In the course of proving the strong perfect graph theorem, Chudnovsky, Robertson, Seymour, and Thomas showed that every perfect graph either belongs to one of five basic classes or admits one of several decompositions. Four of the basic classes are closed under taking induced subgraphs (and have known forbidden subgraph characterizations), while the fifth one, consisting of double-split graphs, is not.
A graph is doubled if it is an induced subgraph of a double-split graph. We find the forbidden induced subgraph characterization of doubled graphs; it contains 44 graphs.
Here in particular, we give a characterization of Quasi-line Graphs in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs. In general, we prove a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph to be a union of two cliques.
An interval graph is considered improper if and only if it has a representation such that an interval contains another interval. Previously these have been investigated in terms of balance and minimal forbidden interval subgraphs for the class of 1-improper interval graphs. This paper investigates the minimal forbidden interval sub-graphs further, generalizing results to all p-improper interval graphs. It is apparent that there are many different types of possible minimal forbidden subgraphs that fall into four broad categories.
In this paper we show that the conjecture of Lemmens and Seidel of 1973 for systems of equiangular lines with common angle $\arccos (1/5)$ is true. Our main tool is forbidden subgraphs for smallest Seidel eigenvalue $-5$.
In descending generality I survey: five partial orderings of graphs, the induced-subgraph ordering, and examples like perfect, threshold, and mock threshold graphs. The emphasis is on how the induced subgraph ordering differs from other popular orderings and leads to different basic questions.
Although the chromatic number of a graph is not known in general, attempts have been made to find good bounds for the number. Here we prove that for a graph G with two forbidden subgraphs and maximum degree less than or equal to 2ω - 3, χ equals its maximum clique size. We also give examples to show that the condition is necessary.
We call a graph $G$ pancyclic if it contains at least one cycle of every possible length $m$, for $3\le m\le |V(G)|$. In this paper, we define a new property called chorded pancyclicity. We explore forbidden subgraphs in claw-free graphs sufficient to imply that the graph contains at least one chorded cycle of every possible length $4, 5, \ldots, |V(G)|$. In particular, certain paths and triangles with pendant paths are forbidden.
In this paper we extend a result about a sufficient condition for Hamiltonicity for finite graphs by Broersma and Veldmann to locally finite graphs. In order to do this we use topological circles within the Freudenthal compactification of a locally finite graph as infinite cycles. The condition we focus on in this paper is in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs, namely being claw-free and a relaxation of being paw-free.
A graph $G$ is $H$-free if it has no induced subgraph isomorphic to $H$, where $H$ is a graph. In this paper, we show that every $\frac{3}{2}$-tough $(P_4 \cup P_{10})$-free graph has a 2-factor. The toughness condition of this result is sharp. Moreover, for any $\varepsilon>0$ there exists a $(2-\varepsilon)$-tough $2P_5$-free graph without a 2-factor. This implies that the graph $P_4 \cup P_{10}$ is best possible for a forbidden subgraph in a sense.
Minimal separators in graphs are an important concept in algorithmic graph theory. In particular, many problems that are NP-hard for general graphs are known to become polynomial-time solvable for classes of graphs with a polynomially bounded number of minimal separators. Several well-known graph classes have this property, including chordal graphs, permutation graphs, circular-arc graphs, and circle graphs. We perform a systematic study of the question which classes of graphs defined by small forbidden induced subgraphs have a polynomially bounded number of minimal separators. We focus on set…
We prove that $\{\overline{K_3}, H\}$-free graphs are not counterexamples to Hadwiger's Conjecture, where $H$ is any one of 33 graphs on seven, eight, or nine vertices, or $H=K_8$. This improves on past results of Plummer-Stiebitz-Toft, Kriesell, and Bosse. The proofs are mostly computer-assisted.
When we study forbidden subgraph conditions guaranteeing graphs to have some properties, a claw (or $K_{1,3}$) frequently appears as one of forbidden subgraphs. Recently, Furuya and Tsuchiya compared two classes generated by different forbidden pairs containing a claw, and characterized one of such classes. In this paper, we give such characterization for three new classes. Furthermore, we give applications of our characterizations to some forbidden subgraph problems.
We show that the norm graph constructed in [J. Kollár, L. Rónyai and T. Szabó, Norm-graphs and bipartite Turán numbers, Combinatorica, 16 (1996) 399--406] with $n$ vertices about $\frac{1}{2}n^{2-1/t}$ edges, which contains no copy of $K_{t,(t-1)!+1}$, does not contain a copy of $K_{t+1,(t-1)!-1}$.
We prove a conjecture by Aboulker, Charbit and Naserasr by showing that every oriented graph in which the out-neighborhood of every vertex induces a transitive tournament can be partitioned into two acyclic induced subdigraphs. We prove multiple extensions of this result to larger classes of digraphs defined by a finite list of forbidden induced subdigraphs. We thereby resolve several special cases of an extension of the famous Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture to directed graphs by Aboulker et al.
