Vertex cuts and median decompositions

Abstract

Median decompositions were introduced by Stavropoulos in 2015 as a generalisation of tree decompositions. In this paper, we further develop and exposit this theory as a tool in structural graph theory to study systems of vertex separations. Generalising the well-known fact that nested systems of vertex separations produce tree decompositions of a graph over the structure tree, we describe how a (not necessarily nested) system of separations produces a median decomposition. The median graph in this decomposition is the `dual median graph' constructed by Sageev. If the system of cuts is nested then this median decomposition recovers precisely the aforementioned tree decomposition. We prove a theorem asserting that this decomposition is `uniquely minimal', and describe how Sageev--Roller duality manifests in median decompositions. As an application of our structural approach, we extend a theorem of Stavropoulos from finite graphs to all graphs, which states that the median-width a graph is equal to its clique number. We also describe the link between (canonical) median decompositions and (equivariant) coarse embeddings/quasi-isometries into median graphs. A corollary of these results is a characterisation of when a finitely generated group acts metrically-properly/geometrically on a median graph, in terms of canonical median decompositions of its Cayley graphs.