A list version of graph packing

TL;DR

This paper generalizes graph packing to list packing, extending classical theorems and providing conditions under which three graphs can be packed or are exceptions, aiming to aid future graph packing problems.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of list packing for graphs and extends key classical results, including the Bollobás–Eldridge Theorem, to this new setting.

Findings

Extended Bollobás–Eldridge Theorem to list packing

Identified 7 exceptional cases where packing does not occur

Provided conditions on degrees and edges for successful packing

Abstract

We consider the following generalization of graph packing. Let $G_{1} = (V_{1}, E_{1})$ and $G_{2} = (V_{2}, E_{2})$ be graphs of order $n$ and $G_{3} = (V_{1} \cup V_{2}, E_{3})$ a bipartite graph. A bijection $f$ from $V_{1}$ onto $V_{2}$ is a list packing of the triple $(G_{1}, G_{2}, G_{3})$ if $uv \in E_{2}$ implies $f(u)f(v) \notin E_{2}$ and $vf(v) \notin E_{3}$ for all $v \in V_{1}$. We extend the classical results of Sauer and Spencer and Bollob\'{a}s and Eldridge on packing of graphs with small sizes or maximum degrees to the setting of list packing. In particular, we extend the well-known Bollob\'{a}s--Eldridge Theorem, proving that if $\Delta (G_{1}) \leq n-2, \Delta(G_{2}) \leq n-2, \Delta(G_{3}) \leq n-1$, and $|E_1| + |E_2| + |E_3| \leq 2n-3$, then either $(G_{1}, G_{2}, G_{3})$ packs or is one of 7 possible exceptions. Hopefully, the concept of list packing will help to solve some problems on ordinary graph packing, as the concept of list coloring did for ordinary coloring.