Nowhere-zero flows and structures in cubic graphs

Wir widerlegen zwei Vermutungen, die im Zusammenhang mit Kreisüberdeckungen von kubischen Graphen stehen. Die erste Vermutung, welche kubische Graphen mit dominierenden Kreisen betrifft, widerlegen wir durch Erweiterung eines Theorems von Gallai über induzierte eulersche Graphen und durch Konstruktion spezieller snarks. Die zweite Vermutung, welche frames betrifft, widerlegen wir durch Betrachtung der Frage nach der Existenz von speziellen spannenden Teilgraphen in 3-fach zusammenhängenden kubischen Graphen. Weiters übersetzen wir Probleme über Flüsse in kubischen Graphen in Knotenfärbungsprobleme von planaren Graphen und erhalten eine neue Charakterisierung von snarks. Schliesslich verbessern und erweitern wir Resultate über Knotenfärbungsprobleme in Quadrangulierungen. Zu Ende stellen wir neue Vermutungen auf, die im Zusammenhang mit Kreisüberdeckungen und Strukturen in kubischen Graphen stehen.We disprove two conjectures which are related to cycle double cover problems. The first conjecture concerns cubic graphs with dominating cycle. We disprove this conjecture by extending a result of Gallai about induced eulerian subgraphs and by constructing special snarks. The second conjecture concerns frames. We show that this conjecture is false by considering the problem whether every 3-connected cubic graph has a spanning subgraph with certain properties. Moreover, we transform flow-problems of cubic graphs into vertex coloring problems of plane graphs. We obtain thereby a new characterization of snarks. Furthermore, we improve and extend results about vertex coloring problems of quadrangulations. Finally we pose new problems and state conjectures which are related to cycle double covers and structures in cubic graphs

Self-Evaluation Applied Mathematics 2003-2008 University of Twente

This report contains the self-study for the research assessment of the Department of Applied Mathematics (AM) of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) at the University of Twente (UT). The report provides the information for the Research Assessment Committee for Applied Mathematics, dealing with mathematical sciences at the three universities of technology in the Netherlands. It describes the state of affairs pertaining to the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008

Contractible Subgraphs, Thomassen's Conjecture and the Dominating Cycle Conjecture for Snarks

We show that the conjectures by Matthews and Sumner (every 4-connected claw-free graph is hamiltonian), by Thomassen (every 4-connected line graph is hamiltonian) and by Fleischner (every cyclically 4-edge-connected cubic graph has either a 3-edge-coloring or a dominating cycle), which are known to be equivalent, are equivalent with the statement that every snark (i.e. a cyclically 4-edge-connected cubic graph of girth at least five that is not 3-edge-colorable) has a dominating cycle.\ud \ud We use a refinement of the contractibility technique which was introduced by Ryjáček and Schelp in 2003 as a common generalization and strengthening of the reduction techniques by Catlin and Veldman and of the closure concept introduced by Ryjáček in 1997. \u