Colouring Arcwise Connected Sets in the Plane II

Let ? be the family of finite collections ? where ? is a collection of bounded, arcwise connected sets in ℝ² where for any S,T∈? such that S∩T≠?, it holds that S∩T is arcwise connected. Given ? is triangle-free, and provided the chromatic number χ(G) of the intersection graph G=G(?) of ? is sufficiently large, there exists α>1 independent of ? such that there is a subcollection ?^′⊂? of at most 5 sets with the property that the sets of ? surrounded by ?^′ induce an intersection graph H where . Received: November 13, 1995 Final version received: December 3, 1998