On the Alspach Conjecture

Abstract

It has been conjectured by Alspach [2] that given integers n and m1, …, mt with 3 [les ] mi [les ] n and [sum ]ti=1mi = (n2) (n odd) or [sum ]ti=1mi = (n2) − n/2 (n even), then one can pack Kn (n odd) or Kn minus a 1-factor (n even) with cycles of lengths m1, …, mt. In this paper we show that if the cycle lengths mi are bounded by some linear function of n and n is sufficiently large then this conjecture is true.