Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Mathematics
Committee Chair
Cun-Quan Zhang.
Abstract
Tutte's 3-flow Conjecture, 4-flow Conjecture, and 5-flow Conjecture are among the most fascinating problems in graph theory. In this dissertation, we mainly focus on the nowhere-zero integer flow of graphs, the circular flow of graphs and the bidirected flow of graphs. We confirm Tutte's 3-flow Conjecture for the family of squares of graphs and the family of triangularly connected graphs. In fact, we obtain much stronger results on this conjecture in terms of group connectivity and get the complete characterization of such graphs in those families which do not admit nowhere-zero 3-flows. For the circular flows of graphs, we establish some sufficient conditions for a graph to have circular flow index less than 4, which generalizes a new known result to a large family of graphs. For the Bidirected Flow Conjecture, we prove it to be true for 6-edge connected graphs.
Recommended Citation
Xu, Rui, "On flows of graphs" (2004). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2096.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2096