Induced Matchings in Subcubic Graphs

Abstract

We prove that a cubic graph with $m$ edges has an induced matching with at least $m/9$ edges. Our result generalizes a result for planar graphs due to Kang, Mnich, and Müller (Induced matchings in subcubic planar graphs, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 26 (2012) 1383-1411) and solves a conjecture of Henning and Rautenbach (Induced matchings in subcubic graphs without short cycles, to appear in Discrete Math.).

8 pages