Counting Small Cycle Double Covers

Abstract

A theorem due to Seyffarth states that every planar $4$-connected $n$-vertex graph has a cycle double cover (CDC) containing at most $n-1$ cycles (a "small" CDC). We extend this theorem by proving that, in fact, such a graph must contain linearly many small CDCs (in terms of $n$), and provide stronger results in the case of planar $4$-connected triangulations. We complement this result with constructions of planar $4$-connected graphs which contain at most polynomially many small CDCs. Thereafter we treat cubic graphs, strengthening a lemma of Hušek and Šámal on the enumeration of CDCs, and, motivated by a conjecture of Bondy, give an alternative proof of the result that every planar 2-connected cubic graph on $n>4$ vertices has a CDC of size at most $n/2$. Our proof is much shorter and obtained by combining a decomposition based argument, which might be of independent interest, with further combinatorial insights. Some of our results are accompanied by a version thereof for CDCs containing no cycle twice.

20 pages, 4 figures