Stable cuts, NAC-colourings and flexible realisations of graphs

Abstract

A (2-dimensional) realisation of a graph $G$ is a pair $(G,p)$, where $p$ maps the vertices of $G$ to ${\mathbb{R}}^2$. A realisation is flexible if it can be continuously deformed while keeping the edge lengths fixed, and rigid otherwise. We say that $G$ is rigid if every generic realisation of $G$ is rigid; otherwise, $G$ is flexible. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between stable cuts and graphs which are either flexible, or admit a flexible (not necessarily generic) realisation with positive edge lengths. We strengthen a result of Chen and Yu, who proved that every $n$-vertex graph with at most $2n-4$ edges has a stable cut, by showing that every flexible graph has a stable cut. The existence of a stable cut is a sufficient, but not necessary, condition for a flexible realisation to exist. Using a result of Le and Pfender on stable cuts, we prove a conjecture of Grasegger, Legerský and Schicho that characterises the minimally rigid graphs which admit a flexible realisation. Additionally, we investigate the number of NAC-colourings in various graphs. A NAC-colouring is a type of edge colouring introduced by Grasegger, Legerský and Schicho, who showed that the existence of such a colouring characterises the existence of a flexible realisation with positive edge lengths. We provide an upper bound on the number of NAC-colourings for arbitrary graphs, and construct families of graphs, including rigid and minimally rigid ones, for which this number is exponential in the number of vertices.

19 pages, 7 figures, to appear in J Graph Theory