On realization graphs of degree sequences

Given the degree sequence $d$ of a graph, the realization graph of $d$ is the graph having as its vertices the labeled realizations of $d$, with two vertices adjacent if one realization may be obtained from the other via an edge-switching operation. We describe a connection between Cartesian products in realization graphs and the canonical decomposition of degree sequences described by R.I. Tyshkevich and others. As applications, we characterize the degree sequences whose realization graphs are triangle-free graphs or hypercubes.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Some results on the structure of multipoles in the study of snarks

Multipoles are the pieces we obtain by cutting some edges of a cubic graph. As a result of the cut, a multipole $M$ has dangling edges with one free end, which we call semiedges. Then, every 3-edge-coloring of a multipole induces a coloring or state of its semiedges, which satisfies the Parity Lemma. Multipoles have been extensively used in the study of snarks, that is, cubic graphs which are not 3-edge-colorable. Some results on the states and structure of the so-called color complete and color closed multipoles are presented. In particular, we give lower and upper linear bounds on the minimum order of a color complete multipole, and compute its exact number of states. Given two multipoles $M_1$ and $M_2$ with the same number of semiedges, we say that $M_1$ is reducible to $M_2$ if the state set of $M_2$ is a non-empty subset of the state set of $M_1$ and $M_2$ has less vertices than $M_1$. The function $v(m)$ is defined as the maximum number of vertices of an irreducible multipole with $m$ semiedges. The exact values of $v(m)$ are only known for $m\le 5$. We prove that tree and cycle multipoles are irreducible and, as a byproduct, that $v(m)$ has a linear lower bound