The purpose of this paper is to characterize graphs that do not have a large $K_{2,n}$-minor. As corollaries, it is proved that, for any given positive integer $n$, every sufficiently large 3-connected graph with minimum degree at least six, every 4-connected graph with a vertex of sufficiently high degree, and every sufficiently large 5-connected graph must have a $K_{2,n}$-minor.
In this paper, we first introduce the notions of checkerboard colourable minors for ribbon graphs motivated by the Eulerian ribbon graph minors, and two kinds of bipartite minors for ribbon graphs, one of which is the dual of the checkerboard colourable minors and the other is motivated by the bipartite minors of abstract graphs. Then we give an excluded minor characterization of the class of checkerboard colourable ribbon graphs, bipartite ribbon graphs, plane checkerboard colourable ribbon graphs and plane bipartite ribbon graphs.
A graph $U$ is universal for a graph class $\mathcal{C}\ni U$, if every $G\in \mathcal{C}$ is a minor of $U$. We prove the existence or absence of universal graphs in several natural graph classes, including graphs component-wise embeddable into a surface, and graphs forbidding $K_5$, or $K_{3,3}$, or $K_\infty$ as a minor. We prove the existence of uncountably many minor-closed classes of countable graphs that (do and) do not have a universal element. Some of our results and questions may be of interest to the finite graph theorist. In particular, one of our side-results is that every $K_5$-m…
Huynh et al. recently showed that a countable graph $G$ which contains every countable planar graph as a subgraph must contain arbitrarily large finite complete graphs as topological minors, and an infinite complete graph as a minor. We strengthen this result by showing that the same conclusion holds, if $G$ contains every countable planar graph as a topological minor. In particular, there is no countable planar graph containing every countable planar graph as a topological minor, answering a question by Diestel and Kühn. Moreover, we construct a locally finite planar graph which contains ever…
A graph is said to be \textit{$H$-minor free} if it does not contain $H$ as a minor. In this paper, we characteristic the unique extremal graph with maximal $Q$-index among all $n$-vertex $K_{1,t}$-minor free graphs ($t\ge3$).
Let ${\rm ex \,} {\mathcal B}$ be a minor-closed class of graphs with a set ${\mathcal B}$ of minimal excluded minors. We study (a) the asymptotic number of graphs without $k+1$ disjoint minors in ${\mathcal B}$ and (b) the properties of a uniformly random graph drawn from all such graphs on vertices $\{1,\dots,n\}$. We present new results in the case when ${\rm ex \,} {\mathcal B}$ contains arbitrarily large fans for a general (good enough) set of forbidden minors ${\mathcal B}$. A particular case where our results hold is ${\mathcal B} = \{K_4\}$. For any fixed $k = 1, 2, \dots$ we derive pr…
A fan $F_k$ is a graph that consists of an induced path on $k$ vertices and an additional vertex that is adjacent to all vertices of the path. We prove that for all positive integers $q$ and $k$, every graph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains either a clique of size $q$ or a vertex-minor isomorphic to $F_k$. We also prove that for all positive integers $q$ and $k\ge 3$, every graph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains either a clique of size $q$ or a pivot-minor isomorphic to a cycle of length $k$.
In the 1960s, Erdős and Pósa proved that there is a packing-covering duality for cycles in graphs. As part of the graph minor project, Robertson and Seymour greatly extended this: there is such a duality for $H$-expansions in graphs if and only if $H$ is a planar graph (this includes the previous result for $H=K_3$). We consider vertex labelled graphs and minors and provide such a characterisation for $2$-connected labelled graphs $H$.
In this note, we show that locally finite quasi-transitive graphs are quasi-isometric to trees if and only if every other locally finite quasi-transitive graph quasi-isometric to them is minor excluded. This generalizes results by Ostrovskii and Rosenthal and by Khukhro on minor exclusion for groups.
Hadwiger's conjecture claims that any graph with no $K_t$ minor is $(t - 1)$-colorable. This has been proved for $t \le 6$, but remains open for $t \ge 7$. As a variant of this conjecture, graphs with no $K_t^=$ minor have been considered, where $K_t^=$ denotes the complete graph with two edges removed. It has been shown that graphs with no $K_t^=$ minor are $(2t - 8)$-colorable for $t \in \{7, 8\}$. In this paper, we extend this result to the case $t = 9$ and show that graphs with no $K_9^=$ minor are $10$-colorable.
Motivated by the famous Hadwiger's Conjecture, we study the properties of $8$-contraction-critical graphs with no $K_7$ minor; we prove that every $8$-contraction-critical graph with no $K_7$ minor has at most one vertex of degree $8$, where a graph $G$ is $8$-contraction-critical if $G$ is not $7$-colorable but every proper minor of $G$ is $7$-colorable. This is one step in our effort to prove that every graph with no $K_7$ minor is $7$-colorable, which remains open.
