Chordal graphs are important in the structural and algorithmic graph theory. A digraph analogue of chordal graphs was introduced by Haskin and Rose in 1973 but has not been a subject of active studies until recently when a characterization of semicomplete chordal digraphs in terms of forbidden subdigraphs was found by Meister and Telle. Locally semicomplete digraphs, quasi-transitive digraphs, and extended semi-complete digraphs are amongst the most popular generalizations of semicomplete digraphs. We extend the forbidden subdigraph characterization of semicomplete chordal digraphs to locally semicomplete chordal digraphs. We introduce a new class of digraphs, called weakly quasi-transitive digraphs, which contains quasi-transitive digraphs, symmetric digraphs, and extended semicomplete digraphs, but is incomparable to the class of locally semicomplete digraphs. We show that weakly quasi-transitive digraphs can be recursively constructed by simple substitutions from transitive oriented graphs, semicomplete digraphs, and symmetric digraphs. This recursive construction of weakly quasi-transitive digraphs, similar to the one for quasi-transitive digraphs, demonstrates the naturalness of the new digraph class. As a by-product, we prove that the forbidden subdigraphs for semicomplete chordal digraphs are the same for weakly quasi-transitive chordal digraphs.
Arc-locally semicomplete and arc-locally in-semicomplete digraphs were introduced by Bang-Jensen as a common generalization of both semicomplete and semicomplete bipartite digraphs in 1993. Later, Bang-Jensen (2004), Galeana-Sanchez and Goldfeder (2009) and Wang and Wang (2009) provided a characterization of strong arc-locally semicomplete digraphs. In 2009, Wang and Wang characterized strong arc-locally in-semicomplete digraphs. In 2012, Galeana-Sanchez and Goldfeder provided a characterization of all arc-locally semicomplete digraphs which generalizes some results by Bang-Jensen. In this pap…
Let $T$ be a digraph with vertices $u_1, \dots, u_t$ ($t\ge 2$) and let $H_1, \dots, H_t$ be digraphs such that $H_i$ has vertices $u_{i,j_i},\ 1\le j_i\le n_i.$ Then the composition $Q=T[H_1, \dots, H_t]$ is a digraph with vertex set $\{u_{i,j_i}\colon\, 1\le i\le t, 1\le j_i\le n_i\}$ and arc set $$A(Q)=\cup^t_{i=1}A(H_i)\cup \{u_{ij_i}u_{pq_p}\colon\, u_iu_p\in A(T), 1\le j_i\le n_i, 1\le q_p\le n_p\}.$$ The composition $Q=T[H_1, \dots, H_t]$ is a semicomplete composition if $T$ is semicomplete, i.e. there is at least one arc between every pair of vertices. Digraph compositions generalize s…
An out-branching $B^+_u$ (in-branching $B^-_u$) in a digraph $D$ is a connected spanning subdigraph of $D$ in which every vertex except the vertex $u$, called the root, has in-degree (out-degree) one. It is well-known that there exists a polynomial algorithm for deciding whether a given digraph has $k$ arc-disjoint out-branchings with prescribed roots ($k$ is part of the input). In sharp contrast to this, it is already NP-complete to decide if a digraph has one out-branching which is arc-disjoint from some in-branching. A digraph is {\bf semicomplete} if it has no pair of non adjacent vertices…
Comparability graphs are a popular class of graphs. We introduce as the digraph analogue of comparability graphs the class of comparability digraphs. We show that many concepts such as implication classes and the knotting graph for a comparability graph can be naturally extended to a comparability digraph. We give a characterization of comparability digraphs in terms of their knotting graphs. Semicomplete comparability digraphs are a prototype of comparability digraphs. One instrumental technique for analyzing the structure of comparability graphs is the Triangle Lemma for graphs. We generaliz…
K-Arc-Strong Orientations Of Semicomplete Digraphs
School of Mathematics, Shandong University（山东大学数学学院）；Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学数学与计算机科学系）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Ningxia University（宁夏大学数学与统计学院）
Let $k$ be an integer with $k\geq 2$. A digraph $D$ is $k$-quasi-transitive, if for any path $x_0x_1\ldots x_k$ of length $k$, $x_0$ and $x_k$ are adjacent. Suppose that there exists a path of length at least $k+2$ in $D$. Let $P$ be a shortest path of length $k+2$ in $D$. Wang and Zhang [Hamiltonian paths in $k$-quasi-transitive digraphs, Discrete Mathematics, 339(8) (2016) 2094--2099] proved that if $k$ is even and $k\ge 4$, then $D[V(P)]$ and $D[V(D)\setminus V(P)]$ are both semicomplete digraphs. In this paper, we shall prove that if $k$ is odd and $k\ge 5$, then $D[V(P)]$ is either a semi…
