On a conjecture of Lovász on circle-representations of simple 4-regular planar graphs

Lovasz conjectured that every connected 4-regular planar graph G admits a realization as a system of circles, i.e., it can be drawn on the plane utilizing a set of circles, such that the vertices of G correspond to the intersection and touching points of the circles and the edges of G are the arc segments among pairs of intersection and touching points of the circles. In this paper, (a) we affirmatively answer Lovasz's conjecture, if G is 3-connected, and, (b) we demonstrate an infinite class of connected 4-regular planar graphs which are not 3-connected and do not admit a realization as a system of circles.