Mixed Cages: monotony, connectivity and upper bounds

Abstract

A \emph{$[z, r; g]$-mixed cage} is a mixed graph $z$-regular by arcs, $r$-regular by edges, with girth $g$ and minimum order. %In this paper we study structural properties of mixed cages: Let $n[z,r;g]$ denote the order of a $[z,r;g]$-mixed cage. In this paper we prove that $n[z,r;g]$ is a monotonicity function, with respect of $g$, for $z\in \{1,2\}$, and we use it to prove that the underlying graph of a $[z,r;g]$-mixed cage is 2-connected, for $z\in \{1,2\}$. We also prove that $[z,r;g]$-mixed cages are strong connected. We present bounds of $n[z,r;g]$ and constructions of $[z,r;5]$-mixed graphs and show a $[10,3;5]$-mixed cage of order $50$.