Edge Kempe equivalence of regular graph covers

Abstract

Let $G$ be a finite $d$-regular graph with a proper edge coloring. An edge Kempe switch is a new proper edge coloring of $G$ obtained by switching the two colors along some bi-chromatic cycle. We prove that any other edge coloring can be obtained by performing finitely many edge Kempe switches, provided that $G$ is replaced with a suitable finite covering graph. The required covering degree is bounded above by a constant depending only on $d$.