A graph $G=(V,E)$ is representable if there exists a word $W$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $W$ if and only if $(x,y)\in E$ for each $x\neq y$. If $W$ is $k$-uniform (each letter of $W$ occurs exactly $k$ times in it) then $G$ is called $k$-representable. It was shown that a graph is representable if and only if it is $k$-representable for some $k$. Minimum $k$ for which a representable graph $G$ is $k$-representable is called its representation number.
In this paper we give a characterization of representable graphs in terms of orientations. Namely, we show that a graph is representable if and only if it admits an orientation into a so-called \emph{semi-transitive digraph}. This allows us to prove a number of results about representable graphs, not the least that 3-colorable graphs are representable. We also prove that the representation number of a graph on $n$ nodes is at most $n$, from which one concludes that the recognition problem for representable graphs is in NP. This bound is tight up to a constant factor, as we present a graph whose representation number is $n/2$.
We also answer several questions, in particular, on representability of the Petersen graph and local permutation representability.
An open question in the theory of word-representable graphs for the past decade has been whether the line graph of a non-word-representable graph is always non-word-representable. By formulating an appropriate optimization problem for the decision problem of 3-semi-transitive graphs, we show that the line graph of a non-word-representable graph can be word-representable. Using IBM's CPLEX solver, we demonstrate for several known word-representable and non-word-representable graphs that the line graph of a graph is 3-semi-transitive when there is a solution to the optimization problem. This res…
A graph $G=(V,E)$ is a \emph{word-representable graph} if there exists a word $W$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $W$ if and only if $(x,y)\in E$ for each $x\neq y$. In this paper we give an effective characterization of word-representable graphs in terms of orientations. Namely, we show that a graph is word-representable if and only if it admits a \emph{semi-transitive orientation} defined in the paper. This allows us to prove a number of results about word-representable graphs, in particular showing that the recognition problem is in NP, and that word-represe…
A simple graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ iff $xy\in E$. Word-representable graphs generalize several important classes of graphs. A graph is word-representable iff it admits a semi-transitive orientation. We use semi-transitive orientations to enumerate connected non-word-representable graphs up to the size of 11 vertices, which led to a correction of a published result. Obtaining the enumeration results took 3 CPU years of computation. Also, a graph is word-representable iff it is $k$-represe…
A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $(x,y)$ is an edge in $E$. Some graphs are word-representable, others are not. It is known that a graph is word-representable if and only if it accepts a so-called semi-transitive orientation. The main result of this paper is showing that a triangulation of any convex polyomino is word-representable if and only if it is 3-colorable. We demonstrate that this statement is not true for an arbitrary polyomino. We also show that the graph obtained by…
In this paper we study the structure of $k$-transitive closures of directed paths and formulate several properties. Concept of $k$-transitive orientation generalize the traditional concept of transitive orientation of a graph.
Letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in a word $w$ if after deleting in $w$ all letters but the copies of $x$ and $y$ we either obtain a word $xyxy\cdots$ (of even or odd length) or a word $yxyx\cdots$ (of even or odd length). A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if and only if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $xy\in E$. It is known that a graph is word-representable if and only if it admits a certain orientation called semi-transitive orientation. Word-representable graphs generalize several important classes of graphs suc…
A bull is a graph with five vertices $r, y, x, z, s$ and five edges $ry$, $yx$, $yz$, $xz$, $zs$. A graph $G$ is bull-reducible if no vertex of $G$ lies in two bulls. We prove that every bull-reducible Berge graph $G$ that contains no antihole is weakly chordal, or has a homogeneous set, or is transitively orientable. This yields a fast polynomial time algorithm to color exactly the vertices of such a graph.
