Unavoidable vertex-minors in large prime graphs

Abstract

A graph is prime (with respect to the split decomposition) if its vertex set does not admit a partition (A, B) (called a split) with vertical bar A vertical bar, vertical bar B vertical bar >= 2 such that the set of edges joining A and B induces a complete bipartite graph. We prove that for each n, there exists N such that every prime graph on at least N vertices contains a vertex-minor isomorphic to either a cycle of length n or a graph consisting of two disjoint cliques of size n joined by a matching.