Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mathematics and Statistics

First Advisor

Guantao Chen

Second Advisor

Florian Enescu

Third Advisor

Hendricus Van der Holst

Fourth Advisor

Zhongshan Li

Fifth Advisor

Yi Zhao

Abstract

Let $G$ be a graph, $V (G)$ and $E(G)$ be the vertex set and edge set of $G$, respectively. A perfect matching of $G$ is a set of edges, $M\subseteq E(G)$, such that each vertex in $G$ is incident with exactly one edge in $M$. An $r$-regular graph is said to be an $r$-graph if $|\partial(X)| \geq r$ for each odd set $X \subseteq V(G)$, where $|\partial(X)|$ denotes the set of edges with precisely one end in $X$. One of the most famous conjectures in Matching Theory, due to Berge, states that every 3-graph $G$ has five perfect matchings such that each edge of $G$ is contained in at least one of them. Likewise, generalization of the Berge Conjecture given, by Seymour, asserts that every $r$-graph $G$ has $2r-1$ perfect matchings that covers each $e \in E(G)$ at least once. In the first part of this thesis, I will provide a lower bound to number of perfect matchings needed to cover the edge set of an $r$-graph. I will also present some new conjectures that might shade a light towards the generalized Berge conjecture. In the second part, I will present a proof of a conjecture stating that there exists a pair of graphs $G$ and $H$ with $H\supset G$, $V(H)=V(G)$ and $|E(H)| = |E(G)| +k$ such that mean subtree order of $H$ is smaller then mean subtree order of $G$.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/35334148

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