Graph product structure for non-minor-closed classes

Dujmovic et al. [J. ACM '20] proved that every planar graph is isomorphic to a subgraph of the strong product of a bounded treewidth graph and a path. Analogous results were obtained for graphs of bounded Euler genus or apex-minor-free graphs. These tools have been used to solve longstanding problems on queue layouts, non-repetitive colouring, p-centered colouring, and adjacency labelling. This paper proves analogous product structure theorems for various non-minor-closed classes. One noteable example is k-planar graphs (those with a drawing in the plane in which each edge is involved in at most k crossings). We prove that every k-planar graph is isomorphic to a subgraph of the strong product of a graph of treewidth O(k5) and a path. This is the first result of this type for a non-minor-closed class of graphs. It implies, amongst other results, that k-planar graphs have non-repetitive chromatic number upper-bounded by a function of k. All these results generalise for drawings of graphs on arbitrary surfaces. In fact, we work in a more general setting based on so-called shortcut systems, which are of independent interest. This leads to analogousresults for certain types of map graphs, string graphs, graph powers, and nearest neighbour graphs.(c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.