Graph minors and metric spaces

Abstract

We present problems and results that combine graph-minors and coarse geometry. For example, we ask whether every geodesic metric space (or graph) without a fat $H$ minor is quasi-isometric to a graph with no $H$ minor, for an arbitrary finite graph $H$. We answer this affirmatively for a few small $H$. We also present a metric analogue of Menger's theorem and Konig's ray theorem. We conjecture metric analogues of the Erdos--Posa Theorem and Halin's grid theorem.

To appear in Combinatorica