Related papers: Tree-independence number VII. Excluding a star

We study the Independent Set (IS) problem in $H$-free graphs, i.e., graphs excluding some fixed graph $H$ as an induced subgraph. We prove several inapproximability results both for polynomial-time and parameterized algorithms.…

Let $G$ be a $K_4$-free graph of order $n$ and let $k$ be an integer with $0\leq k\leq n$. We show the existence of positive constants $\eta$ and $\nu$ such that $G$ has at most $(4-\eta)^{(5-\eta)k-n}(5-\eta)^{n-(4-\eta)k}$ maximal…

We show that problems which have finite integer index and satisfy a requirement we call treewidth-bounding admit linear kernels on the class of $H$-topological-minor free graphs, for an arbitrary fixed graph $H$. This builds on earlier…

Alavi, Malde, Schwenk and Erd\H{o}s asked whether the independent set sequence of every tree is unimodal. Here we make some observations about this question. We show that for the uniformly random (labelled) tree, asymptotically almost…

A strengthened version of Harborth's well-known conjecture -- known as Kleber's conjecture -- states that every planar graph admits a planar straight-line drawing where every edge has integer length and each vertex is restricted to the…

In FOCS 2017, Borradaille, Le, and Wulff-Nilsen addressed a long-standing open problem by proving that minor-free graphs have light spanners. Specifically, they proved that every $K_h$-minor-free graph has a $(1+\epsilon)$-spanner of…

Hadwiger's Conjecture asserts that every $K_h$-minor-free graph is properly $(h-1)$-colourable. We prove the following improper analogue of Hadwiger's Conjecture: for fixed $h$, every $K_h$-minor-free graph is $(h-1)$-colourable with…

Two sets $X, Y$ of vertices in a graph $G$ are "anticomplete" if $X\cap Y=\varnothing$ and there is no edge in $G$ with an end in $X$ and an end in $Y$. We prove that every graph $G$ of sufficiently large treewidth contains two anticomplete…

We extend the notion of a tree graph to sequences of prime graphs which are cycles and edges and name these non-chordal graphs hollow trees. These structures are especially attractive for palindromic Ising models, which mimic a symmetry of…

We prove that a hereditary class of graphs is $(\mathsf{tw}, \omega)$-bounded if and only if the induced minors of the graphs from the class form a $(\mathsf{tw}, \omega)$-bounded class.

We prove that every connected graph $G$ with $m$ edges contains a set $X$ of at most $\frac{3}{16}(m + 1)$ vertices such that $G-X$ has no $K_4$ minor, or equivalently, has treewidth at most $2$. This bound is best possible. Connectivity is…

We consider the structure of $H$-free subgraphs of graphs with high minimal degree. We prove that for every $k>m$ there exists an $\epsilon:=\epsilon(k,m)>0$ so that the following holds. For every graph $H$ with chromatic number $k$ from…

One of the fundamental results in graph minor theory is that for every planar graph~$H$, there is a minimum integer~$f(H)$ such that graphs with no minor isomorphic to~$H$ have treewidth at most~$f(H)$. The best known bound for an arbitrary…

The independence polynomial of a graph $G$ is \[I(G,x)=\sum\limits_{k\ge 0}i_k(G)x^k,\] where $i_k(G)$ denotes the number of independent sets of $G$ of size $k$ (note that $i_0(G)=1$). In this paper we show a new method to prove…

A subgraph H= (V, F) of a graph G= (V,E) is non-separating if G-F, that is, the graph obtained from G by deleting the edges in F, is connected. Analogously we say that a subdigraph X= (V,B) of a digraph D= (V,A) is non-separating if D-B is…

Given two graphs $G$ and $H$, we say that $G$ contains $H$ as an induced minor if a graph isomorphic to $H$ can be obtained from $G$ by a sequence of vertex deletions and edge contractions. We study the complexity of Graph Isomorphism on…

We prove that for every $n$, there is a graph $G$ with $\chi(G) \geq n$ and $\omega(G) \leq 3$ such that every induced subgraph $H$ of $G$ with $\omega(H) \leq 2$ satisfies $\chi(H) \leq 4$. This disproves a well-known conjecture. Our…

In 1989, Zehavi and Itai conjectured that every $k$-connected graph contains $k$ independent spanning trees rooted at any prescribed vertex $r$. That is, for each vertex $v$, the unique $r$-$v$ paths within these $k$ spanning trees are…

Recently, Davies, Jenssen, Perkins, and Roberts gave a very nice proof of the result (due, in various parts, to Kahn, Galvin-Tetali, and Zhao) that the independence polynomial of a $d$-regular graph is maximized by disjoint copies of…

Let $G$ be a finite simple graph on the vertex set $V(G) = \{x_1, \ldots, x_n\}$ and $I(G) \subset K[V(G)]$ its edge ideal, where $K[V(G)]$ is the polynomial ring in $x_1, \ldots, x_n$ over a field $K$ with each ${\rm deg} x_i = 1$ and…