A graph is circle if its vertices are in correspondence with a family of chords in a circle in such a way that every two distinct vertices are adjacent if and only if the corresponding chords have nonempty intersection. Even though there are diverse characterizations of circle graphs, a structural characterization by minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for the entire class of circle graphs is not known, not even restricted to split graphs (which are the graphs whose vertex set can be partitioned into a clique and a stable set). In this work, we give a characterization by minimal forbidden induced subgraphs of circle graphs, restricted to split graphs.
In the study of full bubble model graphs of bounded clique-width and bounded linear clique-width, we determined complete sets of forbidden induced subgraphs, that are minimal in the class of full bubble model graphs. In this note, we show that (almost all of) these graphs are minimal in the class of all graphs. As a corollary, we can give sets of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for graphs of bounded clique-width and for graphs of bounded linear clique-width for arbitrary bounds.
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…
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.
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.…
We discover new hereditary classes of graphs that are minimal (with respect to set inclusion) of unbounded clique-width. The new examples include split permutation graphs and bichain graphs. Each of these classes is characterised by a finite list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs. These, therefore, disprove a conjecture due to Daligault, Rao and Thomasse from 2010 claiming that all such minimal classes must be defined by infinitely many forbidden induced subgraphs. In the same paper, Daligault, Rao and Thomasse make another conjecture that every hereditary class of unbounded clique-width …
The traditional game of cops and robbers is played on undirected graph. Recently, the same game played on directed graph is getting attention by more and more people. We knew that if we forbid some subgraph we can bound the cop number of the corresponding class of graphs. In this paper, we analyze the game of cops and robbers on $\Vec{H}$-free digraphs. However, it is not the same as the case of undirected graph. So we give a new concept ($\Vec{H}^*$-free) to get a similar conclusion about the case of undirected graph.
A graph is a path graph if it is the intersection graph of a family of subpaths of a tree. In 1970, Renz asked for a characterizaton of path graphs by forbidden induced subgraphs. Here we answer this question by listing all graphs that are not path graphs and are minimal with this property.
We study the complexity of the Graph Isomorphism problem on graph classes that are characterized by a finite number of forbidden induced subgraphs, focusing mostly on the case of two forbidden subgraphs. We show hardness results and develop techniques for the structural analysis of such graph classes, which applied to the case of two forbidden subgraphs give the following results: A dichotomy into isomorphism complete and polynomial-time solvable graph classes for all but finitely many cases, whenever neither of the forbidden graphs is a clique, a pan, or a complement of these graphs. Further …
The edge intersection graph of a family of paths in host tree is called an $EPT$ graph. When the host tree has maximum degree $h$, we say that $G$ belongs to the class $[h,2,2]$. If, in addition, the family of paths satisfies the Helly property, then $G \in$ Helly $[h,2,2]$. The time complexity of the recognition of the classes $[h,2,2]$ inside the class $EPT$ is open for every $h> 4$. Golumbic et al. wonder if the only obstructions for an $EPT$ graph belonging to $[h,2,2]$ are the chordless cycles $C_n$ for $n> h$. In the present paper, we give a negative answer to that question, we present a…
Forbidden characterizations may sometimes be the most natural way to describe families of graphs, and yet these characterizations are usually very hard to exploit for enumerative purposes. By building on the work of Gioan and Paul (2012) and Chauve et al. (2014), we show a methodology by which we constrain a split-decomposition tree to avoid certain patterns, thereby avoiding the corresponding induced subgraphs in the original graph. We thus provide the grammars and full enumeration for a wide set of graph classes: ptolemaic, block, and variants of cactus graphs (2,3-cacti, 3-cacti and 4-cacti…
