\dim(a,b), 1\}$. For every $s \in (0, 1)$, we construct a point $x$ such that $\dim(x, ax + b) = d + s$. Thus, we show that $\spec(L_{a,b})$ contains t…
Let X be a geometrically smooth n-dimensional projective algebraic complex hypersurface in P^{n+1}(C). Using Green-Griffiths jets, we establish the existence of nonzero global algebraic differential equations that must be satisfied by every nonconstant entire holomorphic curve C -> X if X is of general type, namely if its degree d satisfies the optimal possible lower bound: d >= n + 3. The case n = 2 dates back to Green-Griffiths 1979, while according to very recent advances (Invent. Math. 180, pp. 161-223, February 2010), the best (and only) lower degree bound known previously in arbitrary di…
