Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Coronoid systems, nanotubes and toroidal polyhexes (or fullerenes) can all be regarded as carbon networks composed of carbon atoms linked in hexagonal shapes. The resonance graphs of coronoid systems and nanotubes are not necessarily connected. For coronoid systems and elementary nanotubes, by using flow across cuts the present authors gave criteria for two perfect matchings lying in the same connected component of the resonance graph (Discrete Appl. Math. 395 (2026) 443-455). However, the sufficiency of such criterion does not hold for general nanotubes and toroidal polyhexes. In this paper we strengthen this requirement to obtain valid criteria for two perfect matchings of a nanotube (resp. toroidal polyhex) to lie in the same connected component of its resonance graph: they have the same flows across cuts along the $x$-axis (resp. longitude and latitude) and the same ladders. For toroidal polyhexes, our method uses homotopic classes of simple loops on the torus, and the above criterion can be simplified by using only simple flows, for the case in which two perfect matchings have alternating hexagons.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Liang, Lingmei, Zhang, Heping
Institution: Lanzhou University
Language: English
Subfield: Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G6714676085, G8173501753
OpenAlex ID: W7213598097