Cutwidth of iterated caterpillars

Abstract

The cutwidth is an important graph-invariant in circuit layout designs. The cutwidth of a graph G is the minimum value of the maximum number of overlap edges when G is embedded into a line. A caterpillar is a tree which yields a path when all its leaves are removed. An iterated caterpillar is a tree which yields a caterpillar when all its leaves are removed. In this paper we present an exact formula for the cutwidth of the iterated caterpillars.