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The Robertson–Seymour theorem states that finite undirected graphs and graph minors form a well-quasi-ordering. The graph minor relationship does not contain any infinite descending chain, because each contraction or deletion reduces the number of edges and vertices of the graph (a non-negative integer). [8]
An edge contraction is an operation that removes an edge from a graph while simultaneously merging the two vertices it used to connect. An undirected graph H is a minor of another undirected graph G if a graph isomorphic to H can be obtained from G by contracting some edges, deleting some edges, and deleting some isolated vertices.
A minor of a graph G is any graph H that is isomorphic to a graph that can be obtained from a subgraph of G by contracting some edges. If G does not have a graph H as a minor, then we say that G is H-free. Let H be a fixed graph. Intuitively, if G is a huge H-free graph, then there ought to be a "good reason" for this.
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This states that families of graphs closed under the graph minor operation may be characterized by a finite set of forbidden minors. As part of this work, Robertson and Seymour also proved the graph structure theorem describing the graphs in these families. [6] Additional major results in Robertson's research include the following:
Since every minor of a planar graph is itself planar, this gives a planar cover of the minor G. Because the graphs with planar covers are closed under the operation of taking minors, it follows from the Robertson–Seymour theorem that they may be characterized by a finite set of forbidden minors. [7] A graph is a forbidden minor for this ...
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By Robertson–Seymour theorem, any set of finite graphs contains only a finite number of minor-minimal elements. In particular, the set of "yes" instances has a finite number of minor-minimal elements. Given an input graph G, the following "algorithm" solves the above problem: For every minor-minimal element H: If H is a minor of G then return ...