On the problem of a matching orthogonal to a 2-factorization (Q1978164)

Let \(F\) be a 2-factorisation of a \(2d\)-regular graph \(G\). A subgraph \(H\) of \(G\) is orthogonal to \(F\) if every factor in \(F\) shares exactly one edge with \(H\). Alspach has asked when \(H\) can be chosen to be a matching orthogonal to \(F\). This paper shows that for every choice of \(G\) and \(F\) it is possible to find \(H\) orthogonal to \(F\) such that every component of \(H\) is either a single edge or a path of length 2. In addition, an upper bound is given for the number of paths of length 2 needed. For large \(d\) this bound is \((4d+8)/15\).