Recursive Generation of 5-Regular Planar Graphs

Abstract

We describe for the first time how the 5-regular simple planar graphs can all be obtained from an elementary family of starting graphs by repeatedly applying a few local expansion operations. The proof uses an innovative amalgam of theory and computation. By incorporating the recursion into the canonical construction path method of isomorph rejection, a generator of non-isomorphic embedded 5-regular planar graphs is obtained with time complexity O(n 2) per isomorphism class.