3-Flows with Large Support Matt DeVos∗ Jessica McDonald† Irene Pivotto‡ Edita Rollov´a§ Robert S´amalˇ ¶ Abstract We prove that every 3-edge-connected graph G has a 3-flow φ with 5 the property that supp(φ) 6 E(G) . The graph K4 demonstrates 5 j j ≥ j j 5 that this 6 ratio is best possible; there is an infinite family where 6 is tight. arXiv:1701.07386v2 [math.CO] 18 Feb 2021 ∗Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6,
[email protected]. †Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA 36849,
[email protected]. ‡School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Aus- tralia 6009,
[email protected]. §European Centre of Excellence, NTIS- New Technologies for Information Society, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen,
[email protected]. ¶Computer Science Institute of Charles University, Prague,
[email protected]ff.cuni.cz. 1 Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Flow and Colouring Bounds 7 3 Ears 9 3.1 Ear Decomposition . 9 3.2 Weighted Graphs and Ear Labellings . 10 4 Setup 12 4.1 Framework . 13 4.2 Minimal Counterexample . 14 4.3 Contraction . 15 4.4 Deletion . 17 4.5 Pushing a 3-Edge Cut . 18 4.6 Creating G• ............................. 20 5 Forbidden Configurations 23 5.1 Endpoint Patterns . 25 5.2 Forbidden Configurations . 26 6 Taming Triangles 30 6.1 The Graph G∆ ........................... 32 6.2 Type 222 and 112 Triangles . 35 7 Cycles and Edge-Cuts of Size Four 37 7.1 Removing Adjacent Vertices of G∆ .