Fix $k \ge 2$ and let $H$ be a graph with $χ(H) = k+1$ containing a critical edge. We show that for sufficiently large $n$, the unique $n$-vertex $H$-free graph containing the maximum number of cycles is $T_k(n)$. This resolves both a question and a conjecture of Arman, Gunderson and Tsaturian.
A unit disk graph is the intersection graph of disks of equal radii in the plane. The class of unit disk graphs is hereditary, and therefore admits a characterization in terms of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs. In spite of quite active study of unit disk graphs very little is known about minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for this class. We found only finitely many minimal non unit disk graphs in the literature. In this paper we study in a systematic way forbidden induced subgraphs for the class of unit disk graphs. We develop several structural and geometrical tools, and use them to rev…
A graph $G$ has $p$-intersection number at most $d$ if it is possible to assign to every vertex $u$ of $G$, a subset $S(u)$ of some ground set $U$ with $|U|=d$ in such a way that distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$ are adjacent in $G$ if and only if $|S(u)\cap S(v)|\geq p$. We show that every minimal forbidden induced subgraph for the hereditary class ${\cal G}(d,p)$ of graphs whose $p$-intersection number is at most $d$, has order at most $3\cdot 2^{d+1}+1$, and that the exponential dependence on $d$ in this upper bound is necessary. For $p\in \{ d-1,d-2\}$, we provide more explicit results …
Reed Conjecture is open for more than 20 years now. Here we prove that Reed Conjecture is valid for (1) {P4UnionK1, Kite}-free graphs (2) {Chair, Kite}-free graphs (3) {K2UnionK2complement , H}-free graphs and (4) {2K2, M}-free graphs where H and M are graphs on six vertices each. Reed conjecture is still open in general.
In a series of papers, of which this is the first, we study sufficient conditions for Hamiltonicity in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs and extend such results to locally finite infinite graphs. For this we use topological circles within the Freudenthal compactification of a locally finite graph as infinite cycles. In this paper we focus on conditions involving claws, nets and bulls as induced subgraphs. We extend Hamiltonicity results for finite claw-free and net-free graphs by Shepherd to locally finite graphs. Moreover, we generalise a classification of finite claw-free and net-free gra…
For a bipartite graph G, let h(G) be the largest t such that either G or the bipartite complement of G contain K_{t,t}. For a class F of graphs, let h(F)= min {h(G): G\in F}. We say that a bipartite graph H is strongly acyclic if neither H nor its bipartite complement contain a cycle. By Forb(n, H) we denote a set of bipartite graphs with parts of sizes n each, that do not contain H as an induced bipartite subgraph respecting the sides. One can easily show that h(Forb(n,H))= O(n^{1-s}) for a positive s if H is not strongly acyclic. Here, we prove that h(Forb(n, H)) is linear in n for all stron…
Motivated in part by an observation that the zero forcing number for the complement of a tree on $n$ vertices is either $n-3$ or $n-1$ in one exceptional case, we consider the zero forcing number for the complement of more general graphs under some conditions, particularly those that do not contain complete bipartite subgraphs. We also move well beyond trees and completely study all of the possible zero forcing numbers for the complements of unicyclic graphs and cactus graphs.
Problem of finding an optimal upper bound for the chromatic no. of a graph is still open and very hard. Borodin and Kostochka Conjecture is still open and if proved will improve Brook bound on Chromatic no. of a graph. Here we prove Borodin & Kostochka Conjecture for (1) (P4 Union K1)-free (2) P5-free (3) Chair-free graphs and 4) graphs with dense neighbourhoods. Certain known results follow as Corollaries.
