It is proved that if a graph is regular of even degree and contains a Hamilton cycle, or regular of odd degree and contains a Hamiltonian $3$-factor, then its line graph is Hamilton decomposable. This result partially extends Kotzig's result that a $3$-regular graph is Hamiltonian if and only if its line graph is Hamilton decomposable, and proves the conjecture of Bermond that the line graph of a Hamilton decomposable graph is Hamilton decomposable.
In contrast with Kotzig's result that the line graph of a $3$-regular graph $X$ is Hamilton decomposable if and only if $X$ is Hamiltonian, we show that for each integer $k\geq 4$ there exists a simple non-Hamiltonian $k$-regular graph whose line graph has a Hamilton decomposition. We also answer a question of Jackson by showing that for each integer $k\geq 3$ there exists a simple connected $k$-regular graph with no separating transitions whose line graph has no Hamilton decomposition.
We prove that any one-ended, locally finite Cayley graph with non-torsion generators admits a decomposition into edge-disjoint Hamiltonian (i.e. spanning) double-rays. In particular, the $n$-dimensional grid $\mathbb{Z}^n$ admits a decomposition into $n$ edge-disjoint Hamiltonian double-rays for all $n \in \mathbb{N}$.
A Hamiltonian decomposition of $G$ is a partition of its edge set into disjoint Hamilton cycles. Manikandan and Paulraja conjectured that if $G$ and $H$ are Hamilton cycle decomposable circulant graphs with at least one of them is nonbipartite, then their tensor product is Hamilton cycle decomposable. In this paper, we have proved that, if $G$ is a Hamilton cycle decomposable circulant graph with certain properties and $H$ is a Hamilton cycle decomposable multigraph, then their tensor product is Hamilton cycle decomposable. In particular, tensor products of certain sparse Hamilton cycle decomp…
A Hamilton cycle in a graph $Γ$ is a cycle passing through every vertex of $Γ$. A Hamiltonian decomposition of $Γ$ is a partition of its edge set into disjoint Hamilton cycles. One of the oldest results in graph theory is Walecki's theorem from the 19th century, showing that a complete graph $K_n$ on an odd number of vertices $n$ has a Hamiltonian decomposition. This result was recently greatly extended by Kühn and Osthus. They proved that every $r$-regular $n$-vertex graph $Γ$ with even degree $r=cn$ for some fixed $c>1/2$ has a Hamiltonian decomposition, provided $n=n(c)$ is sufficiently lar…
A Hamilton decomposition of a graph is a partitioning of its edge set into disjoint spanning cycles. The existence of such decompositions is known for all hypercubes of even dimension $2n$. We give a decomposition for the case $n = 2^a3^b$ that is highly symmetric in the sense that every cycle can be derived from every other cycle just by permuting the axes. We conjecture that a similar decomposition exists for every n.
A Hamilton cycle in a directed graph $G$ is a cycle that passes through every vertex of $G$. A Hamiltonian decomposition of $G$ is a partition of its edge set into disjoint Hamilton cycles. In the late $60$s Kelly conjectured that every regular tournament has a Hamilton decomposition. This conjecture was recently settled by Kühn and Osthus, who proved more generally that every $r$-regular $n$-vertex oriented graph $G$ (without antiparallel edges) with $r=cn$ for some fixed $c>3/8$ has a Hamiltonian decomposition, provided $n=n(c)$ is sufficiently large. In this paper we address the natural que…
We use $K^*_n$ to denote the bidirected complete graph on $n$ vertices. A nomadic Hamiltonian decomposition of $K^*_n$ is a Hamiltonian decomposition, with the additional property that ``nomads'' walk along the Hamiltonian cycles (moving one vertex per time step) without colliding. A nomadic near-Hamiltonian decomposition is defined similarly, except that the cycles in the decomposition have length $n-1$, rather than length $n$. J.A. Bondy asked whether these decompositions of $K^*_n$ exist for all $n$. We show that $K^*_n$ admits a nomadic near-Hamiltonian decomposition when $n\not\equiv 2\bm…
We show that if pn >> log n, the binomial random graph G_{n,p} has an approximate Hamilton decomposition. More precisely, we show that in this range G_{n,p} contains a set of edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles covering almost all of its edges. This is best possible in the sense that the condition that pn >> log n is necessary.
