Circumference and Pathwidth of Highly Connected Graphs

Birmele [J. Graph Theory, 2003] proved that every graph with circumference t has treewidth at most t-1. Under the additional assumption of 2-connectivity, such graphs have bounded pathwidth, which is a qualitatively stronger result. Birmele's theorem was extended by Birmele, Bondy and Reed [Combinatorica, 2007] who showed that every graph without k disjoint cycles of length at least t has bounded treewidth (as a function of k and t). Our main result states that, under the additional assumption of (k + 1)- connectivity, such graphs have bounded pathwidth. In fact, they have pathwidth O(t^3 + tk^2). Moreover, examples show that (k + 1)-connectivity is required for bounded pathwidth to hold. These results suggest the following general question: for which values of k and graphs H does every k-connected H-minor-free graph have bounded pathwidth? We discuss this question and provide a few observations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Treedepth vs circumference

The circumference of a graph $G$ is the length of a longest cycle in $G$, or $+\infty$ if $G$ has no cycle. Birmel\'e (2003) showed that the treewidth of a graph $G$ is at most its circumference minus one. We strengthen this result for $2$-connected graphs as follows: If $G$ is $2$-connected, then its treedepth is at most its circumference. The bound is best possible and improves on an earlier quadratic upper bound due to Marshall and Wood (2015)

Treedepth vs circumference

The circumference of a graph $G$ is the length of a longest cycle in $G$, or$+\infty$ if $G$ has no cycle. Birmel\'e (2003) showed that the treewidth of agraph $G$ is at most its circumference minus one. We strengthen this result for$2$-connected graphs as follows: If $G$ is $2$-connected, then its treedepth isat most its circumference. The bound is best possible and improves on anearlier quadratic upper bound due to Marshall and Wood (2015).<br