On the perfect matching index of bridgeless cubic graphs

Abstract: If $G$ is a bridgeless cubic graph, Fulkerson conjectured that we can find 6 perfect matchings $M_1,...,M_6$ of $G$ with the property that every edge of $G$ is contained in exactly two of them and Berge conjectured that its edge set can be covered by 5 perfect matchings. We define $\tau(G)$ as the least number of perfect matchings allowing to cover the edge set of a bridgeless cubic graph and we study this parameter. The set of graphs with perfect matching index 4 seems interesting and we give some informations on this class.