A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a properly coloured $f$-factor in an edge-coloured graph

Abstract

The main result of this paper is an edge-coloured version of Tutte's $f$-factor theorem. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for an edge-coloured graph $G^c$ to have a properly coloured $f$-factor. We state and prove our result in terms of an auxiliary graph $G_f^c$ which has a 1-factor if and only if $G^c$ has a properly coloured $f$-factor; this is analogous to the "short proof" of the $f$-factor theorem given by Tutte in 1954. An alternative statement, analogous to the original $f$-factor theorem, is also given. We show that our theorem generalises the $f$-factor theorem; that is, the former implies the latter. We consider other properties of edge-coloured graphs, and show that similar results are unlikely for $f$-factors with rainbow components and distance-$d$-coloured $f$-factors, even when $d=2$ and the number of colours used is asymptotically minimal.