Polynomial p-centered colorings for minor-free classes with treedepth-controlled exponent

Determine whether there exists a function g such that, for every fixed graph H, every H-minor-free graph G, and every positive integer p, the graph G admits a p-centered coloring with O(r^{g(td(H))}) colors.

Background

The paper surveys polynomial bounds for p-centered colorings of H-minor-free graphs but does not obtain the specific exponent depending only on the treedepth of the excluded graph. The question is attributed to Hodor et al.

References

The following question was posed by Hodor et al.. \begin{problem} Does there exist a function $g$ such that for every fixed graph $H$, for every $H$-minor-free graph~$G$ and every positive integer $p$, $G$ admits a $p$-centered coloring with $O(r{g(\td(H))})$ colors? \end{problem}

On the generalized coloring numbers  (2501.08698 - Siebertz, 15 Jan 2025) in Problem, Section 4.5, 'Structural decompositions'

Conjecture 14. There is a function d : N → N such that the following holds. Let a and b be positive integers with a ⩽ b. There exists a positive integer c such that, for every positive integer p, for every graph G, if K_{a,b} is not a topological minor of G, then χp(G) ⩽ c * pd(a). We do not know if the conjecture is true even for a = 3.

Product structure of graphs excluding a topological minor  (2608.14196 - Hodor et al., 14 Aug 2026) in Conjecture 14, Section 6, p. 17