Clément Dallard, Robert Ganian, Meike Hatzel, Matjaž Krnc, Martin Milanič
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
A moplex is a natural graph structure that arises when lifting Dirac's classical theorem from chordal graphs to general graphs. The notion is known to be closely related to lexicographic searches in graphs as well as to asteroidal triples, and has been applied in several algorithms related to graph classes, such as interval graphs, claw-free, and diamond-free graphs. However, while every noncomplete graph has at least two moplexes, little is known about structural properties of graphs with a bounded number of moplexes. The study of these graphs is, in part, motivated by the parallel between moplexes in general graphs and simplicial modules in chordal graphs: unlike in the moplex setting, properties of chordal graphs with a bounded number of simplicial modules are well understood. For instance, chordal graphs having at most two simplicial modules are intervals. In this work, we initiate an investigation of -moplex graphs, which are defined as graphs containing at most moplexes. Of particular interest is the smallest nontrivial case , which forms a counterpart to the class of interval graphs. As our main structural result, we show that, when restricted to connected graphs, the class of 2-moplex graphs is sandwiched between the classes of proper interval graphs and cocomparability graphs; moreover, both inclusions are tight for hereditary classes. From a complexity-theoretic viewpoint, this leads to the natural question of whether the presence of at most two moplexes guarantees a sufficient amount of structure to efficiently solve problems that are known to be intractable on cocomparability graphs, but not on proper interval graphs. We develop new reductions that answer this question negatively for two prominent problems fitting this profile, namely,
Graph Isomorphism and
Max-Cut. On the other hand, we prove that every connected 2-moplex graph contains a Hamiltonian path, generalising the same property of connected proper interval graphs. Furthermore, for graphs with a higher number of moplexes, we lift the previously known result that graphs without asteroidal triples have at most two moplexes to the more general setting of larger asteroidal sets.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Graph Theory is devoted to a variety of topics in graph theory, such as structural results about graphs, graph algorithms with theoretical emphasis, and discrete optimization on graphs. The scope of the journal also includes related areas in combinatorics and the interaction of graph theory with other mathematical sciences.
A subscription to the Journal of Graph Theory includes a subscription to the Journal of Combinatorial Designs .