Graduation Term

2014

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Mathematics

Committee Chair

Michael J. Plantholt

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to review and expand the study of graph decomposability. An H-decomposition of a graph G=(V,E) is a partitioning of the edge set, $E$, into edge-disjoint isomorphic copies of a subgraph H. In particular we focus on the decompositions of graphs into paths. We prove that a 2,4 mutligraph with maximum multiplicity 2 admits a C_2,C_3-free Euler tour (and thus, a decomposition into paths of length 3 if it has size a multiple of 3) if and only if it avoids a set of 15 forbidden structures. We also prove that a 4-regular multigraph with maximum multiplicity 2 admits a decomposition into paths of length three if and only if it has size a multiple of 3 and no three vertices induce more than 4 edges. We go on to outline drafted work reflecting further research into path decomposition problems.

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2014.Mendell.D

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Included in

Mathematics Commons

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