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Optimal tree-decompositions with bags of bounded pathwidth

Jul 2026 · arXiv.org · Vol abs/2607.27601 · 0 citations · 53 references
Computer Science Mathematics

Abstract

We show that every planar graph has a tree-decomposition with optimal width such that the subgraph induced by each bag has pathwidth at most 3. This bound is best possible, and for tree-decompositions that satisfy a certain minimality condition, we in fact give a precise description of the possible structures in each bag. Moreover, we show that the union of any $k$ bags has pathwidth $O(k)$. We also show that graphs excluding a fixed double-apex-forest minor have a tree-decomposition with optimal width such that the subgraph induced by each bag has bounded pathwidth. This includes graphs embeddable on any fixed surface. As a byproduct of our machinery, we give a new proof of the linear grid minor theorem for planar graphs.

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