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Grabarchuk Graph


The Grabarchuk graph is the Euclidean distance graph obtained from the vertices of a 4×4×4 grid graph when two vertices are considered adjacent when the Euclidean distance between them is 3. Since 3^2=9 has two representations as three squares,

9=0^2+0^2+3^2
(1)
=1^2+2^2+2^2,
(2)

edges correspond to points in the grid that are either distance 3 apart along a line parallel to a Cartesian axis, or else distances 1, 2, and 2 apart along the Cartesian axes.

GrabarchukGraph

The Grabarchuk graph is illustrated above in an order-4 LCF notation, a bilaterally symmetric order-1 LCF notation, a bipartite graph drawing, and two voltage graph drawings.

The resulting graph is a sextic graph (Knuth 2025, p. 60).

The graph is named after Serhiy Grabarchuk, who communicated it to D. Knuth in 2018 (D. Knuth, pers. comm., Jul. 11, 2025).

The Grabarchuk graph is implemented in the Wolfram Language as GraphData["GrabarchukGraph"].

D. Knuth (pers. comm., Jul. 11, 2025) posed the question whether the Grabarchuk graph has a Hamilton decomposition. Knuth (2025, p. 105) reports that E. Weisstein answered this in the affirmative on Aug. 21, 2025.


See also

Euclidean Distance Graph, Grid Graph, Hamilton Decomposition, Perfectly Hamiltonian Graph, Sextic Graph

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References

Grabarchuk, S. "Sticky Chain Puzzle." Age of Puzzles: Puzzle Galleries. San Diego, CA: Puzzlium, Inc., p. 170, 2019.Knuth, D. E. Problem and Solution 370 in "Hamiltonian Paths and Cycles." Pre-Fascicle 8A of The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 4. Draft, pp. 60 and 105, Dec. 4, 2025. https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc8a.pdf. Pegg, E. Jr. Mathematical Games. Episode 32: "Unit Distance Graphs." Aug. 21, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuHr8acIkYs. Companion notebook: https://community.wolfram.com/t/25908.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Grabarchuk Graph." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/GrabarchukGraph.html

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