A hierarchy of edge-weight symmetries in perfect matchings

TL;DR

This paper investigates the structural properties of edge-weight symmetries in graphs related to perfect matchings, providing a hierarchy of conditions and a counterexample to a key open question in the field.

Contribution

It introduces a hierarchy of edge-weight symmetry properties, characterizes their relationships, and constructs a counterexample disproving a conjecture about fixing a single edge.

Findings

Edge min-max property does not imply perfect matching equality.

Hierarchy of symmetry conditions becomes equivalent in bipartite graphs.

Counterexample shows a single edge cannot always eliminate all min/max weight perfect matchings.

Abstract

Motivated by the exact weight perfect matching problem and recent parameterized algorithms for finding an $\ell$-th smallest perfect matching, we study structural properties of edge-weight symmetries in graphs. Recent work by El Maalouly et al. (ESA 2025) showed that excluding all perfect matchings whose weight is at most the $(\ell - 1)$-th smallest possible value in the graph requires fixing at most $2(\ell-1)$ edges in non-bipartite graphs and at most $\ell-1$ edges in bipartite graphs. A natural open question is whether fixing a single edge is always sufficient to shift the extreme (minimum or maximum) weight of a perfect matching when the global minimum and maximum weights differ. To address this, we define and analyze a hierarchy of progressively weaker edge-weight properties: node-induced weights, even walk and cycle symmetries, perfect matching equality, and the edge min-max property. We derive a basic hierarchy among these conditions and show that they become equivalent in bipartite graphs. For general graphs, we provide tight structural characterizations, based on block and tight cut decompositions, under which even cycle symmetry and perfect matching equality force node-induced weights. Finally, we resolve the motivating open question in the negative by constructing a matching-covered non-bipartite graph that satisfies the edge min-max property (every edge is contained in a minimum-weight perfect matching and a maximum-weight one) but violates perfect matching equality (all perfect matchings have the same weight). This counterexample shows that a single edge is not always sufficient to eliminate all minimum-weight or maximum-weight perfect matchings, thereby proving the tightness of the $2(\ell-1)$ bound for $\ell=2$. We also discuss extensions of this framework to $b$-factors and arborescences.