Refocus paper on colored edge flip classes; drop frequency census

Renames the paper (and its directory) to reflect the shift in
emphasis toward the colored edge flip class introduced last commit,
and removes the flip-symmetry frequency section: the unsigned-flip
census was a digression that the new framing no longer needs, and its
prose conclusion was at odds with the direction the paper is heading.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-05-14 02:03:17 -04:00
parent 389fd56f07
commit c59d2e95e1
8 changed files with 399 additions and 320 deletions
@@ -4,13 +4,17 @@
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\begin{document}
\title{Colored Edge Flip Classes}
% Remove any unused author tags.
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\author{Eric Bauerfeld}
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\section{Motivation}
The Four Color Theorem asserts that every planar graph is properly
$4$-colorable, or equivalently that no maximal planar graph $G$
satisfies $\chi(G) \geq 5$. Suppose, towards a contradiction, that
such a graph exists; let $G_0$ be one of minimum order. Any structural
property shared by every maximal planar graph $H$ with $|V(H)| =
|V(G_0)|$ is then automatically inherited by $G_0$, and any property
\emph{not} satisfied by $G_0$ excludes a portion of the class of
maximal planar graphs from playing the role of a minimum
counterexample.
This paper investigates one such property: behavior under an edge
flip. Our principal observation
(Theorem~\ref{thm:min-five-chromatic-not-flip-symmetric}) is that
every edge flip of a minimum-order $5$-chromatic maximal planar graph
yields a $4$-colorable graph. In particular, no such graph is
\emph{flip-symmetric}, where we call a maximal planar graph $G$
flip-symmetric when some admissible flip at an edge of $G$ returns a
graph isomorphic to $G$. The search for a counterexample to the Four
Color Theorem may therefore be confined to the complement of the
class $\mathcal{F}$ of flip-symmetric graphs.
\section{Preliminaries}
Let $G$ be a maximal planar graph with $|V(G)| \geq 4$, embedded in the
plane so that every face --- including the outer face --- is a triangle.
Every edge $uv \in E(G)$ is then shared by exactly two triangular faces
$uvw$ and $uvx$ whose union is a quadrilateral $uwvx$ with diagonal $uv$.
\begin{definition}[Edge flip]
Let $G$ be a maximal planar graph and let $uv \in E(G)$ be an edge whose
two incident triangular faces are $uvw$ and $uvx$. The \emph{edge flip}
(or \emph{diagonal flip}) at $uv$ is the operation that deletes the edge
$uv$ and inserts the edge $wx$ in its place, replacing the two triangles
$uvw$ and $uvx$ by the two triangles $uwx$ and $vwx$. The flip is
\emph{admissible} if $wx \notin E(G)$; otherwise the resulting multigraph
is not simple and the flip is forbidden.
\end{definition}
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scale=1.2
]
% --- before flip ---
\begin{scope}[xshift=0cm]
\node[label=left:$u$] (u) at (0,0) {};
\node[label=right:$v$] (v) at (2,0) {};
\node[label=above:$w$] (w) at (1,1) {};
\node[label=below:$x$] (x) at (1,-1) {};
\draw (u) -- (w) -- (v) -- (x) -- (u);
\draw[very thick] (u) -- (v);
\node[draw=none, fill=none] at (1,-1.6) {before};
\end{scope}
% --- arrow ---
\draw[->, very thick, shorten >=2pt, shorten <=2pt]
(2.6,0) -- node[draw=none, fill=none, above]{flip $uv$} (3.8,0);
% --- after flip ---
\begin{scope}[xshift=4.4cm]
\node[label=left:$u$] (u2) at (0,0) {};
\node[label=right:$v$] (v2) at (2,0) {};
\node[label=above:$w$] (w2) at (1,1) {};
\node[label=below:$x$] (x2) at (1,-1) {};
\draw (u2) -- (w2) -- (v2) -- (x2) -- (u2);
\draw[very thick] (w2) -- (x2);
\node[draw=none, fill=none] at (1,-1.6) {after};
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{An edge flip replaces the diagonal $uv$ of the quadrilateral
$uwvx$ with the diagonal $wx$.}
\end{figure}
\section{Flip-symmetric maximal planar graphs}
For a maximal planar graph $G$ and an admissible edge $uv \in E(G)$
with incident triangles $uvw$, $uvx$, write
\[
G^{\mathrm{flip}(uv)} \;=\; \bigl(V(G),\,(E(G)\setminus\{uv\})\cup\{wx\}\bigr)
\]
for the graph obtained from $G$ by flipping $uv$.
