Arc-disjoint hamiltonian paths in Cartesian products of directed cycles

Abstract

We show that if $C_1$ and $C_2$ are directed cycles (of length at least two), then the Cartesian product $C_1 \Box C_2$ has two arc-disjoint hamiltonian paths. (This answers a question asked by J. A. Gallian in 1985.) The same conclusion also holds for the Cartesian product of any four or more directed cycles (of length at least two), but some cases remain open for the Cartesian product of three directed cycles. We also discuss the existence of arc-disjoint hamiltonian paths in $2$-generated Cayley digraphs on (finite or infinite) abelian groups.