An out-branching $B^+_u$ (in-branching $B^-_u$) in a digraph $D$ is a connected spanning subdigraph of $D$ in which every vertex except the vertex $u$, called the root, has in-degree (out-degree) one. A {\bf good $\mathbf{(u,v)}$-pair} in $D$ is a pair of branchings $B^+_u,B^-_v$ which have no arc in common. Thomassen proved that is NP-complete to decide if a digraph has any good pair. A digraph is {\bf semicomplete} if it has no pair of non adjacent vertices. A {\bf semicomplete composition} is any digraph $D$ which is obtained from a semicomplete digraph $S$ by substituting an arbitrary digr…
Let $D$ be a digraph. We define the minimum semi-degree of $D$ as $δ^{0}(D) := \min \{δ^{+}(D), δ^{-}(D)\}$. Let $k$ be a positive integer, and let $S = \{s\}$ and $T = \{t_{1}, \dots ,t_{k}\}$ be any two disjoint subsets of $V(D)$. A set of $k$ internally disjoint paths joining source set $S$ and sink set $T$ that cover all vertices $D$ are called a one-to-many $k$-disjoint directed path cover ($k$-DDPC for short) of $D$. A digraph $D$ is semicomplete if for every pair $x,y$ of vertices of it, there is at least one arc between $x$ and $y$. In this paper, we prove that every semicomplete digra…
An $m$-colored digraph $D$ has $k$-colored kernel if there exists a subset $K $ of its vertices such that for every vertex $v\notin K$ there exists an at most $k$-colored directed path from $v$ to a vertex of $K$ and for every $% u,v\in K$ there does not exist an at most $k$-colored directed path between them. In this paper we prove that an $m$-colored semicomplete $r$-partite digraph $D$ has a $k$-colored kernel provided that $r\geq 3$ and {enumerate} [(i)] $k\geq 4,$ [(ii)] $k=3$ and every $\overrightarrow{C}_{4}$ contained in $D$ is at most 2-colored and, either every $\overrightarrow{C}_{5…
A digraph is semicomplete if any two vertices are connected by at least one arc and is locally semicomplete if the out-neighbourhood and the in-neighbourhood of any vertex induce a semicomplete digraph. In this paper we study various subclasses of locally semicomplete digraphs for which we give structural decomposition theorems. As a consequence we obtain several applications, among which an answer to a conjecture of Naserasr and the first and third authors: if an oriented graph is such that the out-neighbourhood of every vertex induces a transitive tournament, then one can partition its verte…
A digraph is eulerian if it is connected and every vertex has its in-degree equal to its out-degree. Having a spanning eulerian subdigraph is thus a weakening of having a hamiltonian cycle. In this paper, we first characterize the pairs $(D,a)$ of a semicomplete digraph $D$ and an arc $a$ such that $D$ has a spanning eulerian subdigraph containing $a$. In particular, we show that if $D$ is $2$-arc-strong, then every arc is contained in a spanning eulerian subdigraph. We then characterize the pairs $(D,a)$ of a semicomplete digraph $D$ and an arc $a$ such that $D$ has a spanning eulerian subdig…
Chordal graphs are important in algorithmic graph theory. Chordal digraphs are a digraph analogue of chordal graphs and have been a subject of active studies recently. Unlike chordal graphs, chordal digraphs lack many structural properties such as forbidden subdigraph or representation characterizations. In this paper we introduce the notion of semi-strict chordal digraphs which form a class strictly between chordal digraphs and chordal graphs. Semi-strict chordal digraphs have rich structural properties. We characterize semi-strict chordal digraphs in terms of knotting graphs, a notion analog…
A strong arc decomposition of a digraph $D=(V,A)$ is a decomposition of its arc set $A$ into two disjoint subsets $A_1$ and $A_2$ such that both of the spanning subdigraphs $D_1=(V,A_1)$ and $D_2=(V,A_2)$ are strong. Let $T$ be a digraph with $t$ vertices $u_1,\dots , u_t$ and let $H_1,\dots H_t$ be digraphs such that $H_i$ has vertices $u_{i,j_i},\ 1\le j_i\le n_i.$ Then the composition $Q=T[H_1,\dots , H_t]$ is a digraph with vertex set $\cup_{i=1}^t V(H_i)=\{u_{i,j_i}\mid 1\le i\le t, 1\le j_i\le n_i\}$ and arc set \[ \left(\cup^t_{i=1}A(H_i) \right) \cup \left( \cup_{u_iu_p\in A(T)} \{u_{i…
Solving the kernel perfect problem by (simple) forbidden subdigraphs for digraphs in some families of generalized tournaments and generalized bipartite tournaments
Given $k$ pairs of vertices $(s_i,t_i)$, $1\le i\le k$, of a digraph $G$, how can we test whether there exist $k$ vertex-disjoint directed paths from $s_i$ to $t_i$ for $1\le i\le k$? This is NP-complete in general digraphs, even for $k = 2$, but for $k=2$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm when $G$ is a tournament (or more generally, a semicomplete digraph), due to Bang-Jensen and Thomassen. Here we prove that for all fixed $k$ there is a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the problem when $G$ is semicomplete.
