Extremal size of graphs without a nowhere-zero 3-flow (Q2732635)

A nowhere-zero \(k\)-flow on a directed graph \(G\) with edge-set \(E\) is a function \(f: E\to\mathbb{Z}\) with \(0<|f(e)|< k\) for each edge \(e\) and fulfilling the flow condition at each vertext. For \(k= 3\) (for \(k=4\) compare \textit{H.-J. Lai} [J. Graph Theory 19, No. 3, 385-395 (1995; Zbl 0822.05064)]) it is shown that if \(G\) is a 2-edge-connected simple graph with \(n\geq 6\) vertices and at least \(\left(\begin{smallmatrix} n-5\\ 2\end{smallmatrix}\right)+ 46\) edges then either \(G\) has a nowhere-zero 3-flow, or \(G\) can be contracted to a \(K_4\).