Applications of a New Separator Theorem for String Graphs

Abstract

An intersection graph of curves in the plane is called astring graph. Matoušek almost completely settled a conjecture of the authors by showing that every string graph withmedges admits a vertex separator of size$O(\sqrt{m}\log m)$. In the present note, this bound is combined with a result of the authors, according to which every dense string graph contains a large complete balanced bipartite graph. Three applications are given concerning string graphsGwithnvertices: (i) ifKt⊈Gfor somet, then the chromatic number ofGis at most (logn)O(logt); (ii) ifKt,t⊈G, thenGhas at mostt(logt)O(1)nedges,; and (iii) a lopsided Ramsey-type result, which shows that the Erdős–Hajnal conjecture almost holds for string graphs.