Independent paths and K5-subdivisions

A well known theorem of Kuratowski states that a graph is planar iff it contains no subdivision of K5 or K3,3. Seymour conjectured in 1977 that every 5-connected nonplanar graph contains a subdivision of K5. In this paper, we prove several results about independent paths (no vertex of a path is internal to another), which are then used to prove Seymour’s conjecture for two classes of graphs. These results will be used in a subsequent paper to prove Seymour’s conjecture for graphs containing K − 4, which is a step in a program to approach Seymour’s conjecture

Characterization and enumeration of toroidal K_{3,3}-subdivision-free graphs

We describe the structure of 2-connected non-planar toroidal graphs with no K_{3,3}-subdivisions, using an appropriate substitution of planar networks into the edges of certain graphs called toroidal cores. The structural result is based on a refinement of the algorithmic results for graphs containing a fixed K_5-subdivision in [A. Gagarin and W. Kocay, "Embedding graphs containing K_5-subdivisions'', Ars Combin. 64 (2002), 33-49]. It allows to recognize these graphs in linear-time and makes possible to enumerate labelled 2-connected toroidal graphs containing no K_{3,3}-subdivisions and having minimum vertex degree two or three by using an approach similar to [A. Gagarin, G. Labelle, and P. Leroux, "Counting labelled projective-planar graphs without a K_{3,3}-subdivision", submitted, arXiv:math.CO/0406140, (2004)].Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures and 4 table

The obstructions for toroidal graphs with no K3,3K_{3,3}'s

Forbidden minors and subdivisions for toroidal graphs are numerous. We consider the toroidal graphs with no $K_{3,3}$-subdivisions that coincide with the toroidal graphs with no $K_{3,3}$-minors. These graphs admit a unique decomposition into planar components and have short lists of obstructions. We provide the complete lists of four forbidden minors and eleven forbidden subdivisions for the toroidal graphs with no $K_{3,3}$'s and prove that the lists are sufficient.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, revised version with additional detail