Generalized Duke's theorem for signed Graphs

Source abstract

Duke's interpolation theorem states that the orientable genera of a connected graph form an integer interval, and Stahl established the corresponding result for nonorientable embeddings. In 1991, Širáň showed that this interpolation property fails for signed graph embeddings: the Euler-genus spectrum of a signed graph may contain gaps. He subsequently asked whether all such gaps must occur at the lower end of the spectrum. In this paper, we establish a characterization of the Euler-genus spectrum of a connected signed graph. We prove that, for each parity class, the Euler genera form a step-two interval. Moreover, whenever both parity classes are nonempty, their maximum elements differ by one. As an consequence, if two consecutive integers $k$ and $k+1$ belong to the Euler-genus spectrum, then every integer from $k$ to the maximum Euler-genus also belongs to the spectrum, thereby answering Širáň's question affirmatively. Our proof uses the pre-signed graph representation of signed embeddings together with ordered adjacent-exchange operations and a matching interpretation of face numbers.