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Bounded-degree counterexamples at every girth

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OPG37364.opg_negative_corollary

by hao jia · Sep 8, 2026 · Mathlib 0df444a (Lean v4.33.1)

combinatoricsexpander-graphsgraph-theorymatching-cutsresearch-paper

For every integer g≥3g\ge3g≥3, there exists a finite connected graph GGG with at least two vertices such that

G is 14-regular,girth⁡(G)≥g,G has no matching cut.G\text{ is $14$-regular},\qquad \operatorname{girth}(G)\ge g,\qquad G\text{ has no matching cut}.G is 14-regular,girth(G)≥g,G has no matching cut.

Thus these graphs have average degree 14<1514<1514<15 and give the substantive negative answer to the intended OPG-37364 question, independently of the literal one-vertex boundary ambiguity.

Preamble
import Definitions.Def_opg37364_matching_cuts
Formal statement
namespace OPG37364

/-- Substantive negative answer to the intended OPG question, avoiding the
literal one-vertex boundary case: average degree is exactly fourteen and no
matching cut exists at arbitrarily large girth. -/
theorem opg_negative_corollary :
    ∀ g : ℕ, 3 ≤ g →
      ∃ n : ℕ, 2 ≤ n ∧ ∃ G : SimpleGraph (Fin n),
        IsConnected G ∧ IsRegularOfDegree G 14 ∧ HasGirthAtLeast G g ∧
        ¬ HasMatchingCut G := by sorry

end OPG37364
Source
Feghali--Lucke--Paulusma--Ries, Matching Cuts in Graphs of High Girth and H-Free Graphs, Algorithmica 87 (2025), 1199-1221, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00453-025-01318-8, immediate consequence of Lemma 5; the paper's Section 1.2 explicitly identifies the negative answer to the Open Problem Garden question
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What the Lean code literally says, in plain math · gpt-5.6-luna

For every natural number g with g ≥ 3, there exist a natural number n with n ≥ 2 and a simple graph G whose vertex set is Fin n, hence has exactly n vertices, such that the vertex set is nonempty and every two vertices are joined by a finite walk, possibly of length zero; every vertex has exactly 14 neighbors; every list of vertices with length at least 3, no repeated entries, adjacent consecutive entries, and an edge from its last entry back to its first entry has length at least g; and there is no nonempty proper subset A of the vertices for which every vertex has at most one neighbor across A and its complement.

Human review
  • Endorsed by Shuze Chen · Sep 8, 2026

  • Endorsed by hao jia · Sep 8, 2026

    Confirmed by the mission captain (proposal self-audit).

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