A conjecture of Alon, Krivelevich, and Sudakov states that, for any graph $F$, there is a constant $c_F > 0$ such that if $G$ is an $F$-free graph of maximum degree $Δ$, then $χ(G) \leq c_F Δ/ \logΔ$. Alon, Krivelevich, and Sudakov verified this conjecture for a class of graphs $F$ that includes all bipartite graphs. Moreover, it follows from recent work by Davies, Kang, Pirot, and Sereni that if $G$ is $K_{t,t}$-free, then $χ(G) \leq (t + o(1)) Δ/ \logΔ$ as $Δ\to \infty$. We improve this bound to $(1+o(1)) Δ/\log Δ$, making the constant factor independent of $t$. We further extend our result …
A Helly circular-arc graph is the intersection graph of a set of arcs on a circle having the Helly property. We introduce essential obstacles, which are a refinement of the notion of obstacles, and prove that essential obstacles are precisely the minimal forbidden induced circular-arc subgraphs for the class of Helly circular-arc graphs. We show that it is possible to find in linear time, in any given obstacle, some minimal forbidden induced subgraph for the class of Helly circular-arc graphs contained as an induced subgraph. Moreover, relying on an existing linear-time algorithm for finding i…
If a graph has no induced subgraph isomorphic to any graph in a finite family $\{H_1,\ldots,H_p\}$, it is said to be $(H_1,\ldots,H_p)$-free. The class of $H$-free graphs has bounded clique-width if and only if $H$ is an induced subgraph of the 4-vertex path $P_4$. We study the (un)boundedness of the clique-width of graph classes defined by two forbidden induced subgraphs $H_1$ and $H_2$. Prior to our study it was not known whether the number of open cases was finite. We provide a positive answer to this question. To reduce the number of open cases we determine new graph classes of bounded cli…
For a positive integer $k$, a $k$-colouring of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a mapping $c: V\rightarrow\{1,2,...,k\}$ such that $c(u)\neq c(v)$ whenever $uv\in E$. The Colouring problem is to decide, for a given $G$ and $k$, whether a $k$-colouring of $G$ exists. If $k$ is fixed (that is, it is not part of the input), we have the decision problem $k$-Colouring instead. We survey known results on the computational complexity of Colouring and $k$-Colouring for graph classes that are characterized by one or two forbidden induced subgraphs. We also consider a number of variants: for example, where the prob…
We examine two criteria for balance of a gain graph, one based on binary cycles and one on circles. The graphs for which each criterion is valid depend on the set of allowed gain groups. The binary cycle test is invalid, except for forests, if any possible gain group has an element of odd order. Assuming all groups are allowed, or all abelian groups, or merely the cyclic group of order 3, we characterize, both constructively and by forbidden minors, the graphs for which the circle test is valid. It turns out that these three classes of groups have the same set of forbidden minors. The exact re…
A normal Helly circular-arc graph is the intersection graph of arcs on a circle of which no three or less arcs cover the whole circle. Lin, Soulignac, and Szwarcfiter [Discrete Appl. Math. 2013] characterized circular-arc graphs that are not normal Helly circular-arc graphs, and used it to develop the first recognition algorithm for this graph class. As open problems, they ask for the forbidden induced subgraph characterization and a direct recognition algorithm for normal Helly circular-arc graphs, both of which are resolved by the current paper. Moreover, when the input is not a normal Helly…
In the game of Cops and Robber, a team of cops attempts to capture a robber on a graph $G$. Initially, all cops occupy some vertices in $G$ and the robber occupies another vertex. In each round, a cop can move to one of its neighbors or stay idle, after which the robber does the same. The robber is caught by a cop if the cop lands on the same vertex which is currently occupied by the robber. The minimum number of cops needed to guarantee capture of a robber on $G$ is called the {\em cop number} of $G$, denoted by $c(G)$. We say a family $\cal F$ of graphs is {\em cop-bounded} if there is a con…
Lekkerkerker and Boland characterized the minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for the class of interval graphs. We give a linear-time algorithm to find one in any graph that is not an interval graph. Tucker characterized the minimal forbidden submatrices of matrices that do not have the consecutive-ones property. We give a linear-time algorithm to find one in any matrix that does not have the consecutive-ones property.
