On the volume of \(\mu\)-way \(S(K_{1,3})\)-trade on \((3, 6)\)-fullerene graphs (Q6995397)

In the present paper, the authors consider a special type of a perfect star packing in \((3, 6)\)-fullerene graphs. Moreover, properties of a \(\mu\)-way \(S(K_{1,3})\)-trade are considered for a non-trivial \((3, 6)\)-fullerene graph. In order to mention some results of the paper, several definitions are firstly needed.\N\NA \textit{\((3,6)\)-fullerene graph} is a 3-regular plane graph in which every face is a triangle or a hexagon. It is known that every \((3,6)\)-fullerene graph with \(n\) vertices has four triangles and \(h=\frac{n}{2}-2\) hexagons. Also, it turns out that \((3,6)\)-fullerene graphs with \(h\) hexagons exist if and only if \(h\) is a non-negative even integer different from 2. Furthermore, a \((3,6)\)-fullerene graph \(F\) is called \textit{non-trivial} if no two triangles of \(F\) have a common edge. As in the paper, in the rest of the review we consider only non-trivial \((3,6)\)-fullerene graphs.\N\NThe small number of triangles strongly limits the possible shapes of \((3,6)\)-fullerene graphs. In fact, each non-trivial \((3, 6)\)-fullerene graph can be described by an ordered triple \((r, s, t)\) of non-negative integers, where \(r\) is equal to the number of hexagonal layers, \(s\) is the number of radial edges (the edges between each layer), and \(t\) is the number of twists.\N\NLet \(G\) and \(H\) be two graphs. A \textit{perfect \(H\)-packing} in \(G\) is a spanning subgraph of \(G\) whose all components are isomorphic to \(H\). If \(H = K_{1,3}\) is the star graph, the corresponding perfect \(H\)-packing is called a \textit{perfect star packing} in \(G\). Let \(F\) be a \((3, 6)\)-fullerene graph. A \textit{perfect star packing of type \(T0\)} in \(F\) is a perfect star packing such that no center of a star is on a triangle of \(F\).\N\NIn Section 2, the authors show that a \((3, 6)\)-fullerene graph \(F\) has perfect star packings of type \(T0\) if and only if \(r\) is even and the number of vertices of each circle is a multiple of 8. Moreover, if the mentioned conditions are satisfied, then the number of perfect star packings of type \(T0\), denoted by \(T0(F)\), equals \N\[\NT0(F) = \begin{cases} 1 &;\ r=2 \\\N2^{\frac{r-4}{2}} &;\ r > 2 \end{cases}.\N\]\NLet \(\mu \geq 2\). For graphs \(G\) and \(H\), a \textit{\(\mu\)-way \(G\)-trade of volume \(s\) with underlying graph \(H\)} consists of \(\mu\) disjoint decompositions of \(H\) into \(s\) edge-disjoint copies of a graph \(G\). Moreover, denote by \(S(K_{1,3})\) the graph obtained from \(K_{1,3}\) by subdividing each edge (i.e.\ placing a new vertex on each edge of \(K_{1,3}\)). In Section 3 of the paper it is shown that if \(H\) is a \((3,6)\)-fullerene graph on \(n\) vertices such that there is a \(\mu\)-way \(S(K_{1,3})\)-trade of volume \(s\) with underlying graph \(H\), then\N\[\Ns = \frac{n}{4} \, , \quad \quad \mu= 9 \, T0(H),\N\]\Nwhere \(T0(H)\) is the number of perfect star packings of type \(T0\) in \(H\).\N\NFinally, the paper concludes with some open problems.