For a given graph $R$, a graph $G$ is $R$-free if $G$ does not contain $R$ as an induced subgraph. It is known that every $2$-tough graph with at least three vertices has a $2$-factor. In graphs with restricted structures, it was shown that every $2K_2$-free $3/2$-tough graph with at least three vertices has a $2$-factor, and the toughness bound $3/2$ is best possible. In viewing $2K_2$, the disjoint union of two edges, as a linear forest, in this paper, for any linear forest $R$ on 5, 6, or 7 vertices, we find the sharp toughness bound $t$ such that every $t$-tough $R$-free graph on at least …
We study a special kind of bounds (so called forbidden subgraph bounds, cf. Feige, Verbitsky '02) for parallel repetition of multi-prover games. First, we show that forbidden subgraph upper bounds for $r \ge 3$ provers imply the same bounds for the density Hales-Jewett theorem for alphabet of size $r$. As a consequence, this yields a new family of games with slow decrease in the parallel repetition value. Second, we introduce a new technique for proving exponential forbidden subgraph upper bounds and explore its power and limitations. In particular, we obtain exponential upper bounds for two-p…
For every graph $X$, we consider the class of all connected $\{K_{1,3}, X\}$-free graphs which are distinct from an odd cycle and have independence number at least $4$, and we show that all graphs in the class are perfect if and only if $X$ is an induced subgraph of some of $P_6$, $K_1 \cup P_5$, $2P_3$, $Z_2$ or $K_1 \cup Z_1$. Furthermore, for $X$ chosen as $2K_1 \cup K_3$, we list all eight imperfect graphs belonging to the class; and for every other choice of $X$, we show that there are infinitely many such graphs. In addition, for $X$ chosen as $B_{1,2}$, we describe the structure of all …
In this paper we raise a variant of a classic problem in extremal graph theory, which is motivated by a design of fractional repetition codes, a model in distributed storage systems. For any feasible positive integers $d\geq 3$, $n \geq 3$, and $k$, where $n-1 \leq k \leq \binom{n}{2}$, what is the minimum possible number of vertices in a $d$-regular undirected graph whose subgraphs with $n$ vertices contain at most $k$ edges? The goal of this paper is to give the exact number of vertices for each instance of the problem and also to provide some bounds for general values of $n$, $d$, and $k$. …
We analyze the asymptotic extremal growth rate of the Betti numbers of clique complexes of graphs on n vertices not containing a fixed forbidden induced subgraph H. In particular, we prove a theorem of the alternative: for any H the growth rate achieves exactly one of five possible exponentials, that is, independent of the field of coefficients, the nth root of the maximal total Betti number over n-vertex graphs with no induced copy of H has a limit, as n tends to infinity, and, ranging over all H, exactly five different limits are attained. For the interesting case where H is the 4-cycle, the…
Zero forcing is a process that models the spread of information throughout a graph as white vertices are forced to turn blue using a color change rule. The idea of throttling, introduced in 2013 by Butler and Young, is to optimize the trade-off between the number of initial blue vertices and the time taken to force all vertices to become blue. The original throttling number of a graph minimizes the sum of these two quantities and the product throttling number minimizes their product. In addition, weighted throttling changes the weights given to these two quantities when minimizing their sum. S…
A path in a vertex-colored graph is called \emph{vertex-rainbow} if its internal vertices have pairwise distinct colors. A graph $G$ is \emph{rainbow vertex-connected} if for any two distinct vertices of $G$, there is a vertex-rainbow path connecting them. For a connected graph $G$, the \emph{rainbow vertex-connection number} of $G$, denoted by $rvc(G)$, is defined as the minimum number of colors that are required to make $G$ rainbow vertex-connected. In this paper, we find all the families $\mathcal{F}$ of connected graphs with $|\mathcal{F}|\in\{1,2\}$, for which there is a constant $k_\math…
The chromatic number of a graph is the minimum $k$ such that the graph has a proper $k$-coloring. There are many coloring parameters in the literature that are proper colorings that also forbid bicolored subgraphs. Some examples are $2$-distance coloring, acyclic coloring, and star coloring, which forbid a bicolored path on three vertices, bicolored cycles, and a bicolored path on four vertices, respectively. This notion was first suggested by Grünbaum in 1973, but no specific name was given. We revive this notion by defining an $H$-avoiding $k$-coloring to be a proper $k$-coloring that forbid…
A homogeneous set of a graph $G$ is a set $X$ of vertices such that $2\le \lvert X\rvert <\lvert V(G)\rvert$ and no vertex in $V(G)-X$ has both a neighbor and a non-neighbor in $X$. A graph is prime if it has no homogeneous set. We present an algorithm to decide whether a class of graphs given by a finite set of forbidden induced subgraphs contains infinitely many non-isomorphic prime graphs.
Considering connected $K_{1,3}$-free graphs with independence number at least $3$, Chudnovsky and Seymour (2010) showed that every such graph, say $G$, is $2ω$-colourable where $ω$ denotes the clique number of $G$. We study $(K_{1,3}, Y)$-free graphs, and show that the following three statements are equivalent. (1) Every connected $(K_{1,3}, Y)$-free graph which is distinct from an odd cycle and which has independence number at least $3$ is perfect. (2) Every connected $(K_{1,3}, Y)$-free graph which is distinct from an odd cycle and which has independence number at least $3$ is $ω$-colourable…
It is known that the class of all graphs not containing a graph $H$ as an induced subgraph is cop-bounded if and only if $H$ is a forest whose every component is a path. In this study, we characterize all sets $\mathscr{H}$ of graphs with some $k\in \mathbb{N}$ bounding the diameter of members of $\mathscr{H}$ from above, such that $\mathscr{H}$-free graphs, i.e. graphs with no member of $\mathscr{H}$ as an induced subgraph, are cop-bounded. This, in particular, gives a characterization of cop-bounded classes of graphs defined by a finite set of connected graphs as forbidden induced subgraphs.…
