Trees and co-trees with constant maximum degree in planar 3-connected graphs

Abstract: This paper considers the conjecture by Gr\"unbaum that every planar 3-connected graph has a spanning tree $T$ such that both $T$ and its co-tree have maximum degree at most 3. Here, the co-tree of $T$ is the spanning tree of the dual obtained by taking the duals of the non-tree edges. While Gr\"unbaum's conjecture remains open, we show that every planar 3-connected graph has a spanning tree $T$ such that both $T$ and its co-tree have maximum degree at most 5. It can be found in linear time.