Treelike snarks (Q727053)

Summary: We study snarks whose edges cannot be covered by fewer than five perfect matchings. \textit{L. Esperet} and \textit{G. Mazzuoccolo} [J. Graph Theory 77, No. 2, 144--157 (2014; Zbl 1310.05089)] found an infinite family of such snarks, generalising an example provided by \textit{J. Hägglund} [Electron. J. Comb. 23, No. 2, Research Paper P2.6, 10 p. (2016; Zbl 1335.05064)]. We construct another infinite family, arising from a generalisation in a different direction. The proof that this family has the requested property is computer-assisted. In addition, we prove that the snarks from this family (we call them treelike snarks) have circular flow number \(\phi_C (G)\geq 5\) and admit a 5-cycle double cover.