4-Factor-criticality of vertex-transitive graphs

A graph of order $n$ is $p$-factor-critical, where $p$ is an integer of the same parity as $n$, if the removal of any set of $p$ vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. 1-factor-critical graphs and 2-factor-critical graphs are well-known factor-critical graphs and bicritical graphs, respectively. It is known that if a connected vertex-transitive graph has odd order, then it is factor-critical, otherwise it is elementary bipartite or bicritical. In this paper, we show that a connected vertex-transitive non-bipartite graph of even order at least 6 is 4-factor-critical if and only if its degree is at least 5. This result implies that each connected non-bipartite Cayley graphs of even order and degree at least 5 is 2-extendable.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figure

2-Resonant fullerenes

A fullerene graph $F$ is a planar cubic graph with exactly 12 pentagonal faces and other hexagonal faces. A set $\mathcal{H}$ of disjoint hexagons of $F$ is called a resonant pattern (or sextet pattern) if $F$ has a perfect matching $M$ such that every hexagon in $\mathcal{H}$ is $M$-alternating. $F$ is said to be $k$-resonant if any $i$ ($0\leq i\leq k$) disjoint hexagons of $F$ form a resonant pattern. It was known that each fullerene graph is 1-resonant and all 3-resonant fullerenes are only the nine graphs. In this paper, we show that the fullerene graphs which do not contain the subgraph $L$ or $R$ as illustrated in Fig. 1 are 2-resonant except for the specific eleven graphs. This result implies that each IPR fullerene is 2-resonant.Comment: 34 pages, 25 figure

3-Factor-criticality of vertex-transitive graphs

A graph of order $n$ is $p$-factor-critical, where $p$ is an integer of the same parity as $n$, if the removal of any set of $p$ vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. 1-Factor-critical graphs and 2-factor-critical graphs are factor-critical graphs and bicritical graphs, respectively. It is well known that every connected vertex-transitive graph of odd order is factor-critical and every connected non-bipartite vertex-transitive graph of even order is bicritical. In this paper, we show that a simple connected vertex-transitive graph of odd order at least 5 is 3-factor-critical if and only if it is not a cycle.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure