The Georges graph, also called the Georges-Kelmans graph, is the 50-vertex nonhamiltonian cyclically 4-connected bicubic graph illustrated above. The graph was originally constructed by Kel'mans (1988), though rediscovered independently by Georges (1989) as the smallest member of an infinite family of nonhamiltonian 3-connected bicubic graphs. Gropp (1990, 1993) subsequently stated that the two graphs are isomorphic, and Kel'mans (1994) later gave a fuller account of his construction. Grünbaum (2009, p. 317) regarded the identification as unjustified from the published accounts, but the direct reconstruction given below confirms the isomorphism. Brinkmann et al. (2022) adopted the combined name Georges-Kelmans graph, credited Kel'mans and Georges with independent discovery, and proved that the graph is the smallest 3-connected bicubic nonhamiltonian graph.
The construction from two copies of a modification of the 18-Ellingham-Horton graph is illustrated above (Grünbaum 2006; Grünbaum 2009, pp. 310-311).
The Georges graph has girth 6 and is the Levi graph of the Georges configuration, for which Grünbaum
(2009, pp. 311-316) gave a geometric realization and Kocay (2010) subsequently
gave a realization with exact rational coordinates.
Kel'mans's two basic operations are shown above, reproducing his Figures 1 and 2. Given a cubic bipartite graph and two distinct edges
and
, the operation
replaces each selected edge by a three-edge path
and attaches a pendant edge to each of the two new
internal vertices. The result is a four-pole
whose four poles have degree 1. The second operation deletes
two specified edges
and
from the Petersen
graph and replaces them by four-poles
and
, attached as shown, to form the bicubic graph
.
Let
be the multigraph on two vertices with three parallel
edges
,
, and
, and let
, with
designated the middle edge. Form
from two copies of
whose middle edges are denoted
and
, and then set
. Finally, form
, where
and
are two copies of
. This gives Kel'mans's 50-vertex graph
.
The graph
is illustrated above, with the two copies of
shown in blue and green and the six remaining vertices of
the Petersen framework shown in orange. Direct computation shows that
is isomorphic to the
Georges graph.
It is implemented in the Wolfram Language as GraphData["GeorgesGraph"].