Small \(2\)-coloured Path Decompositions

Abstract

Consider a complete graph of multiplicity \(2\), where between every pair of vertices there is one red and one blue edge. Can the edge set of such a graph be decomposed into isomorphic copies of a \(2\)-coloured path of length \(2k\) that contains \(k\) red and\(k\) blue edges? A necessary condition for this to be true is \(n(n-1) \equiv 0 \mod k\). We show that this is sufficient for \(k \leqq 3\).