The Kelmans-Seymour conjecture IV: a proof

Abstract

A well known theorem of Kuratowski in 1932 states that a graph is planar if, and only if, it does not contain a subdivision of $K_5$ or $K_{3,3}$. Wagner proved in 1937 that if a graph other than $K_5$ does not contain any subdivision of $K_{3,3}$ then it is planar or it admits a cut of size at most 2. Kelmans and, independently, Seymour conjectured in the 1970s that if a graph does not contain any subdivision of $K_5$ then it is planar or it admits a cut of size at most 4. In this paper, we give a proof of the Kelmans-Seymour conjecture. We also discuss several related results and problems.