Vertex Splitting and Upper Embeddable Graphs

The weak minor G of a graph G is the graph obtained from G by a sequence of edge-contraction operations on G. A weak-minor-closed family of upper embeddable graphs is a set G of upper embeddable graphs that for each graph G in G, every weak minor of G is also in G. Up to now, there are few results providing the necessary and sufficient conditions for characterizing upper embeddability of graphs. In this paper, we studied the relation between the vertex splitting operation and the upper embeddability of graphs; provided not only a necessary and sufficient condition for characterizing upper embeddability of graphs, but also a way to construct weak-minor-closed family of upper embeddable graphs from the bouquet of circles; extended a result in J. Graph Theory obtained by L. Nebeský. In addition, the algorithm complex of determining the upper embeddability of a graph can be reduced much by the results obtained in this paper.