\begin{definition}[Flip-symmetric graph]\label{def:flip-symmetric}
A maximal planar graph $G$ is \emph{flip-symmetric} if there exists an
admissible edge $uv \in E(G)$ such that
$G^{\mathrm{flip}(uv)} \cong G$. We write $\mathcal{F}$ for the class
of flip-symmetric maximal planar graphs.
\end{definition}
\begin{definition}[Colored edge flip class]\label{def:colored-flip-class}
Let $G$ be a maximal planar graph and let $\varphi$ be a proper
$4$-coloring of $G$. The \emph{colored edge flip class} of
$(G, \varphi)$ is the set
\[
\mathcal{C}(G, \varphi) \;=\; \bigl\{\, G^{\mathrm{flip}(uv)} :
uv \in E(G),\ \text{the flip at } uv \text{ is admissible, and}\
\varphi(w) \neq \varphi(x) \,\bigr\},
\]
where $w, x$ are the third vertices of the two triangular faces of
$G$ containing $uv$. Equivalently, $\mathcal{C}(G, \varphi)$ is the
set of graphs obtained from $G$ by an admissible edge flip under
which $\varphi$ remains a proper $4$-coloring.
\end{definition}
\section{A minimal four-colorable counterexample}
\begin{definition}[Edge-deletion subgraph]\label{def:edge-deletion}
Let $G$ be a maximal planar graph and $uv \in E(G)$. The
\emph{edge-deletion subgraph at $uv$} is the spanning subgraph
$G - uv = (V(G),\,E(G) \setminus \{uv\})$. Write
$\mathcal{D}(G) = \{G - uv : uv \in E(G)\}$.
\end{definition}
\begin{lemma}\label{lem:edge-deletion-4colorable}
Let $G_0$ be a maximal planar graph of minimum order with
$\chi(G_0) \geq 5$. Then every $H \in \mathcal{D}(G_0)$ is
$4$-colorable.
\end{lemma}
\begin{proof}
Fix $uv \in E(G_0)$ and let $G_0 / uv$ denote the simple planar graph
obtained by contracting $uv$ and discarding parallel edges. Since
$|V(G_0/uv)| = |V(G_0)| - 1$, the minimality of $G_0$ supplies a
proper $4$-coloring $c$ of $G_0 / uv$. Let $z$ be the contracted
vertex and define $c'\colon V(G_0) \to \{1,2,3,4\}$ by
$c'(u) = c'(v) = c(z)$ and $c'(y) = c(y)$ for $y \notin \{u, v\}$.
Every edge of $G_0 - uv$ is either disjoint from $\{u, v\}$ or
incident to exactly one of them; in either case the corresponding
edge of $G_0 / uv$ has distinct endpoints under $c$, so $c'$ assigns
its endpoints distinct colors. The edge $uv$ itself is absent from
$G_0 - uv$, so $c'$ is a proper $4$-coloring of $G_0 - uv$.
\end{proof}
\begin{lemma}\label{lem:edge-deletion-coloring-structure}
Let $G_0$ be a maximal planar graph of minimum order with
$\chi(G_0) \geq 5$, fix $uv \in E(G_0)$, and let $\varphi$ be any
proper $4$-coloring of $G_0 - uv$. Write $a = \varphi(u)$ and let
$b, c, d$ denote the three remaining colors. Then:
\begin{enumerate}
\item $\varphi(v) = a$;
\item the subgraph of $G_0 - uv$ induced by the vertices of color
$a$ or $b$ contains a path from $u$ to $v$;
\item the subgraph of $G_0 - uv$ induced by the vertices of color
$a$ or $c$ contains a path from $u$ to $v$.
