Quickly excluding an annotated planar graph

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Gorsky, Maximilian, Protopapas, Evangelos, Wiederrecht, Sebastian
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Gorsky, Maximilian
Protopapas, Evangelos
Wiederrecht, Sebastian
author_facet Gorsky, Maximilian
Protopapas, Evangelos
Wiederrecht, Sebastian
contents 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 vertex sets in planar graphs. As such, it plays a crucial role in extensions of Courcelle's Theorem to $H$-minor-free graphs. Recently, bidimensionality and similar parameters have emerged as key for extensions of known parameterized algorithms for problems defined on a terminal set $R$. A prominent example for such a problem is Steiner Tree, which admits efficient algorithms on planar graphs whenever $R$ can be covered with few faces. Key to the algorithmic applications of bidimensionality is a structure theorem that explains how a graph $G$ can be decomposed into pieces where the behaviour of $R$ is highly controlled. One may see this structure theorem as a rooted analogue of Robertson and Seymour's celebrated Grid Theorem. Combining recent advances in obtaining polynomial bounds in the Graph Minors framework with new techniques for handling annotated vertex sets, we show that all parameters in the structure theorem above admit polynomial bounds. As an application, we also provide a sketch showing how our techniques imply polynomial bounds for the structure theorem for graphs excluding an apex minor.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_06516
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quickly excluding an annotated planar graph
Gorsky, Maximilian
Protopapas, Evangelos
Wiederrecht, Sebastian
Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
05C10, 05C69, 05C75, 05C78, 05C83, 05C85, 68R05, 68R10
G.2.1; G.2.2; F.2.2
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 vertex sets in planar graphs. As such, it plays a crucial role in extensions of Courcelle's Theorem to $H$-minor-free graphs. Recently, bidimensionality and similar parameters have emerged as key for extensions of known parameterized algorithms for problems defined on a terminal set $R$. A prominent example for such a problem is Steiner Tree, which admits efficient algorithms on planar graphs whenever $R$ can be covered with few faces. Key to the algorithmic applications of bidimensionality is a structure theorem that explains how a graph $G$ can be decomposed into pieces where the behaviour of $R$ is highly controlled. One may see this structure theorem as a rooted analogue of Robertson and Seymour's celebrated Grid Theorem. Combining recent advances in obtaining polynomial bounds in the Graph Minors framework with new techniques for handling annotated vertex sets, we show that all parameters in the structure theorem above admit polynomial bounds. As an application, we also provide a sketch showing how our techniques imply polynomial bounds for the structure theorem for graphs excluding an apex minor.
title Quickly excluding an annotated planar graph
topic Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
05C10, 05C69, 05C75, 05C78, 05C83, 05C85, 68R05, 68R10
G.2.1; G.2.2; F.2.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.06516