On the most reliable graphs with fixed redundancy

Abstract

The all-terminal reliability of a graph $G$ is the probability that $G$ remains connected when each edge fails independently with probability $p$. For fixed $n$ and $m$, the uniformly most reliable problem asks which graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges maximizes reliability for all $p \in [0,1]$. Although such graphs do not always exist, optimal graphs in the regime $p \to 0$ always do and are determined by the structure of their minimal cut sets. We establish a structural characterization of graphs that are most reliable near $p=0$. Our results partially resolve a conjecture of Bourel et al., showing that, under suitable conditions, regular graphs with maximal girth are optimal. Extending this analysis to graphs with fixed redundancy $r=m-(n-1)$ and sufficiently large $n$, we show that the most reliable graphs are obtained by subdividing the most reliable cubic graphs with $2(r-1)$ vertices. The general conjecture remains open. Unlike previous results, which resolved only small redundancy cases or very dense regimes, our approach yields a substantial extension of the known range. We determine the unique cubic candidates for uniformly most reliable graphs for all redundancy levels $m-n \le 19$, and prove the non-existence of uniformly most reliable graphs for several infinite families with fixed redundancy and asymptotically large $n$. These results significantly enlarge both the candidate class and the range of provable non-existence.