\end{enumerate}
\end{lemma}
\begin{proof}
(1) If $\varphi(v) \neq a$ then $\varphi$ is already a proper
$4$-coloring of $G_0$, since the only edge of $G_0$ absent from
$G_0 - uv$ is $uv$ and its endpoints have distinct colors. This
contradicts $\chi(G_0) \geq 5$, so $\varphi(v) = a$.
(2) Suppose, for contradiction, that $u$ and $v$ lie in distinct
connected components of the subgraph of $G_0 - uv$ induced by the
color classes $a$ and $b$. Let $C$ be the component containing $u$,
and define $\varphi'\colon V(G_0) \to \{a,b,c,d\}$ by swapping colors
$a \leftrightarrow b$ on $C$ and leaving every other vertex
unchanged. Then $\varphi'$ is a proper $4$-coloring of $G_0 - uv$
with $\varphi'(u) = b$ and $\varphi'(v) = a$, contradicting part~(1)
applied to $\varphi'$.
(3) Identical to (2) with $c$ in place of $b$.
\end{proof}
\begin{theorem}\label{thm:min-five-chromatic-not-flip-symmetric}
Let $G$ be a minimum-order maximal planar graph with $\chi(G) \geq 5$.
Then for every edge $e \in E(G)$, the graph induced by an edge flip
of $e$ is $4$-colorable.
\end{theorem}
\begin{proof}
Fix an edge $e = uv \in E(G)$, and let $F_0, F_1$ be the two
triangular faces of $G$ incident to $e$, so that
$\{w, x\} = \bigl(V(F_0) \cup V(F_1)\bigr) \setminus \{u, v\}$. By
Lemma~\ref{lem:edge-deletion-4colorable}, $G - e$ admits a proper
$4$-coloring $\varphi$.
\smallskip
\noindent\emph{Case 1: $\varphi(w) \neq \varphi(x)$.} Then $\varphi$
is also a proper $4$-coloring of the graph induced by the edge flip
of $e$.
\smallskip
\noindent\emph{Case 2: $\varphi(w) = \varphi(x)$.} Set
$a = \varphi(u)$; by Lemma~\ref{lem:edge-deletion-coloring-structure}(1),
$\varphi(v) = a$ as well, and the edges $uw, vw \in E(G - e)$ force
$\varphi(w) \neq a$. Choose a color $b \notin \{a, \varphi(w)\}$.
By Lemma~\ref{lem:edge-deletion-coloring-structure}, there is a path
$P$ from $u$ to $v$ in the subgraph of $G - e$ induced by the
vertices of color $a$ or $b$. Let
$\{c, d\} = \{1, 2, 3, 4\} \setminus \{a, b\}$; then
$\varphi(w) = \varphi(x) \in \{c, d\}$.
Any path from $w$ to $x$ in the subgraph of $G - e$ induced by the
vertices of color $c$ or $d$ would, in the plane embedding of
$G - e$, cross $P$; but its vertices have colors in
$\{c, d\}$ and the vertices of $P$ have colors in $\{a, b\}$, and
these sets are disjoint, so the two paths share no vertex. Hence
$w$ and $x$ lie in distinct connected components of the
$\{c, d\}$-colored subgraph of $G - e$. Swapping colors
$c \leftrightarrow d$ on the component containing $w$ yields a proper
$4$-coloring of $G - e$ in which $\varphi(w) \neq \varphi(x)$,
reducing to Case~1.
