Bipartite graphs with no K6 minor
Abstract
A theorem of Mader shows that every graph with average degree at least eight has a K6 minor, and this is false if we replace eight by any smaller constant. Replacing average degree by minimum degree seems to make little difference: we do not know whether all graphs with minimum degree at least seven have K6 minors, but minimum degree six is certainly not enough. For every ε > 0 there are arbitrarily large graphs with average degree at least 8 − ε and minimum degree at least six, with no K6 minor. But what if we restrict ourselves to bipartite graphs? The first statement remains true: for every ε > 0 there are arbitrarily large bipartite graphs with average degree at least 8 − ε and no K6 minor. But surprisingly, going to minimum degree now makes a significant difference. We will show that every bipartite graph with minimum degree at least six has a K6 minor. Indeed, it is enough that every vertex in the larger part of the bipartition has degree at least six.
Collections
Cite this version of the work
Maria Chudnovsky, Alex Scott, Paul Seymour, Sophie Spirkl
(2024).
Bipartite graphs with no K6 minor. UWSpace.
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/19956
Other formats
The following license files are associated with this item: