Minors of non-hamiltonian polyhedra and the Herschel family

Abstract

We show that every non-hamiltonian polyhedron contains the Herschel graph as a minor, implying that the Herschel graph is the unique minor-minimal non-hamiltonian polyhedron. Our approach unifies many previously known results on minors of non-hamiltonian polyhedra, while strengthening them with significantly shorter, non-computer-assisted proofs. As an application, we characterize non-hamiltonian polyhedra with no $K_{2,6}$ minor, resolving a conjecture of Ellingham, Marshall, and Royle.