A lower bound on the order of the largest induced linear forest in triangle-free planar graphs

Abstract

We prove that every triangle-free planar graph of order $n$ and size $m$ has an induced linear forest with at least $\frac{9n - 2m}{11}$ vertices, and thus at least $\frac{5n + 8}{11}$ vertices. Furthermore, we show that there are triangle-free planar graphs on $n$ vertices whose largest induced linear forest has order $\lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil + 1$.