Face pairing graphs and 3-manifold enumeration

The face pairing graph of a 3-manifold triangulation is a 4-valent graph denoting which tetrahedron faces are identified with which others. We present a series of properties that must be satisfied by the face pairing graph of a closed minimal P^2-irreducible triangulation. In addition we present constraints upon the combinatorial structure of such a triangulation that can be deduced from its face pairing graph. These results are then applied to the enumeration of closed minimal P^2-irreducible 3-manifold triangulations, leading to a significant improvement in the performance of the enumeration algorithm. Results are offered for both orientable and non-orientable triangulations.