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Related papers: Duality theorems for blocks and tangles in graphs

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We generalize the structure theorem of Robertson and Seymour for graphs excluding a fixed graph $H$ as a minor to graphs excluding $H$ as a topological subgraph. We prove that for a fixed $H$, every graph excluding $H$ as a topological…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2015-03-19 Martin Grohe , Dániel Marx

We prove that every graph has a canonical tree of tree-decompositions that distinguishes all principal tangles (these include the ends and various kinds of large finite dense structures) efficiently. Here `trees of tree-decompositions' are…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-04-08 Johannes Carmesin , Matthias Hamann , Babak Miraftab

The classical Ramsey theorem was generalized in two major ways: to the dual Ramsey theorem, by Graham and Rothschild, and to Ramsey theorems for trees, initially by Deuber and Leeb. Bringing these two lines of thought together, we prove the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-03-18 Sławomir Solecki

A $k$-block in a graph $G$ is a maximal set of at least $k$ vertices no two of which can be separated in $G$ by deleting fewer than $k$ vertices. The block number $\beta(G)$ of $G$ is the maximum integer $k$ for which $G$ contains a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2017-02-15 Daniel Weißauer

We extend the closed graph theorem and the open mapping theorem to a context in which a natural duality interchanges their extensions.

Functional Analysis · Mathematics 2019-12-06 R. S. Monahan , P. L. Robinson

We provide proofs certifying that the structure theorem for vertex sets of bounded bidimensionality holds with polynomial bounds. The bidimensionality of vertex sets is a common generalisation of both treewidth and the face-cover-number of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-02-10 Maximilian Gorsky , Evangelos Protopapas , Sebastian Wiederrecht

We show that all the tangles in a finite graph or matroid can be distinguished by a single tree-decomposition that is invariant under the automorphisms of the graph or matroid. This comes as a corollary of a similar decomposition theorem…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2017-04-19 Reinhard Diestel , Fabian Hundertmark , Sahar Lemanczyk

In 1965, Erd\H{o}s and P\'{o}sa proved that there is an (approximate) duality between the maximum size of a packing of cycles and the minimum size of a vertex set hitting all cycles. Such a duality does not hold for odd cycles, and Dejter…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-01-16 J. Pascal Gollin , Kevin Hendrey , O-joung Kwon , Sang-il Oum , Youngho Yoo

We address a question posed by Fessler-Jensen-Kelsey-Owen regarding graphs whose second gonality is greater than the first by exactly 1. We answer the question affirmatively under a stronger condition, thereby characterising the entire…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-11-25 Šimun Dropuljić , Yoav Len

Applications of tangles of connectivity systems suggest a duality between these, in which for two sets $X$ and $Y\!$ the elements $x$ of $X$ map to subsets $Y_x$ of $Y\!$, and the elements $y$ of $Y\!$ map to subsets $X_y$ of $X$, so that…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-09-28 Reinhard Diestel , Christian Elbracht , Joshua Erde , Maximilian Teegen

This paper develops a fundamental theory of realizations of linear and group codes on general graphs using elementary group theory, including basic group duality theory. Principal new and extended results include: normal realization…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2014-08-05 G. David Forney

Extending the well-known star-comb lemma for infinite graphs, we characterise the graphs that do not contain an infinite comb or an infinite star, respectively, attached to a given set of vertices. We offer several characterisations: in…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-08-09 Carl Bürger , Jan Kurkofka

In a series of four papers we determine structures whose existence is dual, in the sense of complementary, to the existence of stars or combs. Here, in the third paper of the series, we present duality theorems for a combination of stars…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-09-16 Carl Bürger , Jan Kurkofka

Diestel and M\"uller showed that the connected tree-width of a graph $G$, i.e., the minimum width of any tree-decomposition with connected parts, can be bounded in terms of the tree-width of $G$ and the largest length of a geodesic cycle in…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2017-02-15 Matthias Hamann , Daniel Weißauer

A tuple (s1,t1,s2,t2) of vertices in a simple undirected graph is 2-linked when there are two vertex-disjoint paths respectively from s1 to t1 and s2 to t2. A graph is 2-linked when all such tuples are 2-linked. We give a new and simple…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-08-15 Samuel Humeau , Damien Pous

A vertex in a directed graph is said to have a large second neighborhood if it has at least as many second out-neighbors as out-neighbors. The Second Neighborhood Conjecture, first stated by Seymour, asserts that there is a vertex having a…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2021-10-25 Suresh Dara , Mathew C. Francis , Dalu Jacob , N. Narayanan

Linear rank-width is a graph width parameter, which is a variation of rank-width by restricting its tree to a caterpillar. As a corollary of known theorems, for each $k$, there is a finite obstruction set $\mathcal{O}_k$ of graphs such that…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-09-10 Jisu Jeong , O-joung Kwon , Sang-il Oum

Erd\H{o}s and P\'{o}sa proved in 1965 that there is a duality between the maximum size of a packing of cycles and the minimum size of a vertex set hitting all cycles. Such a duality does not hold if we restrict to odd cycles. However, in…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-01-16 J. Pascal Gollin , Kevin Hendrey , Ken-ichi Kawarabayashi , O-joung Kwon , Sang-il Oum

We extend to infinite graphs the matroidal characterization of finite graph duality, that two graphs are dual iff they have complementary spanning trees in some common edge set. The naive infinite analogue of this fails. The key in an…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2011-06-08 Reinhard Diestel , Julian Pott

For each graph on two vertices, and each divisor on the graph in the sense of Baker-Norine, we describe a sheaf of vector spaces on a finite category whose zeroth Betti number is the Baker-Norine "Graph Riemann-Roch" rank of the divisor…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-07-28 Nicolas Folinsbee , Joel Friedman