\end{proof}
\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}[
vertex/.style={circle, draw, minimum size=18pt, inner sep=0pt, font=\small},
scale=1.0
]
% --- u and v with color a ---
\node[vertex, fill=red!25, label=left:$u$] (u) at (0, 0) {$a$};
\node[vertex, fill=red!25, label=right:$v$] (v) at (7, 0) {$a$};
% --- w (above) and x (below): both colored c in Case 2 ---
\node[vertex, fill=green!30, label=above:$w$] (w) at (3.5, 0.6) {$c$};
\node[vertex, fill=green!30, label=below:$x$] (x) at (3.5, -0.6) {$c$};
\draw (u) -- (w) -- (v);
\draw (u) -- (x) -- (v);
% --- {a, b}-Kempe path P from u to v ---
\node[vertex, fill=blue!25] (b1) at (1.5, 1.7) {$b$};
\node[vertex, fill=red!25] (a1) at (3.5, 2.0) {$a$};
\node[vertex, fill=blue!25] (b2) at (5.5, 1.7) {$b$};
\draw (u) -- (b1) -- (a1) -- (b2) -- (v);
% Path label
\node[font=\small] at (3.5, 2.6) {$\{a, b\}$-Kempe path $P$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Case~2 of the proof of
Theorem~\ref{thm:min-five-chromatic-not-flip-symmetric}: $u, v$ share
color $a$ and $w, x$ share color $c$. The $\{a, b\}$-Kempe path $P$
from $u$ to $v$ separates $w$ from $x$ in the plane, so no
$\{c, d\}$-path between $w$ and $x$ can avoid crossing $P$; since the
color sets $\{a, b\}$ and $\{c, d\}$ are disjoint, no such path
exists.}
\label{fig:flip-proof-case-two}
\end{figure}
\end{document}
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%% of this license or (at your option) any later version.
%% The latest version of this license is in
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%% version 2005/12/01 or later.
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%% The Current Maintainer of this work is the American Mathematical
%% Society.
%%
%% ====================================================================
% AMS-LaTeX v.2 template for use with amsart
%
% Remove any commented or uncommented macros you do not use.
\documentclass{amsart}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}[section]
\newtheorem{lemma}[theorem]{Lemma}
\newtheorem{conjecture}[theorem]{Conjecture}
\theoremstyle{definition}
\newtheorem{definition}[theorem]{Definition}
\newtheorem{example}[theorem]{Example}
\newtheorem{xca}[theorem]{Exercise}
\theoremstyle{remark}
\newtheorem{remark}[theorem]{Remark}
\numberwithin{equation}{section}
\begin{document}
\title{Flip Symmetric Maximal Planar Graphs}
% Remove any unused author tags.
% author one information
\author{Eric Bauerfeld}
\address{}
\curraddr{}
\email{}
\thanks{}
\subjclass[2010]{Primary }
\keywords{}
\date{}
\dedicatory{}
\begin{abstract}
\end{abstract}
\maketitle
\section{Motivation}
The Four Color Theorem asserts that every planar graph is properly
$4$-colorable, or equivalently that no maximal planar graph $G$
satisfies $\chi(G) \geq 5$. Suppose, towards a contradiction, that
such a graph exists; let $G_0$ be one of minimum order. Any structural
property shared by every maximal planar graph $H$ with $|V(H)| =
|V(G_0)|$ is then automatically inherited by $G_0$, and any property
\emph{not} satisfied by $G_0$ excludes a portion of the class of
maximal planar graphs from playing the role of a minimum
counterexample.
This paper investigates one such property: invariance under an
admissible edge flip. We call a maximal planar graph $G$
\emph{flip-symmetric} when some admissible flip at an edge of $G$
returns a graph isomorphic to $G$. Our principal observation
(Theorem~\ref{thm:min-five-chromatic-not-flip-symmetric}) is that a
minimum-order $5$-chromatic maximal planar graph cannot be
flip-symmetric, so the search for a counterexample to the Four Color
Theorem may, in principle, be confined to the complement of the class
$\mathcal{F}$ of flip-symmetric graphs. This raises a quantitative
question --- how large is $\mathcal{F}$? --- which we address
empirically in Section~\ref{sec:frequency} by an exhaustive census of
maximal planar graphs of small order.
\section{Preliminaries}
Let $G$ be a maximal planar graph with $|V(G)| \geq 4$, embedded in the
plane so that every face --- including the outer face --- is a triangle.
