A Conjecture of Norine and Thomas for Abelian Cayley Graphs

A graph $\Gamma_1$ is a matching minor of $\Gamma$ if some even subdivision of $\Gamma_1$ is isomorphic to a subgraph $\Gamma_2$ of $\Gamma$, and by deleting the vertices of $\Gamma_2$ from $\Gamma$ the left subgraph has a perfect matching. Motivated by the study of Pfaffian graphs (the numbers of perfect matchings of these graphs can be computed in polynomial time), we characterized Abelian Cayley graphs which do not contain a $K_{3,3}$ matching minor. Furthermore, the Pfaffian property of Cayley graphs on Abelian groups is completely characterized. This result confirms that the conjecture posed by Norine and Thomas in 2008 for Abelian Cayley graphs is true.

The Parity of a Thicket

A thicket in a graph $G$ is defined as a set of even circuits such that every edge lies in an even number of them. If $G$ is directed, then each circuit in the thicket has a well defined directed parity. The parity of the thicket is the sum of the parities of its members, and is independent of the orientation of $G$. We study the problem of determining the parity of a thicket $\mathcal{T}$ in terms of structural properties of $\mathcal{T}$. Specifically, we reduce the problem to studying the case where the underlying graph $G$ is cubic. In this case we solve the problem if $|\mathcal{T}| = 3$ or $G$ is bipartite. Some applications to the problem of characterising Pfaffian graphs are also considered.

Upper Bounds for Perfect Matchings in Pfaffian and Planar Graphs

We give upper bounds on weighted perfect matchings in Pfaffian graphs. These upper bounds are better than Bregman's upper bounds on the number of perfect matchings. We show that some of our upper bounds are sharp for 3 and 4-regular Pfaffian graphs. We apply our results to fullerene graphs.