Embedding clique subdivisions via crux

Abstract: For a graph $G$ and a constant $\alpha>0$, we denote by $C_{\alpha}(G)$ the minimum order of a subgraph $H\subseteq G$ with $d(H)\ge \alpha d(G)$. Liu and Montgomery conjectured that every graph $G$ contains $K_{\Omega(t)}$ as a subdivision for $t=\min {d(G), \sqrt{\tfrac{C_{\alpha}(G)}{\log C_{\alpha}(G)}}}$. In the paper, we prove this conjecture.