English

Planar Tur\'{a}n numbers of three configurations

Combinatorics 2025-09-16 v2

Abstract

The planar Tu\'{a}n number of HH, denoted by exP(n,H)ex_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H), is defined as the maximum number of edges in an nn-vertex HH-free planar graph. The exact value of exP(n,H)ex_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H) remains a mystery when HH is large (for example, HH is a long path or a long cycle), while tight bounds have been established for many small planar graphs such as cycles, paths, Θ\Theta-graphs and other small graphs formed by a union of them. One representative graph among such union graphs is K1+LK_1+L where LL is a linear forest without isolated vertices. Previous works solved the cases when LL is a path or a matching. In this work, we first investigate the planar Tur\'{a}n number of the graph K1+LK_1+L when LL is the disjoint union of a P2P_2 and P3P_3. Equivalently, K1+LK_1+L represents a specific configuration formed by combining a C3C_3 and a Θ4\Theta_4. We further consider the planar Tur\'{a}n numbers of the all graphs obtained by combining C3C_3 and Θ4\Theta_4. Among the six possible such configurations, three have been resolved in earlier works. For the remaining three configurations (including K1+(P2˙P3)K_1+(P_2\dot{\cup}P_3)), we derive tight bounds. Furthermore, we completely characterize all extremal graphs for the remaining two of these three cases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.06131,
  title  = {Planar Tur\'{a}n numbers of three configurations},
  author = {Xuqing Bai and Zhipeng Gao and Ping Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.06131},
  year   = {2025}
}