Abstract Let be a simple graph with maximum degree . A subgraph of is overfull if . Chetwynd and Hilton in 1986 conjectured that a graph with has chromatic index if and only if contains no overfull subgraph. Let , be sufficiently large, and be graph on vertices with minimum degree at least . It was shown that the conjecture holds for if is even. In this paper, the same result is proved if is odd. As far as we know, this is the first result on the Overfull Conjecture for graphs of odd order and with a minimum degree constraint.
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On the Multigraph Overfull Conjecture
ABSTRACT A subgraph of a multigraph is overfull if Analogous to the Overfull Conjecture proposed by Chetwynd and Hilton in 1986, Stiebitz et al. formed the multigraph version of the conjecture as follows: Let be a multigraph with maximum multiplicity and maximum degree . Then has chromatic index if and only if contains no overfull subgraph. In this paper, we prove the following three results toward the Multigraph Overfull Conjecture for sufficiently large and even , where . (1) If is ‐regular with , then has a 1‐factorization. This result also settles a conjecture of the first author and Tipnis from 2001 up to a constant error in the lower bound of . (2) If contains an overfull subgraph and , then , where is the fractional chromatic index of . (3) If the minimum degree of is at least for any and contains no overfull subgraph, then . The proof is based on the decomposition of multigraphs into simple graphs and we prove a slightly weaker version of a conjecture due to the first author and Tipnis from 1991 on decomposing a multigraph into constrained simple graphs. The result is also of independent interest.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2345869
- PAR ID:
- 10648720
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Graph Theory
- Volume:
- 109
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0364-9024
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 226 to 236
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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