Every graph with no $\mathcal{K}_8^{-4}$ minor is $7$-colorable
Abstract
Hadwiger's Conjecture from 1943 states that every graph with no minor is -colorable; it remains wide open for all . For positive integers and , let denote the family of graphs obtained from the complete graph by removing edges. We say that a graph has no minor if it has no minor for every . Jakobsen in 1971 proved that every graph with no minor is -colorable. In this paper we consider the next step and prove that every graph with no minor is -colorable. Our result implies that -Hadwiger's Conjecture, suggested by Paul Seymour in 2017, is true for every graph on eight vertices such that the complement of has maximum degree at least four, a perfect matching, a triangle and a cycle of length four. Our proof utilizes an extremal function for minors obtained in this paper, generalized Kempe chains of contraction-critical graphs by Rolek and the second author, and the method for finding minors from three different subgraphs by Kawarabayashi and Toft; this method was first developed by Robertson, Seymour and Thomas in 1993 to prove Hadwiger's Conjecture for .
Cite
@article{arxiv.2208.07338,
title = {Every graph with no $\mathcal{K}_8^{-4}$ minor is $7$-colorable},
author = {Michael Lafferty and Zi-Xia Song},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.07338},
year = {2022}
}