Tutte showed that $4$-connected planar graphs are Hamiltonian, but it is well known that $3$-connected planar graphs need not be Hamiltonian. We show that $K_{2,5}$-minor-free $3$-connected planar graphs are Hamiltonian. This does not extend to $K_{2,5}$-minor-free $3$-connected graphs in general, as shown by the Petersen graph, and does not extend to $K_{2,6}$-minor-free $3$-connected planar graphs, as we show by an infinite family of examples.
A simplified construction is presented for Komjáth's result that for every uncountable cardinal $κ$, there are $2^κ$ graphs of size $κ$ none of them being a minor of another.
This paper considers the following question: What is the maximum number of $k$-cliques in an $n$-vertex graph with no $K_t$-minor? This question generalises the extremal function for $K_t$-minors, which corresponds to the $k=2$ case. The exact answer is given for $t\leq 9$ and all values of $k$. We also determine the maximum total number of cliques in an $n$-vertex graph with no $K_t$-minor for $t\leq 9$. Several observations are made about the case of general $t$.
In 2009, Krivelevich and Sudakov studied the existence of large complete minors in $(t,α)$-expanding graphs whenever the expansion factor $t$ becomes super-constant. In this paper, we give an extension of the results of Krivelevich and Sudakov by investigating a connection between the existence of large complete minors in graphs and good vertex expansion properties.
The class of quasi-graphic matroids, recently introduced by Geelen, Gerards, and Whittle, is minor closed and contains both the class of lifted-graphic matroids and the class of frame matroids, each of which generalises the class of graphic matroids. In this paper, we prove that the matroids $U_{3,7}$ and $U_{4,7}$ are the only $9$-connected excluded minors for the class of quasi-graphic matroids.
Let $V_{8}+e$ denote the unique graph obtained from the Wagner graph, also known as $V_{8}$, by adding an edge between two vertices of distance 3 on the Hamilton cycle, which is exactly a split of a minor of the Petersen graph. A complete characterization of all internally 4-connected graphs with no $V_{8}$ minor is given in [J. Maharry and N. Robertson, The structure of graphs not topologically containing the Wagner graph, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 121 (2016) 398-420]. In this paper we characterize all internally 4-connected graphs with no $V_{8}+e$ minor.
Gerards and Seymour conjectured that every graph with no odd $K_t$ minor is $(t-1)$-colorable. This is a strengthening of the famous Hadwiger's Conjecture. Geelen et al. proved that every graph with no odd $K_t$ minor is $O(t\sqrt{\log t})$-colorable. Using the methods the present authors and Postle recently developed for coloring graphs with no $K_t$ minor, we make the first improvement on this bound by showing that every graph with no odd $K_t$ minor is $O(t(\log t)^β)$-colorable for every $β> 1/4$.
Interval minors of bipartite graphs were introduced by Jacob Fox in the study of Stanley-Wilf limits. Recently, Mohar, Rafiey, Tayfeh-Rezaie and Wu investigated the maximum number of edges in $K_{k,\ell}$-interval minor free bipartite graphs when $k=2$ and $k=3$. In this paper, we investigate the maximum number of edges in $K_{k,\ell}$-interval minor free bipartite graphs for general $k$ and $\ell$. We also study the maximum number of edges in $K_{\ell_1,\ell_2,\cdots,\ell_t}$-interval minor free multipartite graphs.
A mixed graph is obtained from an unoriented graph by orienting a subset of its edges. Yu, Liu, and Qu in 2017 have established the expression for the determinant of Hermitian (quasi-) Laplacian matrix of a mixed graph. Here we find general expressions for all minors of Hermitian (quasi-) Laplacian matrix of mixed graphs.
A graph is sub-unicyclic if it contains at most one cycle. We also say that a graph $G$ is $k$-apex sub-unicyclic if it can become sub-unicyclic by removing $k$ of its vertices. We identify 29 graphs that are the minor-obstructions of the class of $1$-apex sub-unicyclic graphs, i.e., the set of all minor minimal graphs that do not belong in this class. For bigger values of $k$, we give an exact structural characterization of all the cactus graphs that are minor-obstructions of $k$-apex sub-unicyclic graphs and we enumerate them. This implies that, for every $k$, the class of $k$-apex sub-unicy…
Given a minor-closed class of graphs $\mathcal{G}$, what is the infimum of the non-trivial roots of the chromatic polynomial of $G \in \mathcal{G}$? When $\mathcal{G}$ is the class of all graphs, the answer is known to be $32/27$. We answer this question exactly for three minor-closed classes of graphs. Furthermore, we conjecture precisely when the value is larger than $32/27$.