Let $D$ be a digraph and let $λ(D)$ denote the number of vertices in a longest path of $D$. For a pair of vertex-disjoint induced subdigraphs $A$ and $B$ of $D$, we say that $(A,B)$ is a partition of $D$ if $V(A)\cup V(B)=V(D).$ The Path Partition Conjecture (PPC) states that for every digraph, $D$, and every integer $q$ with $1\leq q\leqλ(D)-1$, there exists a partition $(A,B)$ of $D$ such that $λ(A)\leq q$ and $λ(B)\leqλ(D)-q.$ Let $T$ be a digraph with vertex set $\{u_1,\dots, u_t\}$ and for every $i\in [t]$, let $H_i$ be a digraph with vertex set $\{u_{i,j_i}\colon\, j_i\in [n_i]\}$. The {…
Let $D=(V,A)$ be a digraph. A vertex set $K\subseteq V$ is a quasi-kernel of $D$ if $K$ is an independent set in $D$ and for every vertex $v\in V\setminus K$, $v$ is at most distance 2 from $K$. In 1974, Chvátal and Lovász proved that every digraph has a quasi-kernel. P. L. Erdős and L. A. Székely in 1976 conjectured that if every vertex of $D$ has a positive indegree, then $D$ has a quasi-kernel of size at most $|V|/2$. This conjecture is only confirmed for narrow classes of digraphs, such as semicomplete multipartite, quasi-transitive, or locally demicomplete digraphs. In this note, we state…
Let $D$ be a digraph. Given a set of vertices $S \subseteq V(D)$, an $S$-path partition $\mathcal{P}$ of $D$ is a collection of paths of $D$ such that $\{V(P) \colon P \in \mathcal{P}\}$ is a partition of $V(D)$ and $|V(P) \cap S| = 1$ for every $P \in \mathcal{P}$. We say that $D$ satisfies the $α$-property if, for every maximum stable set $S$ of $D$, there exists an $S$-path partition of $D$, and we say that $D$ is $α$-diperfect if every induced subdigraph of $D$ satisfies the $α$-property. A digraph $C$ is an anti-directed odd cycle if (i) the underlying graph of $C$ is a cycle $x_1x_2 \cdo…
Generalizing well-known results of Erdős and Lovász, we show that every graph $G$ contains a spanning $k$-partite subgraph $H$ with $λ(H)\geq \lceil{}\frac{k-1}{k}λ(G)\rceil$, where $λ(G)$ is the edge-connectivity of $G$. In particular, together with a well-known result due to Nash-Williams and Tutte, this implies that every $7$-edge-connected graphs contains a spanning bipartite graph whose edge set decomposes into two edge-disjoint spanning trees. We show that this is best possible as it does not hold for infintely many $6$-edge-connected graphs. For directed graphs, it was shown in [6] that…
Mader proved that every strongly $k$-connected $n$-vertex digraph contains a strongly $k$-connected spanning subgraph with at most $2kn - 2k^2$ edges, where the equality holds for the complete bipartite digraph ${DK}_{k,n-k}$. For dense strongly $k$-connected digraphs, this upper bound can be significantly improved. More precisely, we prove that every strongly $k$-connected $n$-vertex digraph $D$ contains a strongly $k$-connected spanning subgraph with at most $kn + 800k(k+\overlineΔ(D))$ edges, where $\overlineΔ(D)$ denotes the maximum degree of the complement of the underlying undirected gra…
