The Number of Perfect Matchings in Möbius Ladders and Prisms

R. S. Lekshmi, Douglas B. West

Published 2020-03-21Version 1

The 1970s conjecture of Lov\'asz and Plummer that the number of perfect matchings in any $3$-regular graph is exponential in the number of vertices was proved in 2011 by Esperet, Kardo\v{s}, King, Kr\'al', and Norine. We give the exact formula for the number of perfect matchings in two families of $3$-regular graphs. In the graph consisting of a $2n$-cycle with diametric chords (also known as the M\"obius ladder $M_n$ and a Harary graph) and in the cartesian product of the cycle $C_n$ with an edge (called the cycle prism), the number of matchings is the sum of the Fibonacci numbers $F_{n-1}$ and $F_{n+1}$, plus two more for the M\"obius ladder when $n$ is odd and for the cycle prism when $n$ is even.