Counting K_4-Subdivisions

Abstract

A fundamental theorem in graph theory states that any 3-connected graph contains a subdivision of $K_4$. As a generalization, we ask for the minimum number of $K_4$-subdivisions that are contained in every $3$-connected graph on $n$ vertices. We prove that there are $\Omega(n^3)$ such $K_4$-subdivisions and show that the order of this bound is tight for infinitely many graphs. We further investigate a better bound in dependence on $m$ and prove that the computational complexity of the problem of counting the exact number of $K_4$-subdivisions is $\#P$-hard.