Extremal \(H\)-free planar graphs (Q2415071)

Summary: Given a graph \(H\), a graph is \(H\)-\textit{free} if it does not contain \(H\) as a subgraph. We continue to study the topic of ``extremal'' planar graphs initiated by \textit{C. Dowden} [J. Graph Theory 83, No. 3, 213--230 (2016; Zbl 1401.05079)], that is, how many edges can an \(H\)-free planar graph on $n$ vertices have? We define \(\mathrm{ex}_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H)\) to be the maximum number of edges in an \(H\)-free planar graph on \(n\) vertices. We first obtain several sufficient conditions on \(H\) which yield \(\mathrm{ex}_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H)=3n-6\) for all \(n\ge |V(H)|\). We discover that the chromatic number of \(H\) does not play a role, as in the celebrated Erdős-Stone Theorem. We then completely determine \(\mathrm{ex}_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H)\) when \(H\) is a wheel or a star. Finally, we examine the case when \(H\) is a \((t, r)\)-fan, that is, \(H\) is isomorphic to \(K_1+tK_{r-1}\), where \(t\ge 2\) and \(r\ge 3\) are integers. However, determining \(\mathrm{ex}_{\mathcal{P}}(n,H)\), when \(H\) is a planar subcubic graph, remains wide open.