Reconfiguration graphs of $K_{2,3}$-minor-free graphs

Abstract

The $\ell$-reconfiguration graph of a graph $G$, denoted by $\mathcal{R}_{\ell}(G)$, is the graph whose vertices are the proper $\ell$-colorings of $G$, with an edge between two colorings if they differ in color on exactly one vertex. For any graph $G$ of treewidth at most $2$, Bousquet and Perarnau showed that $\mathcal{R}_\ell(G)$ has linear diameter for $\ell\geq 6$. This result was later extended by Bartier, Bousquet, and Heinrich, who proved that $\mathcal{R}_5(G)$ also has linear diameter. In this paper, we show that for each $\ell\geq 5$, the $\ell$-reconfiguration graphs of $K_{2,3}$-minor-free graphs, some of which include graphs of treewidth $3$, have linear diameter. As a key step in our proof, we also establish that the $(\ell-1)$-reconfiguration graphs of cactus graphs have linear diameter.