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Hadwiger's Conjecture from 1943 states that every graph with no Kt minor is (t-1)-colorable; it remains wide open for t ≥ 7. For positive integers t and s, let Kt-s denote the family of graphs obtained from the complete graph Kt by removing s edges. We say that a graph has no Kt-s minor if it has no H minor for every H in Kt-s. In 1971, Jakobsen proved that every graph with no K7-2 minor is 6-colorable. In this dissertation, we first study the extremal functions for K8-4 minors, K9-6 minors, and K10-12 minors. We show that every graph on n ≥ 9 vertices with at least 4.5n-12 edges has a K8-4 minor, every graph on n ≥ 9 vertices with at least 5n-14 edges has a K9-6 minor, and every graph on n ≥ 10 vertices with at least 5.5n-17.5 edges has a K10-12 minor. We then prove that every graph with no K8-4 minor is 7-colorable, every graph with no K9-6 minor is 8-colorable, and every graph with no K10-12 minor is 9-colorable. The proofs use the extremal functions as well as generalized Kempe chains of contraction-critical graphs obtained by Rolek and Song and a method for finding minors from three different clique subgraphs, originally developed by Robertson, Seymour, and Thomas in 1993 to prove Hadwiger's Conjecture for t = 6. Our main results imply that H-Hadwiger's Conjecture is true for each graph H on 8 vertices that is a subgraph of every graph in K8-4, each graph H on 9 vertices that is a subgraph of every graph in K9-6, and each graph H on 10 vertices that is a subgraph of every graph in K10-12.

In this dissertation, a problem related to Hadwiger's conjecture has been studied. We first proved a conjecture of Jakobsen from 1983 which states that every simple graphs on $n$ vertices and at least (11n-35)/2 edges either has a minor isomorphic to K_8 with one edge deleted or is isomorphic to a graph obtained from disjoint copies of K_{1, 2, 2, 2, 2} and/or K_7 by identifying cliques of size five. We then studied the extremal functions for complete minors. We proved that every simple graph on nge9 vertices and at least 7n-27 edges either has a minor, or is isomorphic to K_{2, 2, 2, 3, 3}, or is isomorphic to a graph obtained from disjoint copies of K_{1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2} by identifying cliques of size six. This result extends Mader's theorem on the extremal function for K_p minors, where ple7. We discussed the possibilities of extending our methods to K_{10} and K_{11} minors. We have also found the extremal function for K_7 plus a vertex minor.

Conjectured in 1943, Hadwiger’s conjecture is one of the most challenging open problems in graph theory. Hadwiger’s conjecture states that if the chromatic number of a graph G is k, then G has a clique minor of size at least k. In this thesis, we give motivation for attempting Hadwiger’s conjecture for circular arc graphs and also prove the conjecture for proper circular arc graphs. Circular arc graphs are graphs whose vertices can be represented as arcs on a circle such that any two vertices are adjacent if and only if their corresponding arcs intersect. Proper circular arc graphs are a subclass of circular arc graphs that have a circular arc representation where no arc is completely contained in any other arc. It is interesting to study Hadwiger’s conjecture for circular arc graphs as their clique minor cannot exceed beyond a constant factor of its chromatic number as We show in this thesis. Our main contribution is the proof of Hadwiger’s conjecture for proper circular arc graphs. Also, in this thesis we give an analysis and some basic results on Hadwiger’s conjecture for circular arc graphs in general.