A Separator Theorem for String Graphs and its Applications

A string graph is the intersection graph of a collection of continuous arcs in the plane. We show that any string graph with m edges can be separated into two parts of roughly equal size by the removal of $O(m^{3/4}\sqrt{\log m})$ vertices. This result is then used to deduce that every string graph with n vertices and no complete bipartite subgraph Kt,t has at most ctn edges, where ct is a constant depending only on t. Another application shows that locally tree-like string graphs are globally tree-like: for any ε > 0, there is an integer g(ε) such that every string graph with n vertices and girth at least g(ε) has at most (1 + ε)n edges. Furthermore, the number of such labelled graphs is at most (1 + ε)nT(n), where T(n) = nn−2 is the number of labelled trees on n vertice

A separator theorem for string graphs and its applications

A string graph is the intersection graph of a collection of continuous arcs in the plane. We show that any string graph with in edges can be separated into two parts of roughly equal size by the removal of O(m(3/4)root log m) vertices. This result is then used to deduce that every string graph with n vertices and no complete bipartite subgraph K-t,K-t has at most c(t)n edges, where c(t) is a constant depending only on t. Another application shows that locally tree-like string graphs are globally tree-like: for any epsilon > 0, there is an integer g(epsilon) such that every string graph with n vertices and girth at least g(epsilon) has at most (1 + epsilon)n edges. Furthermore, the number of such labelled graphs is at most (1 + epsilon)(n) T(n), where T(n) = n(n-2) is the number of labelled trees on n vertices

Note on the number of edges in families with linear union-complexity

We give a simple argument showing that the number of edges in the intersection graph $G$ of a family of $n$ sets in the plane with a linear union-complexity is $O(\omega(G)n)$. In particular, we prove $\chi(G)\leq \text{col}(G)< 19\omega(G)$ for intersection graph $G$ of a family of pseudo-discs, which improves a previous bound.Comment: background and related work is now more complete; presentation improve

Applications of a new separator theorem for string graphs

An intersection graph of curves in the plane is called a string graph. Matousek almost completely settled a conjecture of the authors by showing that every string graph of m edges admits a vertex separator of size O(\sqrt{m}\log m). In the present note, this bound is combined with a result of the authors, according to which every dense string graph contains a large complete balanced bipartite graph. Three applications are given concerning string graphs G with n vertices: (i) if K_t is not a subgraph of G for some t, then the chromatic number of G is at most (\log n)^{O(\log t)}; (ii) if K_{t,t} is not a subgraph of G, then G has at most t(\log t)^{O(1)}n edges,; and (iii) a lopsided Ramsey-type result, which shows that the Erdos-Hajnal conjecture almost holds for string graphs.Comment: 7 page

Decomposition of multiple packings with subquadratic union complexity

Suppose $k$ is a positive integer and $\mathcal{X}$ is a $k$-fold packing of the plane by infinitely many arc-connected compact sets, which means that every point of the plane belongs to at most $k$ sets. Suppose there is a function $f(n)=o(n^2)$ with the property that any $n$ members of $\mathcal{X}$ determine at most $f(n)$ holes, which means that the complement of their union has at most $f(n)$ bounded connected components. We use tools from extremal graph theory and the topological Helly theorem to prove that $\mathcal{X}$ can be decomposed into at most $p$ ($1$-fold) packings, where $p$ is a constant depending only on $k$ and $f$.Comment: Small generalization of the main result, improvements in the proofs, minor correction

Constructing dense graphs with sublinear Hadwiger number

Mader asked to explicitly construct dense graphs for which the size of the largest clique minor is sublinear in the number of vertices. Such graphs exist as a random graph almost surely has this property. This question and variants were popularized by Thomason over several articles. We answer these questions by showing how to explicitly construct such graphs using blow-ups of small graphs with this property. This leads to the study of a fractional variant of the clique minor number, which may be of independent interest.Comment: 10 page