Short Cycle Covers of Graphs with at Most 77% Vertices of Degree Two

Abstract

Let $G$ be a bridgeless multigraph with $m$ edges and $n_2$ vertices of degree two and let $cc(G)$ be the length of its shortest cycle cover. It is known that if $cc(G) < 1.4m$ in bridgeless graphs with $n_2 \le m/10$, then the Cycle Double Cover Conjecture holds. Fan (2017)  proved that if $n_2 = 0$, then $cc(G) < 1.6258m$ and $cc(G) < 1.6148m$ provided that $G$ is loopless; morever, if $n_2 \le m/30$, then $cc(G) < 1.6467m$. We show that for a bridgeless multigraph with $m$ edges and $n_2$ vertices of degree two, $cc(G) < 1.6148m + 0.0741n_2$. Therefore, if $n_2=0$, then $cc(G) < 1.6148m$ even if $G$ has loops; if $n_2 \le m/30$, then $cc(G) < 1.6173m$; and if $n_2 \le m/10$, then $cc(G) < 1.6223|E(G)|$. Our improvement is obtained by randomizing Fan's construction.