Perfect matchings in claw-free cubic graphs (Q540046)

Summary: Lovász and Plummer conjectured that there exists a fixed positive constant \(c\) such that every cubic \(n\)-vertex graph with no cutedge has at least \(2^{cn}\) perfect matchings. Their conjecture has been verified for bipartite graphs by Voorhoeve and planar graphs by Chudnovsky and Seymour. We prove that every claw-free cubic \(n\)-vertex graph with no cutedge has more than \(2^{n/12}\) perfect matchings, thus verifying the conjecture for claw-free graphs.