Minor-Universal Graph for Graphs on Surfaces

Abstract: We show that, for every n and every surface $\Sigma$, there is a graph U embeddable on $\Sigma$ with at most cn^2 vertices that contains as minor every graph embeddable on $\Sigma$ with n vertices. The constant c depends polynomially on the Euler genus of $\Sigma$. This generalizes a well-known result for planar graphs due to Robertson, Seymour, and Thomas [Quickly Excluding a Planar Graph. J. Comb. Theory B, 1994] which states that the square grid on 4n^2 vertices contains as minor every planar graph with n vertices.