A survey of degree-boundedness

If a graph has no large balanced bicliques, but has large minimum degree, then what can we say about its induced subgraphs? This question motivates the study of degree-boundedness, which is like $\chi$-boundedness but for minimum degree instead of chromatic number. We survey this area with an eye towards open problems

Geometric Graphs with Unbounded Flip-Width

We consider the flip-width of geometric graphs, a notion of graph width recently introduced by Toru\'nczyk. We prove that many different types of geometric graphs have unbounded flip-width. These include interval graphs, permutation graphs, circle graphs, intersection graphs of axis-aligned line segments or axis-aligned unit squares, unit distance graphs, unit disk graphs, visibility graphs of simple polygons, $\beta$-skeletons, 4-polytopes, rectangle of influence graphs, and 3d Delaunay triangulations.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. To appear at CCCG 202

Prime and polynomial distances in colourings of the plane

We give two extensions of the recent theorem of the first author that the odd distance graph has unbounded chromatic number. The first is that for any non-constant polynomial $f$ with integer coefficients and positive leading coefficient, every finite colouring of the plane contains a monochromatic pair of distinct points whose distance is equal to $f(n)$ for some integer $n$. The second is that for every finite colouring of the plane, there is a monochromatic pair of points whose distance is a prime number.Comment: 22 page

Local Structure for Vertex-Minors

This thesis is about a conjecture of Geelen on the structure of graphs with a forbidden vertex-minor; the conjecture is like the Graph Minors Structure Theorem of Robertson and Seymour but for vertex-minors instead of minors. We take a step towards proving the conjecture by determining the "local structure''. Our first main theorem is a grid theorem for vertex-minors, and our second main theorem is more like the Flat Wall Theorem of Robertson and Seymour. We believe that the results presented in this thesis provide a path towards proving the full conjecture. To make this area more accessible, we have organized the first chapter as a survey on "structure for vertex-minors''

Colouring Polygon Visibility Graphs and Their Generalizations

Curve pseudo-visibility graphs generalize polygon and pseudo-polygon visibility graphs and form a hereditary class of graphs. We prove that every curve pseudo-visibility graph with clique number ? has chromatic number at most 3?4^{?-1}. The proof is carried through in the setting of ordered graphs; we identify two conditions satisfied by every curve pseudo-visibility graph (considered as an ordered graph) and prove that they are sufficient for the claimed bound. The proof is algorithmic: both the clique number and a colouring with the claimed number of colours can be computed in polynomial time