| Abstract: | We provide for the first time, a complete list of forbidden minors (obstructions) for the family of graphs with vertex cover 6. This study shows how to limit both the search space of graphs and improve the efficiency of an obstruction checking algorithm when restricted to k–VERTEX COVER graph families. In particular, our upper bounds 2k + 1 (2k + 2) on the maximum number of vertices for connected (disconnected) obstructions are shown to be sharp for all k > 0. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 41: 163–178, 2002 |
