Edge-colorings and circular flow numbers on regular graphs

Abstract

The paper characterizes $(2t+1)$-regular graphs with circular flow number $2 + \frac{2}{2t-1}$. For $t=1$ this is Tutte's characterization of cubic graphs with flow number 4. The class of cubic graphs is the only class of odd regular graphs where a flow number separates the class 1 graphs from the class 2 graphs. We finally state some conjectures and relate them to existing flow-conjectures.