We show that every sufficiently large r-regular digraph G which has linear degree and is a robust outexpander has an approximate decomposition into edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, i.e. G contains a set of r-o(r) edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. Here G is a robust outexpander if for every set S which is not too small and not too large, the `robust' outneighbourhood of S is a little larger than S. This generalises a result of Kühn, Osthus and Treglown on approximate Hamilton decompositions of dense regular oriented graphs. It also generalises a result of Frieze and Krivelevich on approximate Hamilt…
We consider a Hamiltonian decomposition problem of partitioning a regular graph into edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles. A sufficient condition for vertex adjacency in the 1-skeleton of the traveling salesperson polytope can be formulated as the Hamiltonian decomposition problem in a 4-regular multigraph. We introduce a heuristic general variable neighborhood search algorithm for this problem based on finding a vertex-disjoint cycle cover of the multigraph through reduction to perfect matching and several cycle merging operations. The algorithm has a one-sided error: the answer "not adjacent" is…
A regular bipartite tournament is an orientation of a complete balanced bipartite graph $K_{2n,2n}$ where every vertex has its in- and outdegree both equal to $n$. In 1981, Jackson conjectured that any regular bipartite tournament can be decomposed into Hamilton cycles. We prove this conjecture for all sufficiently large bipartite tournaments. Along the way, we also prove several further results, including a conjecture of Liebenau and Pehova on Hamilton decompositions of dense bipartite digraphs.
It is shown that there are infinitely many connected vertex-transitive graphs that have no Hamilton decomposition, including infinitely many Cayley graphs of valency 6, and including Cayley graphs of arbitrarily large valency.
We prove that a complete multipartite graph $K$ with $n>1$ vertices and $m$ edges can be decomposed into edge-disjoint Hamilton paths if and only if $\frac m{n-1}$ is an integer and the maximum degree of $K$ is at most $\frac {2m}{n-1}$.
The natural infinite analogue of a (finite) Hamilton cycle is a two-way-infinite Hamilton path (connected spanning 2-valent subgraph). Although it is known that every connected $2k$-valent infinite circulant graph has a two-way-infinite Hamilton path, there exist many such graphs that do not have a decomposition into $k$ edge-disjoint two-way-infinite Hamilton paths. This contrasts with the finite case where it is conjectured that every $2k$-valent connected circulant graph has a decomposition into $k$ edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. We settle the problem of decomposing $2k$-valent infinite cir…
A Hamiltonian decomposition of a regular graph is a partition of its edge set into Hamiltonian cycles. The problem of finding edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles in a given regular graph has many applications in combinatorial optimization and operations research. Our motivation for this problem comes from the field of polyhedral combinatorics, as a sufficient condition for vertex nonadjacency in the 1-skeleton of the traveling salesperson polytope can be formulated as the Hamiltonian decomposition problem in a 4-regular multigraph with one forbidden decomposition. In our approach, the algorithm s…
A well-known conjecture of Alspach says that every $2k$-regular Cayley graph of an abelian group can be decomposed into Hamiltonian cycles. We consider an analogous question for infinite abelian groups. In this setting one natural analogue of a Hamiltonian cycle is a spanning double-ray. However, a naive generalisation of Alspach's conjecture fails to hold in this setting due to the existence of $2k$-regular Cayley graphs with finite cuts $F$ where $|F|$ and $k$ differ in parity, which necessarily preclude the existence of a decomposition into spanning double-rays. We show that every $4$-regul…
We show that every sufficiently large regular tournament can almost completely be decomposed into edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. More precisely, for each η>0 every regular tournament G of sufficiently large order n contains at least (1/2-η)n edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. This gives an approximate solution to a conjecture of Kelly from 1968. Our result also extends to almost regular tournaments.