An interval graph is the intersection graph of a finite set of intervals on a line and a circular-arc graph is the intersection graph of a finite set of arcs on a circle. While a forbidden induced subgraph characterization of interval graphs was found fifty years ago, finding an analogous characterization for circular-arc graphs is a long-standing open problem. In this work, we study the intersection graphs of finite sets of arcs on a circle no three of which cover the circle, known as normal Helly circular-arc graphs. Those circular-arc graphs which are minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for…
The coloring problem is studied in the paper for graph classes defined by two small forbidden induced subgraphs. We prove some sufficient conditions for effective solvability of the problem in such classes. As their corollary we determine the computational complexity for all sets of two connected forbidden induced subgraphs with at most five vertices except 13 explicitly enumerated cases
It is well-known that the graphs not containing a given graph H as a subgraph have bounded chromatic number if and only if H is acyclic. Here we consider ordered graphs, i.e., graphs with a linear ordering on their vertex set, and the function f(H) = sup{chi(G) | G in Forb(H)} where Forb(H) denotes the set of all ordered graphs that do not contain a copy of H. If H contains a cycle, then as in the case of unordered graphs, f(H) is infinity. However, in contrast to the unordered graphs, we describe an infinite family of ordered forests H with infinite f(H). An ordered graph is crossing if there…
Daligault, Rao and Thomassé asked whether a hereditary class of graphs well-quasi-ordered by the induced subgraph relation has bounded clique-width. Lozin, Razgon and Zamaraev recently showed that this is not true for classes defined by infinitely many forbidden induced subgraphs. However, in the case of finitely many forbidden induced subgraphs the question remains open and we conjecture that in this case the answer is positive. The conjecture is known to hold for classes of graphs defined by a single forbidden induced subgraph $H$, as such graphs are well-quasi-ordered and are of bounded cli…
Chordal graphs are the graphs in which every cycle of length at least four has a chord. A set $S$ is a vertex separator for vertices $a$ and $b$ if the removal of $S$ of the graph separates $a$ and $b$ into distinct connected components. A graph $G$ is chordal if and only if every minimal vertex separator is a clique. We study subclasses of chordal graphs defined by restrictions imposed on the intersections of its minimal separator cliques. Our goal is to characterize them by forbidden induced subgraphs. Some of these classes have already been studied such as chordal graphs in which two minima…
Lekkerkerker and Boland characterized the minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for the class of interval graphs. We give a linear-time algorithm to find one in any graph that is not an interval graph. Tucker characterized the minimal forbidden submatrices of binary matrices that do not have the consecutive-ones property. We give a linear-time algorithm to find one in any binary matrix that does not have the consecutive-ones property.
A $(0,1)$-matrix has the consecutive-ones property (C1P) if its columns can be permuted to make the $1$'s in each row appear consecutively. This property was characterised in terms of forbidden submatrices by Tucker in 1972. Several graph classes were characterised by means of this property, including interval graphs and strongly chordal digraphs. In this work, we define and characterise 2-nested matrices, which are $(0,1)$-matrices with a variant of the C1P and for which there is also certain assignment of one of two colors to each block of consecutive $1$'s in each row. The characterization …
A graph is circle if there is a family of chords in a circle such that two vertices are adjacent if the corresponding chords cross each other. There are diverse characterizations of circle graphs, many of them using the notions of local complementation or split decomposition. However, there are no known structural characterization by minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for circle graphs. In this thesis, we give a characterization by forbidden induced subgraphs of circle graphs within split graphs. A $(0,1)$-matrix has the consecutive-ones property (C1P) for the rows if there is a permutation o…
A graph is concave-round if its vertices can be circularly enumerated so that the closed neighbourhood of each vertex is an interval in the enumeration. In this work, we give a minimal forbidden induced subgraph characterization for the class of concave-round graphs, solving a problem posed by Bang-Jensen, Huang, and Yeo [SIAM J Discrete Math, 13:179--193, 2000]. In addition, we show that it is possible to find one such forbidden induced subgraph in linear time in any given graph that is not concave-round. As part of the analysis, we obtain characterizations by minimal forbidden submatrices fo…