Every edge $uv \in E(G)$ is then shared by exactly two triangular faces
$uvw$ and $uvx$ whose union is a quadrilateral $uwvx$ with diagonal $uv$.
\begin{definition}[Edge flip]
Let $G$ be a maximal planar graph and let $uv \in E(G)$ be an edge whose
two incident triangular faces are $uvw$ and $uvx$. The \emph{edge flip}
(or \emph{diagonal flip}) at $uv$ is the operation that deletes the edge
$uv$ and inserts the edge $wx$ in its place, replacing the two triangles
$uvw$ and $uvx$ by the two triangles $uwx$ and $vwx$. The flip is
\emph{admissible} if $wx \notin E(G)$; otherwise the resulting multigraph
is not simple and the flip is forbidden.
\end{definition}
\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}[
every node/.style={circle, fill=black, inner sep=1.5pt},
label distance=2pt,
scale=1.2
]
% --- before flip ---
\begin{scope}[xshift=0cm]
\node[label=left:$u$] (u) at (0,0) {};
\node[label=right:$v$] (v) at (2,0) {};
\node[label=above:$w$] (w) at (1,1) {};
\node[label=below:$x$] (x) at (1,-1) {};
\draw (u) -- (w) -- (v) -- (x) -- (u);
\draw[very thick] (u) -- (v);
\node[draw=none, fill=none] at (1,-1.6) {before};
\end{scope}
% --- arrow ---
\draw[->, very thick, shorten >=2pt, shorten <=2pt]
(2.6,0) -- node[draw=none, fill=none, above]{flip $uv$} (3.8,0);
% --- after flip ---
\begin{scope}[xshift=4.4cm]
\node[label=left:$u$] (u2) at (0,0) {};
\node[label=right:$v$] (v2) at (2,0) {};
\node[label=above:$w$] (w2) at (1,1) {};
\node[label=below:$x$] (x2) at (1,-1) {};
\draw (u2) -- (w2) -- (v2) -- (x2) -- (u2);
\draw[very thick] (w2) -- (x2);
\node[draw=none, fill=none] at (1,-1.6) {after};
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{An edge flip replaces the diagonal $uv$ of the quadrilateral
$uwvx$ with the diagonal $wx$.}
\end{figure}
\section{Flip-symmetric maximal planar graphs}
For a maximal planar graph $G$ and an admissible edge $uv \in E(G)$
with incident triangles $uvw$, $uvx$, write
\[
G^{\mathrm{flip}(uv)} \;=\; \bigl(V(G),\,(E(G)\setminus\{uv\})\cup\{wx\}\bigr)
\]
for the graph obtained from $G$ by flipping $uv$.
\begin{definition}[Flip-symmetric graph]\label{def:flip-symmetric}
A maximal planar graph $G$ is \emph{flip-symmetric} if there exists an
admissible edge $uv \in E(G)$ such that
$G^{\mathrm{flip}(uv)} \cong G$. We write $\mathcal{F}$ for the class
of flip-symmetric maximal planar graphs.
\end{definition}
\section{A minimal four-colorable counterexample}
\begin{theorem}\label{thm:min-five-chromatic-not-flip-symmetric}
Let $G$ be a maximal planar graph of minimum order among all maximal
planar graphs $H$ with $\chi(H) \geq 5$. Then $G \notin \mathcal{F}$;
that is, $G$ is not flip-symmetric.
\end{theorem}
\section{Flip symmetry frequency}\label{sec:frequency}
To gauge how restrictive flip-symmetry is, we performed an exhaustive
census of maximal planar graphs of small order. For each
$n \in \{4, 5, \dots, 14\}$ we enumerated every isomorphism class of
maximal planar graph on $n$ vertices using \texttt{plantri} (invoked
through SageMath as \texttt{graphs.planar\_graphs} with
\texttt{minimum\_connectivity}~$=3$ and
\texttt{maximum\_face\_size}~$=3$), and for each such $G$ we tested
every admissible edge $uv \in E(G)$ for the existence of an isomorphism
$G \cong G^{\mathrm{flip}(uv)}$. Writing $T_n$ for the total number of
maximal planar graphs on $n$ vertices and
$F_n = |\mathcal{F} \cap \{G : |V(G)| = n\}|$ for the number of
flip-symmetric ones, the results are tabulated below.
