On the $(1^2,2^4)$-packing edge-coloring of subcubic graphs

An induced matching in a graph $G$ is a matching such that its end vertices also induce a matching. A $(1^{\mathrm{\ell }},2^k)$-packing edge-coloring of a graph $G$ is a partition of its edge set into disjoint unions of $\mathrm{\ell }$ matchings and $k$ induced matchings. Gastineau and Togni (2019), as well as Hocquard, Lajou, and Lužar (2022), have conjectured that every subcubic graph is $(1^2,2^4)$-packing edge-colorable. In this paper, we confirm that their conjecture is true (for connected subcubic graphs with more than $70$ vertices). Our result is sharp due to the existence of subcubic graphs that are not $(1^2,2^3)$-packing edge-colorable.