Towards the Erd\H{o}s-Gallai Cycle Decomposition Conjecture

Abstract

In the 1960's, Erd\H{o}s and Gallai conjectured that the edges of any $n$-vertex graph can be decomposed into $O(n)$ cycles and edges. We improve upon the previous best bound of $O(n\log\log n)$ cycles and edges due to Conlon, Fox and Sudakov, by showing an $n$-vertex graph can always be decomposed into $O(n\log^{*}n)$ cycles and edges, where $\log^{*}n$ is the iterated logarithm function.