Orthogonal double covers of complete graphs by caterpillars of diameter 5 (Q879946)

An orthogonal double cover of the complete graph \(K_n\) by a graph \(G\) is a collection \({\mathcal G}=\{G_1,G_2,\dots,G_n\}\) of spanning subgraphs of \(K_n\), all isomorphic to \(G\), such that every edge of \(K_n\) belongs to exactly two members of \(\mathcal G\) and any two distinct members of \(\mathcal G\) share exactly one edge. This definition immediately implies that \(G\) is of size \(n-1\). A caterpillar of diameter five is a tree arising from a path of length five by attaching pendant vertices to some or each of its vertices of degree two. The author shows that for any caterpillar of diameter five there exists an orthogonal double cover of the complete graph \(K_n\). This result supports a 1997 conjecture by \textit{H.-D. O. F. Gronau, R. C. Mullin} and \textit{A. Rosa} [Graphs Comb. 13, No.~3, 251--262 (1997; Zbl 0885.05093)].