We demonstrate that for every positive integer $Δ$, every K\_4-minor-free graph with maximum degree $Δ$ admits an equitable coloring with k colors wherek $\ge$ ($Δ$+3)/2. This bound is tight and confirms a conjecture by Zhang and Whu. We do not use the discharging method but rather exploit decomposition trees of K 4-minor-free graphs.
Motivated by Hadwiger's conjecture, we prove that every $n$-vertex graph $G$ with no independent set of size three contains an $\lceil n/2\rceil$-vertex simple minor $H$ with $$0.98688 \cdot \binom{|V(H)|}{2} - o(n^2)$$ edges.
We determine the maximum number of edges in a $K_4$-minor-free $n$-vertex graph of girth $g$, when $g = 5$ or $g$ is even. We argue that there are many different $n$-vertex extremal graphs, if $n$ is even and $g$ is odd.
Minors play an important role in extremal graph theory and spectral extremal graph theory. Tait [The Colin de Verdière parameter, excluded minors, and the spectral radius, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 166 (2019) 42--58] determined the maximum spectral radius and characterized the unique extremal graph for $K_r$-minor free graphs of sufficiently large order $n$, he also made great progress on $K_{s,t}$-minor free graphs and posed a conjecture: Let $2\leq s\leq t$ and $n-s+1=pt+q$, where $n$ is sufficiently large and $1\leq q\leq t.$ Then $K_{s-1}\nabla (pK_t\cup K_q)$ is the unique extremal graph w…
In 2009, Brown gave a set of conditions which when satisfied imply that a Feynman integral evaluates to a multiple zeta value. One of these conditions is called reducibility, which loosely says there is an order of integration for the Feynman integral for which Brown's techniques will succeed. Reducibility can be abstracted away from the Feynman integral to just being a condition on two polynomials, the first and second Symanzik polynomials. These polynomials can be defined from graphs, and thus reducibility is a property of graphs. We prove that for a fixed number of external momenta and no m…
For positive integers $t$ and $s$, let $\mathcal{K}_t^{-s}$ denote the family of graphs obtained from the complete graph $K_t$ by removing $s$ edges. A graph $G$ has no $\mathcal{K}_t^{-s}$ minor if it has no $H$ minor for every $H\in \mathcal{K}_t^{-s}$. Motivated by the famous Hadwiger's Conjecture, Jakobsen in 1971 proved that every graph with no $\mathcal{K}_7^{-2}$ minor is $6$-colorable; very recently the present authors proved that every graph with no $\mathcal{K}_8^{-4}$ minor is $7$-colorable. In this paper we continue our work and prove that every graph with no $\mathcal{K}_9^{-6}$ m…
An even-cycle decomposition of a graph G is a partition of E(G) into cycles of even length. Evidently, every Eulerian bipartite graph has an even-cycle decomposition. Seymour (1981) proved that every 2-connected loopless Eulerian planar graph with an even number of edges also admits an even-cycle decomposition. Later, Zhang (1994) generalized this to graphs with no $K_5$-minor. Our main theorem gives sufficient conditions for the existence of even-cycle decompositions of graphs in the absence of odd minors. Namely, we prove that every 2-connected loopless Eulerian odd-$K_4$-minor-free graph wi…
We provide a complete structural characterization of $K_{2,4}$-minor-free graphs. The $3$-connected $K_{2,4}$-minor-free graphs consist of nine small graphs on at most eight vertices, together with a family of planar graphs that contains $K_4$ and, for each $n \ge 5$, $2n-8$ nonisomorphic graphs of order $n$. To describe the $2$-connected $K_{2,4}$-minor-free graphs we use $xy$-outerplanar graphs, graphs embeddable in the plane with a Hamilton $xy$-path so that all other edges lie on one side of this path. We show that, subject to an appropriate connectivity condition, $xy$-outerplanar graphs …
In 1943, Hadwiger conjectured that every graph with no $K_t$ minor is $(t-1)$-colorable for every $t\ge 1$. While Hadwiger's conjecture does not hold for list-coloring, the linear weakening is conjectured to be true. In the 1980s, Kostochka and Thomason independently proved that every graph with no $K_t$ minor has average degree $O(t\sqrt{\log t})$ and thus is $O(t\sqrt{\log t})$-list-colorable. Recently, the authors and Song proved that every graph with no $K_t$ minor is $O(t(\log t)^β)$-colorable for every $β> \frac 1 4$. Here, we build on that result to show that every graph with no $K_t$ m…