Separation of Cartesian products of graphs into several connected components by the removal of edges

Abstract

Let G = (V (G),E(G)) be a graph. A set S ? E(G) is an edge k-cut in G if the graph G-S = (V (G), E(G) \ S) has at least k connected components. The generalized k-edge connectivity of a graph G, denoted as ?k(G), is the minimum cardinality of an edge k-cut in G. In this article we determine generalized 3-edge connectivity of Cartesian product of connected graphs G and H and describe the structure of any minimum edge 3-cut in G2H. The generalized 3-edge connectivity ?3(G2H) is given in terms of ?3(G) and ?3(H) and in terms of other invariants of factors G and H.