The optimal drawings of K_{5,n}

TL;DR

This paper investigates the structure of crossing-minimal drawings of the bipartite graph K_{5,n}, revealing conditions under which optimal drawings have antipodal vertices and characterizing all such optimal configurations for even n.

Contribution

It provides new structural insights into optimal drawings of K_{5,n}, including conditions for antipodal vertices and a classification of all optimal drawings without antipodal vertices for even n.

Findings

Optimal drawings of K_{5,n} with n ≡ 2 (mod 4) have antipodal vertices.

A family of optimal drawings without antipodal vertices is characterized for n ≡ 0 (mod 4).

Every optimal drawing of K_{5,n} for even n decomposes into Zarankiewicz drawings and a specific configuration D_{r,s}.

Abstract

Zarankiewicz's Conjecture (ZC) states that the crossing number cr$(K_{m,n})$ equals $Z(m,n):=\floor{\frac{m}{2}} \floor{\frac{m-1}{2}} \floor{\frac{n}{2}} \floor{\frac{n-1}{2}}$. Since Kleitman's verification of ZC for $K_{5,n}$ (from which ZC for $K_{6,n}$ easily follows), very little progress has been made around ZC; the most notable exceptions involve computer-aided results. With the aim of gaining a more profound understanding of this notoriously difficult conjecture, we investigate the optimal (that is, crossing-minimal) drawings of $K_{5,n}$. The widely known natural drawings of $K_{m,n}$ (the so-called Zarankiewicz drawings) with $Z(m,n)$ crossings contain antipodal vertices, that is, pairs of degree-$m$ vertices such that their induced drawing of $K_{m,2}$ has no crossings. Antipodal vertices also play a major role in Kleitman's inductive proof that cr$(K_{5,n}) = Z(5,n)$. We explore in depth the role of antipodal vertices in optimal drawings of $K_{5,n}$, for $n$ even. We prove that if {$n \equiv 2$ (mod 4)}, then every optimal drawing of $K_{5,n}$ has antipodal vertices. We also exhibit a two-parameter family of optimal drawings $D_{r,s}$ of $K_{5,4(r+s)}$ (for $r,s\ge 0$), with no antipodal vertices, and show that if $n\equiv 0$ (mod 4), then every optimal drawing of $K_{5,n}$ without antipodal vertices is (vertex rotation) isomorphic to $D_{r,s}$ for some integers $r,s$. As a corollary, we show that if $n$ is even, then every optimal drawing of $K_{5,n}$ is the superimposition of Zarankiewicz drawings with a drawing isomorphic to $D_{r,s}$ for some nonnegative integers $r,s$.