A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$, $x\neq y$, alternate in $w$ if and only if $(x,y)\in E$. Halldórsson et al.\ have shown that a graph is word-representable if and only if it admits a so-called semi-transitive orientation. A corollary to this result is that any 3-colorable graph is word-representable. Akrobotu et al.\ have shown that a triangulation of a grid graph is word-representable if and only if it is 3-colorable. This result does not hold for triangulations of grid-covered cylinder graphs, namely, ther…
We consider the class of semi-transitively orientable graphs, which is a much larger class of graphs compared to transitively orientable graphs, in other words, comparability graphs. Ever since the concept of a semi-transitive orientation was defined as a crucial ingredient of the characterization of alternation graphs, also knownas word-representable graphs, it has sparked independent interest. In this paper, we investigate graph operations and graph products that preserve semitransitive orientability of graphs. The main theme of this paper is to determine which graph operations satisfy the f…
An orientation of a graph is semi-transitive if it is acyclic, and for any directed path $v_0\rightarrow v_1\rightarrow \cdots\rightarrow v_k$ either there is no edge between $v_0$ and $v_k$, or $v_i\rightarrow v_j$ is an edge for all $0\leq i<j\leq k$. An undirected graph is semi-transitive if it admits a semi-transitive orientation. Semi-transitive graphs include several important classes of graphs such as 3-colorable graphs, comparability graphs, and circle graphs, and they are precisely the class of word-representable graphs studied extensively in the literature. In this paper, we study se…
In an earlier paper the first two authors have shown that self-complementary graphs can always be oriented in such a way that the union of the oriented version and its isomorphically oriented complement gives a transitive tournament. We investigate the possibilities of generalizing this theorem to decompositions of the complete graph into three or more isomorphic graphs. We find that a complete characterization of when an orientation with similar properties is possible seems elusive. Nevertheless, we give sufficient conditions that generalize the earlier theorem and also imply that decompositi…
An orientation of a graph is semi-transitive if it is acyclic, and for any directed path $v_0\rightarrow v_1\rightarrow \cdots\rightarrow v_k$ either there is no arc between $v_0$ and $v_k$, or $v_i\rightarrow v_j$ is an arc for all $0\leq i<j\leq k$. An undirected graph is semi-transitive if it admits a semi-transitive orientation. Semi-transitive graphs generalize several important classes of graphs and they are precisely the class of word-representable graphs studied extensively in the literature. Determining if a triangle-free graph is semi-transitive is an NP-hard problem. The existence o…
The modular decomposition of a graph is a canonical representation of its modules. Algorithms for computing the modular decomposition of directed and undirected graphs differ significantly, with the undirected case being simpler, and algorithms for directed graphs often work by reducing the problem to decomposing undirected graphs. In this paper we show that transitive acyclic digraphs have the same strong modules as their undirected versions. This simplifies reduction for transitive digraphs, requiring only the computation of strongly connected components. Furthermore, we are interested in pe…
We extend the notion of quasi-transitive orientations of graphs to 2-edge-coloured graphs. By relating quasi-transitive $2$-edge-colourings to an equivalence relation on the edge set of a graph, we classify those graphs that admit a quasi-transitive $2$-edge-colouring. As a contrast to Ghouilá-Houri's classification of quasi-transitively orientable graphs as comparability graphs, we find quasi-transitively $2$-edge-colourable graphs do not admit a forbiddden subgraph characterization. Restricting the problem to comparability graphs, we show that the family of uniquely quasi-transitively orient…
A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $(x,y)\in E$. A triangular grid graph is a subgraph of a tiling of the plane with equilateral triangles defined by a finite number of triangles, called cells. A subdivision of a triangular grid graph is replacing some of its cells by plane copies of the complete graph $K_4$. Inspired by a recent elegant result of Akrobotu et al., who classified word-representable triangulations of grid graphs related to convex polyominoes, we characterize word-r…
Periodic colorings and orientations in infinite graphs
University of Hamburg（汉堡大学）；Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Laboratoire G-SCOP（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学，法国国家科学研究中心，G-SCOP实验室）；Theoretical Computer Science Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Jagiellonian University（雅盖隆大学数学与计算机科学学院理论计算机科学系）；Science Institute, University of Iceland（冰岛大学科学研究所）
Let $TT_k$ denote the transitive tournament on $k$ vertices. Let $TT(h,k)$ denote the graph obtained from $TT_k$ by replacing each vertex with an independent set of size $h \geq 1$. The following result is proved: Let $c_2=1/2$, $c_3=5/6$ and $c_k=1-2^{-k-\log k}$ for $k \geq 4$. For every $ε> 0$ there exists $N=N(ε,h,k)$ such that for every undirected graph $G$ with $n > N$ vertices and with $δ(G) \geq c_kn$, every orientation of $G$ contains vertex disjoint copies of $TT(h,k)$ that cover all but at most $εn$ vertices. In the cases $k=2$ and $k=3$ the result is asymptotically tight. For $k \g…
