Approximate Itai-Zehavi conjecture for random graphs

Abstract

A famous conjecture by Itai and Zehavi states that, for every $d$-vertex-connected graph $G$ and every vertex $r$ in $G$, there are $d$ spanning trees of $G$ such that, for every vertex $v$ in $G\setminus \{r\}$, the paths between $r$ and $v$ in different trees are internally vertex-disjoint. We show that with high probability the Itai-Zehavi conjecture holds asymptotically for the Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graph $G(n,p)$ when $np= \omega(\log n)$ and for random regular graphs $G(n,d)$ when $d= \omega(\log n)$. Moreover, we essentially confirm the conjecture up to a constant factor for sparser random regular graphs. This answers positively a question of Dragani\'{c} and Krivelevich. Our proof makes use of recent developments on sprinkling techniques in random regular graphs.