Topological aspects of edge fusions in 4-graphs (Q804018)

Let p and q be two vertices of a finite h-regular multigraph G having a proper edge colouring using h colours (h\(\geq 2)\). If \(\{\) p,q\(\}\) forms an edge of G, the edge fusion G fus\(\{\) p,q\(\}\) has vertex set V(G)-\(\{\) p,q\(\}\), and two vertices of the new graph form an edge coloured c if either: (i) they do so in G, or (ii) one of them is joined to p and the other to q, both by c-coloured edges in G. In this paper a complete analysis is provided of the effect of edge fusion on bipartite graphs for the case \(h=4\) above and on the 3-dimensional pseudocomplexes represented by them. Such graphs are special cases of 3-gems (3-dimensional graph encoded manifolds). From the topological point of view, the authors claim, the main contribution of the paper is the determination that some edge fusions can correspond to the elimination of two handles.