Related papers: Minor theory for surfaces and divides of maximal s…

A graph is nearly embedded in a surface if it consists of graph $G_0$ that is embedded in the surface, together with a bounded number of vortices having no large transactions. It is shown that every large wall (or grid minor) in a nearly…

At the core of the Robertson-Seymour theory of graph minors lies a powerful structure theorem which captures, for any fixed graph H, the common structural features of all the graphs not containing H as a minor. Robertson and Seymour prove…

Robertson and Seymour's celebrated Graph Minor Theorem states that graphs are well-quasi-ordered by the minor relation. Unlike the minor relation, the topological minor relation does not well-quasi-order graphs in general. Among all known…

As part of their graph minor project, Robertson and Seymour showed in 1990 that the class of graphs that can be embedded in a given surface can be characterized by a finite set of minimal excluded minors. However, their proof, because…

The Graph Minor Theorem of Robertson and Seymour implies a finite set of obstructions for any minor closed graph property. We show that there are only three obstructions to knotless embedding of size 23, which is far fewer than the 92 of…

The Graph Minor Theorem of Robertson and Seymour asserts that any graph property, whatsoever, is determined by an associated finite list of graphs. We view this as an impressive generalization of Kuratowski's theorem, which characterizes…

In this note we propose a min-max theory for embedded hypersurfaces with a fixed boundary and apply it to prove several theorems about the existence of embedded minimal hypersurfaces with a given boundary. A simpler variant of these…

Let $\Sigma$ be a surface with boundary $b(\Sigma)$, $\mathcal{L}$ be a collection of $k$ disjoint $b(\Sigma)$-paths in $\Sigma$, and $P$ be a non-separating $b(\Sigma)$-path in $\Sigma$. We prove that there is a homeomorphism $\phi: \Sigma…

The set of quasipositive surfaces is closed under incompressible inclusion. We prove that the induced order on fibre surfaces of positive braid links is almost a well-quasi-order. When restricting to quasipositive surfaces containing a…

The Graph Minors Structure Theorem (GMST) of Robertson and Seymour states that for every graph $H,$ any $H$-minor-free graph $G$ has a tree-decomposition of bounded adhesion such that the torso of every bag embeds in a surface $\Sigma$…

The bidimensionality of a set of vertices $X$ in a graph $G$ is the maximum $k$ for which $G$ contains as a $X$-rooted minor the $(k \times k)$-grid. This notion allows for the following version of the Graph Minors Structure Theorem (GMST)…

As part of the graph minor project, Robertson and Seymour showed in 1990 that the class of graphs that can be embedded in a given surface can be characterized by a finite set of minimal excluded minors. However, their proof, because…

One of the major results of [N. Robertson and P. D. Seymour. Graph minors. XIII. The disjoint paths problem. J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 63(1):65--110, 1995], also known as the weak structure theorem, revealed the local structure of graphs…

Let $\mathcal{D}_k$ be the class of graphs for which every minor has minimum degree at most $k$. Then $\mathcal{D}_k$ is closed under taking minors. By the Robertson-Seymour graph minor theorem, $\mathcal{D}_k$ is characterised by a finite…

In 1986 Robertson and Seymour proved a generalization of the seminal result of Erd\H{o}s and P\'osa on the duality of packing and covering cycles: A graph has the Erd\H{o}s-P\'osa property for minors if and only if it is planar. In…

We prove an enumerative min-max theorem that relates the number of genus g minimal surfaces in 3-manifolds of positive Ricci curvature to topological properties of the set of embedded surfaces of genus $\leq g$, possibly with finitely many…

We establish a general min-max type theorem that produces minimal surfaces with prescribed genus in 3-manifolds with positive Ricci curvature. An important intermediate step is to show that, in a generic metric with positive Ricci…

Restriction is a natural quasi-order on $d$-way tensors. We establish a remarkable aspect of this quasi-order in the case of tensors over a fixed finite field -- namely, that it is a well-quasi-order: it admits no infinite antichains and no…

We develop a min-max theory for the construction of capillary surfaces in 3-manifolds with smooth boundary. In particular, for a generic set of ambient metrics, we prove the existence of nontrivial, smooth, almost properly embedded surfaces…

We prove that a minor-closed class of graphs has bounded layered pathwidth if and only if some apex-forest is not in the class. This generalises a theorem of Robertson and Seymour, which says that a minor-closed class of graphs has bounded…