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{r r r l}
\hline
$n$ & $T_n$ & $F_n$ & $F_n / T_n$ \\
\hline
$4$ & $1$ & $0$ & $0.000000$ \\
$5$ & $1$ & $1$ & $1.000000$ \\
$6$ & $2$ & $1$ & $0.500000$ \\
$7$ & $5$ & $1$ & $0.200000$ \\
$8$ & $14$ & $5$ & $0.357143$ \\
$9$ & $50$ & $17$ & $0.340000$ \\
$10$ & $233$ & $48$ & $0.206009$ \\
$11$ & $1{,}249$ & $164$ & $0.131305$ \\
$12$ & $7{,}595$ & $552$ & $0.072679$ \\
$13$ & $49{,}566$ & $1{,}828$ & $0.036880$ \\
$14$ & $339{,}722$& $6{,}164$ & $0.018144$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
From $n = 10$ onward the ratio $F_n / T_n$ decreases by a factor
approaching $1/2$ at each step, suggesting that the density of
flip-symmetric graphs among maximal planar graphs of order $n$ decays
to zero --- empirically at a roughly geometric rate. This tempers
the utility of
Theorem~\ref{thm:min-five-chromatic-not-flip-symmetric}: although it
guarantees that a minimum-order counterexample to the Four Color
Theorem lies in the complement of $\mathcal{F}$, that complement
already comprises nearly the entire class of maximal planar graphs
on $n$ vertices once $n$ is moderately large. The structural
exclusion offered by flip-symmetry therefore prunes a vanishingly
small portion of the search space, and this property is unlikely on
its own to be a productive avenue for narrowing the search for a
counterexample.
A natural follow-up question is whether the picture improves when one
restricts attention to maximal planar graphs of minimum degree at
least~$5$, the class to which any minimum-order $5$-chromatic graph
necessarily belongs (a vertex of degree at most~$4$ admits a standard
Kempe reduction). Writing $T^{(5)}_n$ and $F^{(5)}_n$ for the
analogous counts within this subclass, we ran the same census after
adding \texttt{minimum\_degree}~$=5$ to the \texttt{plantri}
invocation, obtaining the table below.
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{r r r l}
\hline
$n$ & $T^{(5)}_n$ & $F^{(5)}_n$ & $F^{(5)}_n / T^{(5)}_n$ \\
\hline
$12$ & $1$ & $0$ & $0.000000$ \\
$13$ & $0$ & $0$ & --- \\
$14$ & $1$ & $0$ & $0.000000$ \\
$15$ & $1$ & $0$ & $0.000000$ \\
$16$ & $3$ & $1$ & $0.333333$ \\
$17$ & $4$ & $1$ & $0.250000$ \\
$18$ & $12$ & $2$ & $0.166667$ \\
$19$ & $23$ & $5$ & $0.217391$ \\
$20$ & $73$ & $12$ & $0.164384$ \\
$21$ & $192$ & $27$ & $0.140625$ \\
$22$ & $651$ & $51$ & $0.078341$ \\
$23$ & $2{,}070$ & $120$ & $0.057971$ \\
$24$ & $7{,}290$ & $273$ & $0.037449$ \\
$25$ & $25{,}381$ & $598$ & $0.023561$ \\
$26$ & $91{,}441$ & $1{,}341$ & $0.014665$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
The first flip-symmetric example in this subclass appears at $n = 16$.
Beyond that, the density $F^{(5)}_n / T^{(5)}_n$ again decays toward
zero, though at a noticeably gentler rate: the step-to-step ratio
settles around $0.63$ rather than the $\approx\!1/2$ observed in the
unrestricted census. The restriction to minimum degree~$5$ therefore
preserves flip-symmetry slightly longer relative to the size of the
subclass, but does not alter the qualitative conclusion: even within
the minimum-degree-$5$ class --- which already contains every
candidate minimum-order $5$-chromatic graph --- flip-symmetric
examples become a vanishing fraction.
\end{document}
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