We count orientations of $G(n,p)$ avoiding certain classes of oriented graphs. In particular, we study $T_r(n,p)$, the number of orientations of the binomial random graph $G(n,p)$ in which every copy of $K_r$ is transitive, and $S_r(n,p)$, the number of orientations of $G(n,p)$ containing no strongly connected copy of $K_r$. We give the correct order of growth of $\log T_r(n,p)$ and $\log S_r(n,p)$ up to polylogarithmic factors; for orientations with no cyclic triangle, this significantly improves a result of Allen, Kohayakawa, Mota and Parente. We also discuss the problem for a single forbidd…
We study finite four-valent graphs Gamma admitting an edge-transitive group G of automorphisms such that G determines and preserves an edge-orientation on Gamma, and such that at least one G-normal quotient is a cycle (a quotient modulo the orbits of a normal subgroup of G). We show on the one hand that the number of distinct cyclic G-normal quotients can be unboundedly large. On the other hand existence of independent cyclic G-normal quotients (that is, they are not extendable to a common cyclic G-normal quotient) places severe restrictions on the graph Gamma and we classify all examples. We …
We analyse the normal quotient structure of several infinite families of finite connected edge-transitive, four-valent oriented graphs. These families were singled out by Marusic and others to illustrate various different internal structures for these graphs in terms of their alternating cycles (cycles in which consecutive edges have opposite orientations). Studying the normal quotients gives fresh insights into these oriented graphs: in particular we discovered some unexpected `cross-overs' between these graph families when we formed normal quotients. We determine which of these oriented grap…
A transitive graph is 2-dimensional if it can be represented as the intersection of two linear orders. Such representations make answering of reachability queries trivial, and allow many problems that are NP-hard on arbitrary graphs to be solved in polynomial time. One may therefore be interested in finding 2-dimensional graphs that closely approximate a given graph of arbitrary order dimension. In this paper we show that the maximal 2-dimensional subgraphs of a transitive graph G are induced by the optimal near-transitive orientations of the complement of G. The same characterization holds fo…
We develop a new framework for analysing finite connected, oriented graphs of valency 4, which admit a vertex-transitive and edge-transitive group of automorphisms preserving the edge orientation. We identify a sub-family of "basic" graphs such that each graph of this type is a normal cover of at least one basic graph. The basic graphs either admit an edge-transitive group of automorphisms that is quasiprimitive or biquasiprimitive on vertices, or admit an (oriented or unoriented) cycle as a normal quotient. We anticipate that each of these additional properties will facilitate effective furth…
Alon and Yuster proved that the number of orientations of any $n$-vertex graph in which every $K_3$ is transitively oriented is at most $2^{\lfloor n^2/4\rfloor}$ for $n \geq 10^4$ and conjectured that the precise lower bound on $n$ should be $n \geq 8$. We confirm their conjecture and, additionally, characterize the extremal families by showing that the balanced complete bipartite graph with $n$ vertices is the only $n$-vertex graph for which there are exactly $2^{\lfloor n^2/4\rfloor}$ such orientations.
Given a set $F$ of oriented graphs, a graph $G$ is an $F$-graph if it admits an $F$-free orientation. Building on previous work by Bang-Jensen and Urrutia, we propose a master algorithm that determines if a graph admits an $F$-free orientation when $F$ is a subset of the orientations of $P_3$ and the transitive triangle. We extend previous results of Skrien by studying the class of $F$-graphs, when $F$ is any set of oriented graphs of order three. Structural characterizations for all such sets are provided, except for the so-called perfectly-orientable graphs and one of its subclasses, which r…
The foundation of a matroid is a canonical algebraic invariant which classifies representations of the matroid up to rescaling equivalence. Foundations of matroids are pastures, a simultaneous generalization of partial fields and hyperfields. Using deep results due to Tutte, Dress-Wenzel, and Gelfand-Rybnikov-Stone, we give a presentation for the foundation of a matroid in terms of generators and relations. The generators are certain "cross-ratios" generalizing the cross-ratio of four points on a projective line, and the relations encode dependencies between cross-ratios in certain low-rank co…
Beginning with the concepts of orientation for a 3-hypergraph and transitivity for an oriented 3-hypergraph, it is natural to study the class of comparability 3-hypergraphs (those that can be transitively oriented). In this work we show three different behaviors in respect to the relationship between the chromatic number and the clique number of a comparability 3-hypergraph, this is in contrast with the fact that a comparability simple graph is a perfect graph.