In a sequence of four papers, we prove the following results (via a unified approach) for all sufficiently large $n$: (i) [1-factorization conjecture] Suppose that $n$ is even and $D\geq 2\lceil n/4\rceil -1$. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into perfect matchings. Equivalently, $χ'(G)=D$. (ii) [Hamilton decomposition conjecture] Suppose that $D \ge \lfloor n/2 \rfloor $. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into Hamilton cycles and at most one perfect matching. (iii) We prove an optimal result on the number of edge-disjoint …
Cyclic Hamilton Cycle Decompositions of Carousel Tournaments of Order $pq$
School of Science, Xihua University（西华大学理学院）；School of Mathematics, Guangxi University（广西大学数学学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Shandong University of Technology（山东理工大学数学与统计学院）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Henan Normal University（河南师范大学数学与统计学院）
In 1973 Bermond, Germa, Heydemann and Sotteau conjectured that if $n$ divides $\binom{n}{k}$, then the complete $k$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into Hamilton Berge cycles. Here a Berge cycle consists of an alternating sequence $v_1,e_1,v_2,\dots,v_n,e_n$ of distinct vertices $v_i$ and distinct edges $e_i$ so that each $e_i$ contains $v_i$ and $v_{i+1}$. So the divisibility condition is clearly necessary. In this note, we prove that the conjecture holds whenever $k \ge 4$ and $n \ge 30$. Our argument is based on the Kruskal-Katona theorem. The case when $k=3$ was alre…
In a sequence of four papers, we prove the following results (via a unified approach) for all sufficiently large $n$: (i) [1-factorization conjecture] Suppose that $n$ is even and $D\geq 2\lceil n/4\rceil -1$. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into perfect matchings. Equivalently, $χ'(G)=D$. (ii) [Hamilton decomposition conjecture] Suppose that $D \ge \lfloor n/2 \rfloor $. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into Hamilton cycles and at most one perfect matching. (iii) We prove an optimal result on the number of edge-disjoint …
In a recent paper, we showed that every sufficiently large regular digraph G on n vertices whose degree is linear in n and which is a robust outexpander has a decomposition into edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. The main consequence of this theorem is that every regular tournament on n vertices can be decomposed into (n-1)/2 edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, whenever n is sufficiently large. This verified a conjecture of Kelly from 1968. In this paper, we derive a number of further consequences of our result on robust outexpanders, the main ones are the following: (i) an undirected analogue of our r…
Let $K(a^{(p)};λ,μ)$ be a graph with $p$ parts, each part having size $a$, in which the multiplicity of each pair of vertices in the same part (in different parts) is $λ$ ($μ$, respectively). In this paper we consider the following embedding problem: When can a graph decomposition of $K(a^{(p)};λ,μ)$ be extended to a Hamiltonian decomposition of $K(a^{(p+r)};λ,μ)$ for $r>0$? A general result is proved, which is then used to solve the embedding problem for all $r\geq \fracλ{μa}+\frac{p-1}{a-1}$. The problem is also solved when $r$ is as small as possible in two different senses, namely when $r=…
In this paper we prove the following results (via a unified approach) for all sufficiently large $n$: (i) [$1$-factorization conjecture] Suppose that $n$ is even and $D\geq 2\lceil n/4\rceil -1$. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into perfect matchings. Equivalently, $χ'(G)=D$. (ii) [Hamilton decomposition conjecture] Suppose that $D \ge \lfloor n/2 \rfloor $. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into Hamilton cycles and at most one perfect matching. (iii) [Optimal packings of Hamilton cycles] Suppose that $G$ is a graph on $n$…
A decomposition of a graph is a set of subgraphs whose edges partition those of $G$. The 3-decomposition conjecture posed by Hoffmann-Ostenhof in 2011 states that every connected cubic graph can be decomposed into a spanning tree, a 2-regular subgraph, and a matching. It has been settled for special classes of graphs, one of the first results being for Hamiltonian graphs. In the past two years several new results have been obtained, adding the classes of plane, claw-free, and 3-connected tree-width 3 graphs to the list. In this paper, we regard a natural extension of Hamiltonian graphs: removi…
