On the -packing edge-coloring of subcubic graphs
arXiv:2402.18353
Abstract
An induced matching in a graph is a matching such that its end vertices also induce a matching. A -packing edge-coloring of a graph is a partition of its edge set into disjoint unions of matchings and induced matchings. Gastineau and Togni (2019), as well as Hocquard, Lajou, and Lužar (2022), have conjectured that every subcubic graph is -packing edge-colorable. In this paper, we confirm that their conjecture is true (for connected subcubic graphs with more than vertices). Our result is sharp due to the existence of subcubic graphs that are not -packing edge-colorable.
14 pages, 13 figures, 1 table