Universal Planar Graphs for the Topological Minor Relation

Abstract

Huynh et al. recently showed that a countable graph G which contains every countable planar graph as a subgraph must contain arbitrarily large finite complete graphs as topological minors, and an infinite complete graph as a minor. We strengthen this result by showing that the same conclusion holds if G contains every countable planar graph as a topological minor. In particular, there is no countable planar graph containing every countable planar graph as a topological minor, answering a question by Diestel and Kühn. Moreover, we construct a locally finite planar graph which contains every locally finite planar graph as a topological minor. This shows that in the above result it is not enough to require that G contains every locally finite planar graph as a topological minor.