An induced forest of a graph is a vertex-induced subgraph that is a forest. Thus a subset of the vertex
set
determines an induced forest precisely when
contains no graph cycle.
For a simple graph, the complementary vertex set
is then a feedback vertex set. Consequently,
the maximum number of vertices in an induced forest
is the vertex count minus the feedback
vertex set number. The Albertson-Berman
conjecture concerned the size of the largest induced forest in a planar
graph (Cames van Batenburg et al. 2026).
The induced forest polynomial counts induced forests by their number of vertices.