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arXiv · 2609.37978

There is no $8$-regular $K_3$-irregular graph

Artem Hak·Sergiy Kozerenko·Andrii Serdiuk
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Abstract

A graph is $K_3$-irregular if its vertices belong to pairwise distinct numbers of triangles. We prove that no $8$-regular $K_3$-irregular graph exists, settling the last unresolved case. Following the initial discovery of such graphs for regularities $r \in \{10,11,12\}$ (Stevanovi'c et al., 2024), our previous work (Hak et al., 2025) showed that no such graphs exist for $r \le 7$, provided the first example for $r=9$, and proved that any $8$-regular candidate must have between $17$ and $22$ vertices. We exclude these possible orders for $r=8$ by combining careful analysis of triangle degrees with integer linear programming techniques. Meanwhile, a recent construction (Zhang, 2026) established that regular $K_3$-irregular graphs do exist for all $r \ge 9$. Together with our results, this establishes that an $r$-regular $K_3$-irregular graph exists if and only if $r\geq 9$.

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Artem Hak, Sergiy Kozerenko, Andrii Serdiuk. 2026-09-29. There is no $8$-regular $K_3$-irregular graph. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.37978

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