Every Graph is Essential to Large Treewidth

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Alecu, Bogdan, Bonnet, Édouard, Villafana, Pedro Bureo, Trotignon, Nicolas
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Alecu, Bogdan
Bonnet, Édouard
Villafana, Pedro Bureo
Trotignon, Nicolas
author_facet Alecu, Bogdan
Bonnet, Édouard
Villafana, Pedro Bureo
Trotignon, Nicolas
contents We show that for every graph $H$, there is a hereditary weakly sparse graph class $\mathcal C_H$ of unbounded treewidth such that the $H$-free (i.e., excluding $H$ as an induced subgraph) graphs of $\mathcal C_H$ have bounded treewidth. This refutes several conjectures and critically thwarts the quest for the unavoidable induced subgraphs in classes of unbounded treewidth, a wished-for counterpart of the Grid Minor theorem. We actually show a stronger result: For every positive integer $t$, there is a hereditary graph class $\mathcal C_t$ of unbounded treewidth such that for any graph $H$ of treewidth at most $t$, the $H$-free graphs of $\mathcal C_t$ have bounded treewidth. Our construction is a variant of so-called layered wheels. We also introduce a framework of abstract layered wheels, based on their most salient properties. In particular, we streamline and extend key lemmas previously shown on individual layered wheels. We believe that this should greatly help develop this topic, which appears to be a very strong yet underexploited source of counterexamples.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_14775
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Every Graph is Essential to Large Treewidth
Alecu, Bogdan
Bonnet, Édouard
Villafana, Pedro Bureo
Trotignon, Nicolas
Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
05C75
G.2.2
We show that for every graph $H$, there is a hereditary weakly sparse graph class $\mathcal C_H$ of unbounded treewidth such that the $H$-free (i.e., excluding $H$ as an induced subgraph) graphs of $\mathcal C_H$ have bounded treewidth. This refutes several conjectures and critically thwarts the quest for the unavoidable induced subgraphs in classes of unbounded treewidth, a wished-for counterpart of the Grid Minor theorem. We actually show a stronger result: For every positive integer $t$, there is a hereditary graph class $\mathcal C_t$ of unbounded treewidth such that for any graph $H$ of treewidth at most $t$, the $H$-free graphs of $\mathcal C_t$ have bounded treewidth. Our construction is a variant of so-called layered wheels. We also introduce a framework of abstract layered wheels, based on their most salient properties. In particular, we streamline and extend key lemmas previously shown on individual layered wheels. We believe that this should greatly help develop this topic, which appears to be a very strong yet underexploited source of counterexamples.
title Every Graph is Essential to Large Treewidth
topic Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
05C75
G.2.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.14775