Let $k,l$ be nonnegative integers. A graph $G$ is $(k,l)$-polar if its vertex set admits a partition $(A,B)$ such that $A$ induces a complete multipartite graph with at most $k$ parts, and $B$ induces a disjoint union of at most $l$ cliques with no other edges. A graph is a cograph if it does not contain $P_4$ as an induced subgraph. It is known that $(k,l)$-polar cographs can be characterized through a finite family of forbidden induced subgraphs, for any fixed choice of $k$ and $l$. The problem of determining the exact members of such family for $k = 2 = l$ was posted by Ekim, Mahadev and de…
A graph is a cograph if it does not contain a 4-vertex path as an induced subgraph. An $(s, k)$-polar partition of a graph $G$ is a partition $(A, B)$ of its vertex set such that $A$ induces a complete multipartite graph with at most $s$ parts, and $B$ induces the disjoint union of at most $k$ cliques with no other edges. A graph $G$ is said to be $(s, k)$-polar if it admits an $(s, k)$-polar partition. The concepts of $(s, \infty)$-, $(\infty, k)$-, and $(\infty, \infty)$-polar graphs can be analogously defined. Ekim, Mahadev and de Werra pioneered in the research on polar cographs, obtaining…
Jones et al. (2015) introduced the notion of $u$-representable graphs, where $u$ is a word over $\{1, 2\}$ different from $22\cdots2$, as a generalization of word-representable graphs. Kitaev (2016) showed that if $u$ is of length at least 3, then every graph is $u$-representable. This indicates that there are only two nontrivial classes in the theory of $u$-representable graphs: 11-representable graphs, which correspond to word-representable graphs, and 12-representable graphs. This study deals with 12-representable graphs. Jones et al. (2015) provided a characterization of 12-representable t…
Given a set $ξ=\{H_1,H_2,...\}$ of connected non acyclic graphs, a $ξ$-free graph is one which does not contain any member of $% ξ$ as copy. Define the excess of a graph as the difference between its number of edges and its number of vertices. Let ${\gr{W}}_{k,ξ}$ be theexponential generating function (EGF for brief) of connected $ξ$-free graphs of excess equal to $k$ ($k \geq 1$). For each fixed $ξ$, a fundamental differential recurrence satisfied by the EGFs ${\gr{W}}_{k,ξ}$ is derived. We give methods on how to solve this nonlinear recurrence for the first few values of $k$ by means of grap…
Let $P_t$ and $C_\ell$ denote a path on $t$ vertices and a cycle on $\ell$ vertices, respectively. In this paper we study the $k$-coloring problem for $(P_t,C_\ell)$-free graphs. Maffray and Morel, and Bruce, Hoang and Sawada, have proved that 3-colorability of $P_5$-free graphs has a finite forbidden induced subgraphs characterization, while Hoang, Moore, Recoskie, Sawada, and Vatshelle have shown that $k$-colorability of $P_5$-free graphs for $k \geq 4$ does not. These authors have also shown, aided by a computer search, that 4-colorability of $(P_5,C_5)$-free graphs does have a finite forbi…
A blocking quadruple (BQ) is a quadruple of vertices of a graph such that any two vertices of the quadruple either miss (have no neighbours on) some path connecting the remaining two vertices of the quadruple, or are connected by some path missed by the remaining two vertices. This is akin to the notion of asteroidal triple used in the classical characterization of interval graphs by Lekkerkerker and Boland. We show that a circular-arc graph cannot have a blocking quadruple. We also observe that the absence of blocking quadruples is not in general sufficient to guarantee that a graph is a circ…
Interval graphs are intersection graphs of closed intervals. A generalization of recognition called partial representation extension was introduced recently. The input gives an interval graph with a partial representation specifying some pre-drawn intervals. We ask whether the remaining intervals can be added to create an extending representation. Two linear-time algorithms are known for solving this problem. In this paper, we characterize the minimal obstructions which make partial representations non-extendible. This generalizes Lekkerkerker and Boland's characterization of the minimal forbi…
Treewidth is an important graph invariant, relevant for both structural and algorithmic reasons. A necessary condition for a graph class to have bounded treewidth is the absence of large cliques. We study graph classes closed under taking induced subgraphs in which this condition is also sufficient, which we call $(tw,ω)$-bounded. Such graph classes are known to have useful algorithmic applications related to variants of the clique and $k$-coloring problems. We consider six well-known graph containment relations: the minor, topological minor, subgraph, induced minor, induced topological minor,…
In this paper, our goal is to characterize two graph classes based on the properties of minimal vertex (edge) separators. We first present a structural characterization of graphs in which every minimal vertex separator is a stable set. We show that such graphs are precisely those in which the induced subgraph, namely, a cycle with exactly one chord is forbidden. We also show that deciding maximum such forbidden subgraph is NP-complete by establishing a polynomial time reduction from maximum induced cycle problem [1]. This result is of independent interest and can be used in other combinatorial…
