Subdivisions in planar graphs (Q1366603): Difference between revisions

Given four distinct vertices in a 4-connected planar graph \(G\), we characterize when the graph \(G\) contains a \(K_4\)-subdivision with the given vertices as its degree three vertices. This result implies the following conjecture of Robertson and Thomas: a 5-connected planar graph has no \(K_4\)-subdivision with specified degree three vertices, if and only if, the four specified vertices are contained in a facial cycle in the unique plane embedding of the graph.