Facial diagrams and cycle double cover

Abstract

We approach the cycle double cover conjecture by looking for a circular 2-cell embedding of cubic graphs on an arbitrary surface. It is easy to see that if such an embedding exists, we can get to it from an arbitrary starting 2-cell embedding by repeating ``twists of an edge''. We study this twisting operation in detail and deduce bounds on the number of singular edges (edges where a face meets itself).