Descartes snark

Descartes snark

Image of a Descartes snark.
Named after Blanche Descartes
Vertices 210
Edges 315
Girth 5
Chromatic index 4
Properties Cubic
Snark

In the mathematical field of graph theory, a Descartes snark is an undirected graph with 210 vertices and 315 edges. It is a snark, first discovered by William Tutte in 1948 under the pseudonym Blanche Descartes.[1]

A Descartes snark is obtained from the Petersen graph by replacing each vertex with a nonagon and each edge with a particular graph closely related to the Petersen graph. Because there are multiple ways to perform this procedure, there are multiple Descartes snarks.

Notes

  1. ^ Descartes, Blanche. "Network Colorings," The Mathematical Gazette (London, 32:299. p. 67–69, 1948.