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Breaking the degeneracy barrier for coloring graphs with no $K_t$ minor

In 1943, Hadwiger conjectured that every graph with no $K_t$ minor is $(t-1)$-colorable for every $t\geq 1$. In the 1980s, Kostochka and Thomason independently proved that every graph with no $K_t$ minor has average degree $O(t\sqrt{\log t})$ and hence is $O(t\sqrt{\log t})$-colorable. We show that every graph with no $K_t$ minor is $O(t(\log t)^β)$-colorable for every $β> 1/4$, making the first improvement on the order of magnitude of the Kostochka-Thomason bound.