Extensions of flow theorems (Q1354719)

As an extension of Seymour's 6-flow theorem, the author proves that every 2-edge-connected graph has a set \(\mathcal C\) of vertex disjoint cycles and a 3-flow \(f\) such that \(f(e)=0\) only if \(e\) belongs to one of the cycles in \(\mathcal C\). An extension of Jaeger's 8-flow theorem as well as applications to the short cycle cover problem, are also given. In particular, it is shown that the edges of a 2-edge-connected graph \(G\) can be covered by cycles whose total length is at most \[ |E(G)|+ {r\over r+1} (|V(G)|- 1), \] where \(r\) is the minimum length of an even cycle in \(G\) of length at least 10 (if no such cycle exists, \(r=\infty\)).