Induced 2-degenerate subgraphs of triangle-free planar graphs (Q1753031)

Summary: A graph is \textit{\(k\)-degenerate} if every subgraph has minimum degree at most \(k\). We provide lower bounds on the size of a maximum induced 2-degenerate subgraph in a triangle-free planar graph. We denote the size of a maximum induced 2-degenerate subgraph of a graph \(G\) by \(\alpha_2(G)\). We prove that if \(G\) is a connected triangle-free planar graph with \(n\) vertices and \(m\) edges, then \(\alpha_2(G) \geq \frac{6n - m - 1}{5}\). By Euler's Formula, this implies \(\alpha_2(G) \geq \frac{4}{5}n\). We also prove that if \(G\) is a triangle-free planar graph on \(n\) vertices with at most \(n_3\) vertices of degree at most three, then \(\alpha_2(G) \geq \frac{7}{8}n - 18 n_3\).