Limit points for average genus. I: 3-connected and 2-connected simplicial graphs (Q921011)

It is demonstrated that a given value of average genus is shared by at most finitely many 2-connected simplicial graphs and by at most finitely many 3-connected graphs. Moreover, the distribution of values of average genus is sparse, in the following sense: within any finite real interval, there are at most finitely many different numbers that are values of average genus for 2-connected simplicial graphs or for 3-connected graphs. Thus, there are no limit points for the values of average genus of graphs in these classes. The potential applicability of these results to graph isomorphism testing is considered.