In a sequence of four papers, we prove the following results (via a unified approach) for all sufficiently large $n$: (i) [1-factorization conjecture] Suppose that $n$ is even and $D \geq 2\lceil n/4\rceil -1$. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into perfect matchings. Equivalently, $χ'(G)=D$. (ii) [Hamilton decomposition conjecture] Suppose that $D \ge \lfloor n/2 \rfloor $. Then every $D$-regular graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has a decomposition into Hamilton cycles and at most one perfect matching. (iii) [Optimal packings of Hamilton cycles] Suppose that $G$ is…
We consider a Hamiltonian decomposition problem of partitioning a regular graph into edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles. It is known that verifying vertex non-adjacency in the 1-skeleton of the symmetric and asymmetric traveling salesperson polytopes is NP-complete. On the other hand, a sufficient condition for two vertices to be non-adjacent can be formulated as a combinatorial problem of finding a second Hamiltonian decomposition of a 4-regular multigraph. We present two backtracking algorithms for constructing a second Hamiltonian decomposition and verifying vertex non-adjacency: an algorithm…
Let $k$, $λ$ and $μ$ be positive integers. A decomposition of a multigraph $ λG$ into edge-disjoint subgraphs $G_1, \ldots , G_k$ is said to be \emph{enclosed} by a decomposition of a multigraph $μH$ into edge-disjoint subgraphs $H_1, \ldots , H_k$ if $μ> λ$ and $G_i$ is a subgraph of $H_i$, $1 \leq i \leq k$. In this paper we initiate the study of when a decomposition can be enclosed by a decomposition that consists of spanning subgraphs. A decomposition of a graph is a 2-factorization if each subgraph is 2-regular and is Hamiltonian if each subgraph is a Hamiltonian cycle. Let $n$ and $m$ be…
The Hamilton-Waterloo problem asks for a decomposition of the complete graph into $r$ copies of a 2-factor $F_{1}$ and $s$ copies of a 2-factor $F_{2}$ such that $r+s=\left\lfloor\frac{v-1}{2}\right\rfloor$. If $F_{1}$ consists of $m$-cycles and $F_{2}$ consists of $n$ cycles, then we call such a decomposition a $(m,n)-$HWP$(v;r,s)$. The goal is to find a decomposition for every possible pair $(r,s)$. In this paper, we show that for odd $x$ and $y$, there is a $(2^kx,y)-$HWP$(vm;r,s)$ if $\gcd(x,y)\geq 3$, $m\geq 3$, and both $x$ and $y$ divide $v$, except possibly when $1\in\{r,s\}$.
A perfect matching reciprocity method for embedding multiple hypercubes in an augmented cube: Applications to Hamiltonian decomposition and fault-tolerant Hamiltonicity
A long-standing conjecture of Kelly states that every regular tournament on n vertices can be decomposed into (n-1)/2 edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. We prove this conjecture for large n. In fact, we prove a far more general result, based on our recent concept of robust expansion and a new method for decomposing graphs. We show that every sufficiently large regular digraph G on n vertices whose degree is linear in n and which is a robust outexpander has a decomposition into edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. This enables us to obtain numerous further results, e.g. as a special case we confirm a con…
We prove that, for large $n$, every $3$-connected $D$-regular graph on $n$ vertices with $D \geq n/4$ is Hamiltonian. This is best possible and confirms a conjecture posed independently by Bollobás and Häggkvist in the 1970s. The proof builds on a structural decomposition result proved recently by the same authors.
We survey some recent results on long-standing conjectures regarding Hamilton cycles in directed graphs, oriented graphs and tournaments. We also combine some of these to prove the following approximate result towards Kelly's conjecture on Hamilton decompositions of regular tournaments: the edges of every regular tournament can be covered by a set of Hamilton cycles which are `almost' edge-disjoint. We also highlight the role that the notion of `robust expansion' plays in several of the proofs. New and old open problems are discussed.
We study P-groupoids that arise from certain decompositions of complete graphs. We show that left distributive P-groupoids are distributive, quasigroups. We characterize P-groupoids when the corresponding decomposition is a Hamiltonian decomposition for complete graphs of odd, prime order. We also study a specific example of a P-quasigroup constructed from cyclic groups of odd order. We show such P-quasigroups have characteristic left and right multiplication groups, as well as the right multiplication group is isomorphic to the dihedral group.
