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Questions tagged [perfect-matchings]

A perfect matching is a matching of all the vertices of a graph. In other words, a perfect matching is a set of edges such that each vertex of the graph is incident to exactly one edge in the set.

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21 votes
2 answers
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Graphs with only disjoint perfect matchings

Let $G(V,E)$ be a graph. I am searching for graphs with only disjoint perfect matchings (i.e. every edge only appears in at most one of the perfect matchings). Examples: Cyclic graph $C_n$ with even ...
Mario Krenn's user avatar
32 votes
0 answers
3k views

Vertex coloring inherited from perfect matchings (motivated by quantum physics)

Added (19.01.2021): Dustin Mixon wrote a blog post about the question where he reformulated and generalized the question. Added (25.12.2020): I made a youtube video to explain the question in detail. ...
Mario Krenn's user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is every positive integer the permanent of some 0-1 matrix?

In the course of discussing another MO question we realized that we did not know the answer to a more basic question, namely: Is it true that for every positive integer $k$ there exists a balanced ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
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22 votes
2 answers
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Cubic graphs without a perfect matching and a vertex incident to three bridges

The example shown below (courtesy of David Eppstein) is a common example of a cubic graph that admits no perfect matching: (source: uci.edu) Are there other examples of cubic graphs that do not ...
Anthony Labarre's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

Densest Graphs with Unique Perfect Matching

Given a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, that has a perfect matching $M$, what is the maximal number of edges that $G$ can have without contradicting the uniqueness of $M$? Are examples of such extremal ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
401 views

Perfect matchings in infinite graphs

Let $G=(V,E)$ be an infinite graph such that $|V| = \kappa$ for some infinite cardinal $\kappa$, and every $v\in V$ has degree $\kappa$. Does $G$ have a perfect matching?
Dominic van der Zypen's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
382 views

Why is the number of Perfect Matchings in a triangular grid equivalent to the number of Royal Paths?

The sequence A006318 at OEIS stands for the Schröder numbers. They describes the number of lattice paths from the southwest corner $(0,0)$ of an $n\times n$ grid to the northeast corner $(n,n)$, ...
Mario Krenn's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
571 views

Perfect matchings in certain classes of hypergraphs

While doing research I came unto the following problem: Given a hypergraph $H$ which is $r$-partite, $r$-uniform (each edge contains exactly $r$ vertices), $k$-regular (each vertex is contained in ...
Pedro T. Lima's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
480 views

Are all numbers from $1$ to $n!$ the number of perfect matchings of some bipartite graph?

Let $f(G)$ give the number of perfect matchings of a graph $G$. Consider set $\mathcal N_{2n}=\{0,1,2,\dots,n!-1,n!\}$. Consider collection of all $2n$ vertex balanced bipartite graph to be $\...
Turbo's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
3k views

Number of perfect matchings in bipartite graph with given minimum degree

Let $G$ be a spanning subgraph of $K_{n,n}$ with minimum degree $\delta(G) \geq n/2$. It's easy to show using Hall's theorem that $G$ has a perfect matching, and the example of two disjoint copies of ...
Ben Barber's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
353 views

Matching with probabilistic edges

Let $p<1$ be a constant. Consider two sets $A,B$, each with $n$ vertices. For each pair $(a,b)\in A\times B$, the edge between $a$ and $b$ appears with probability $p$, independently of the ...
Alexi's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
299 views

On Schrijver's lower bound for the number of perfect matchings

Schrijver's lower bound gives the number of perfect matchings in a $k$-regular bipartite graph as $\Big(\frac{(k-1)^{k-1}}{k^{k-2}}\Big)^n$. What is the corresponding lower bound for minimum-degree $k$...
Turbo's user avatar
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-1 votes
2 answers
306 views

Cardinality of a set of mutually disjoint perfect matchings of $K_\omega$

If $G=(V,E)$ is a simple, undirected graph, we say that $M\subseteq E$ is a perfect matching if the members of $M$ are pairwise disjoint and $\bigcup M = V$. Let $K_\omega$ be the complete graph on $\...
Dominic van der Zypen's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
750 views

Postnikov's approach to perfect matchings of graphs

Over a decade ago Alexander Postnikov developed his own way of looking at perfect matchings of bipartite plane graphs. As I recall, he starts with a 2-coloring of the square grid and creates a new ...
James Propp's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
537 views

Fastest algorithm for counting perfect matchings in a general graph

Let $G(V,E)$ be a undirected graph. I am interested in the fastest known algorithm for counting the number of perfect matchings in $G(V,E)$ (which is known to be in $\#P$). In particular, what is the ...
Mario Krenn's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
761 views

Maximum number of perfect matchings in a planar graph?

What is the maximum number of perfect matchings a planar $k$-partite $|V|$ number of vertices simple graph can have where $k=2,3,4$ ($k>4$ is impossible for a planar graph)? Since number of ...
Turbo's user avatar
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7 votes
5 answers
4k views

Applications of Perfect Matching

I'm exploring some applications of perfect matching and I would like some input. I have found many applications in chemistry (storing information, estimating bond lengths, estimating resonance energy, ...
Aidan Kehoe's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
203 views

Upper bound on the number of perfect matchings in $K_{3,3}$-free graphs

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph with an even number of vertices $|V|=2n$. Assume that $G$ is $K_{3,3}$-free i.e. it does not contain a graph isomorphic to biclique $K_{3,3}$. A perfect matching of $G$ is a ...
Michał Oszmaniec's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
974 views

Algorithm to count the number of perfect matchings in non planar graph

I need to count the number of perfect matchings of a certain family of graphs. This family of graph is non planar and a type of snark. For the initial cases, it seems that this number is growing ...
Sandeep Silwal's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
969 views

Graph to Bipartite conversion preserving number of perfect matchings

Given a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices is there a technique to convert to a balanced bipartite graph $B$ with $O(n^c)$ vertices at some fixed $0<c$ in $O(n^{c'})$ time at some fixed $0<c'$ such that ...
Turbo's user avatar
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7 votes
0 answers
349 views

Missing count in number of perfect matchings

Let $f(G)$ give number of perfect matchings of a graph $G$. Denote $\mathcal N_{2n}=\{0,1,2,\dots,n!-1,n!\}$. Denote collection of all $2n$ vertex balanced bipartite graph to be $\mathcal G_{2n}$. ...
Turbo's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
304 views

Perfect matchings in infinite regular bipartite graphs

This question was motivated by a discussion here and is related to a previous question here. Let $\kappa$ and $\lambda$ be cardinals such that $0<\lambda\leq \kappa$. Let $G=(A\cup B, E)$ be a ...
Louis D's user avatar
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