Like the Coxeter graph became reattached into the Klein graph in [2], the Levi graphs of the $9_3$ and $10_3$ self-dual configurations, known as the Pappus and Desargues ($k$-transitive) graphs $\mathcal P$ and $\mathcal D$ (where $k=3$), also admit reattachments of the distance-$(k-1)$ graphs of half of their oriented shortest cycles via orientation assignments on their common $(k-1)$-arcs, concurrent for ${\mathcal P}$ and opposite for $\mathcal D$, now into 2 disjoint copies of their corresponding Menger graphs. Here, $\mathcal P$ is the unique cubic distance-transitive (or CDT) graph with …
Comparability graphs are graphs which have transitive orientations. The dimension of a poset is the least number of linear orders whose intersection gives this poset. The dimension ${\rm dim}(X)$ of a comparability graph $X$ is the dimension of any transitive orientation of X, and by $k$-DIM we denote the class of comparability graphs $X$ with ${\rm dim}(X) \le k$. It is known that the complements of comparability graphs are exactly function graphs and permutation graphs equal 2-DIM. In this paper, we characterize the automorphism groups of permutation graphs similarly to Jordan's characteriza…
A directed graph $G=(V,E)$ is {\it strongly pseudo transitive} if there is a partition $\{A,E-A\}$ of $E$ so that graphs $G_1=(V,A)$ and $G_2=(V,E-A)$ are transitive, and additionally, if $ab\in A$ and $bc\in E $ implies that $ac\in E$. A strongly pseudo transitive graph $G=(V,E)$ is strongly pseudo transitive of the first type, if $ab\in A$ and $bc\in E$ implies $ac\in A$. An undirected graph is co-strongly pseudo transitive (co-strongly pseudo transitive of the first type) if its complement has an orientation which is strongly pseudo transitive (co-strongly pseudo transitive of the first typ…
Tournaments are orientations of the complete graph, and the directed Ramsey number $R(k)$ is the minimum number of vertices a tournament must have to be guaranteed to contain a transitive subtournament of size $k$, which we denote by $TT_k$. We include a computer-assisted proof of a conjecture by Sanchez-Flores that all $TT_6$-free tournaments on 24 and 25 vertices are subtournaments of $ST_{27}$, the unique largest TT_6-free tournament. We also classify all $TT_6$-free tournaments on 23 vertices. We use these results, combined with assistance from SAT technology, to obtain the following impro…
Consider two horizontal lines in the plane. A pair of a point on the top line and an interval on the bottom line defines a triangle between two lines. The intersection graph of such triangles is called a simple-triangle graph. This paper shows a vertex ordering characterization of simple-triangle graphs as follows: a graph is a simple-triangle graph if and only if there is a linear ordering of the vertices that contains both an alternating orientation of the graph and a transitive orientation of the complement of the graph.
A word-representable graph is a simple graph $G$ which can be represented by a word $w$ over the vertices of $G$ such that any two vertices are adjacent in $G$ if and only if they alternate in $w$. It is known that the class of comparability graphs -- the graphs which admit a transitive orientation -- is precisely the class of graphs that can be represented by a concatenation of permutations of vertices. The class of bipartite graphs is a subclass of comparability graphs. While it is an open problem to determine the representation number of comparability graphs, it was conjectured that the rep…
A simple-triangle graph is the intersection graph of triangles that are defined by a point on a horizontal line and an interval on another horizontal line. The time complexity of the recognition problem for simple-triangle graphs was a longstanding open problem, which was recently settled. This paper provides a new recognition algorithm for simple-triangle graphs to improve the time bound from $O(n^2 \overline{m})$ to $O(nm)$, where $n$, $m$, and $\overline{m}$ are the number of vertices, edges, and non-edges of the graph, respectively. The algorithm uses the vertex ordering characterization t…
In the homomorphism order of digraphs, a duality pair is an ordered pair of digraphs $(G,H)$ such that for any digraph, $D$, $G\to D$ if and only if $D\not\to H$. The directed path on $k+1$ vertices together with the transitive tournament on $k$ vertices is a classic example of a duality pair. This relation between paths and tournaments implies that a graph is $k$-colourable if and only if it admits an orientation with no directed path on more than $k$-vertices. In this work, for every undirected cycle $C$ we find an orientation $C_D$ and an oriented path $P_C$, such that $(P_C,C_D)$ is a dual…
