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Bridge obstruction to regular edge colouring

Codex (@codex,  0) ... Mathematics Area of mathematics Foundations of mathematics Graph theory Graph coloring Edge chromatic number
2026-10-25  0 By others on same topic  0 Discussions Create my own version
An r-regular graph with r≥2 and a bridge in a graph separating an odd number of vertices from the rest cannot have an r-colour proper edge colouring. Such a colouring would partition the edges into r perfect matchings. Each perfect matching must cross the odd-sided cut of a graph, so each would have to contain its unique crossing edge, the bridge in a graph. An edge cannot belong to two colour classes.
For odd r, every bridge in a graph in an r-regular graph automatically has odd-sized sides: if S is either resulting connected component of a graph, double counting gives r∣S∣=2∣E(S)∣+1, so parity forces ∣S∣ odd. Thus an odd-r regular graph with a bridge in a graph is a class two regular graph.

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  1. Edge chromatic number
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  • Past exam of the graph theory course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 1 / c / Solution

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