We consider the size of the smallest set of vertices required to intersect every longest path in a chordal graph. Such sets are known as longest path transversals. We show that if $ω(G)$ is the clique number of a chordal graph $G$, then there is a transversal of order at most $4\lceil\frac{ω(G)}{5}\rceil$. We also consider the analogous question for longest cycles, and show that if $G$ is a 2-connected chordal graph then there is a transversal intersecting all longest cycles of order at most $2\lceil\frac{ω(G)}{3}\rceil$.
Let $lct(G)$ be the minimum cardinality of a set of vertices that intersects every longest cycle of a 2-connected graph $G$. We show that $lct(G)\leq k-1$ if $G$ is a partial $k$-tree and that $lct(G)\leq \max \{1, {ω(G){-}3}\}$ if $G$ is chordal, where $ω(G)$ is the cardinality of a maximum clique in $G$. Those results imply that all longest cycles intersect in 2-connected series parallel graphs and in 3-trees.
In 1966, T. Gallai asked whether every connected graph has a vertex that appears in all longest paths. Since then this question has attracted much attention and many work has been done in this topic. One important open question in this area is to ask whether any three longest paths contains a common vertex in a connected graph. It was conjectured that the answer to this question is positive. In this paper, we propose a new approach in view of distances among longest paths in a connected graph, and give a substantial progress towards the conjecture along the idea.
We show that every $k$-tree of toughness greater than $\frac{k}{3}$ is Hamilton-connected for $k \geq 3$. (In particular, chordal planar graphs of toughness greater than $1$ are Hamilton-connected.) This improves the result of Broersma et al. (2007) and generalizes the result of Böhme et al. (1999). On the other hand, we present graphs whose longest paths are short. Namely, we construct $1$-tough chordal planar graphs and $1$-tough planar $3$-trees, and we show that the shortness exponent of the class is $0$, at most $\log_{30}{22}$, respectively. Both improve the bound of Böhme et al. Further…
In this paper we prove the conjectured upper bound for Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of binomial edge ideals posed in [23], in the case of chordal graphs. Indeed, we show that the regularity of any chordal graph G is bounded above by the number of maximal cliques of G, denoted by c(G). Moreover, we classify all chordal graphs G for which L(G) = c(G), where L(G) is the sum of the lengths of longest induced paths of connected components of G. We call such graphs strongly interval graphs. Moreover, we show that the regularity of a strongly interval graph G coincides with L(G) as well as c(G).
One of the more recent generalizations of the Erdös-Ko-Rado theorem, formulated by Holroyd, Spencer and Talbot, defines the Erdös-Ko-Rado property for graphs in the following manner: for a graph G and a positive integer r, G is said to be r-EKR if no intersecting subfamily of the family of all independent vertex sets of size r is larger than the largest star, where a star centered at a vertex v is the family of all independent sets of size $r$ containing v. In this paper, we prove that if G is a disjoint union of chordal graphs, including at least one singleton, then G is r-EKR if $r\leq mu(G)…
Let A_1,...,A_k be a collection of families of subsets of an n-element set. We say that this collection is cross-intersecting if for any i,j in [k] with i not equal to j, A in A_i and B in A_j implies that the intersection of A and B is nonempty. We consider a theorem of Hilton which gives a best possible upper bound on the sum of the cardinalities of uniform cross-intersecting subfamilies. We formulate a graph-theoretic analogue of Hilton's cross-intersection theorem, similar to the one developed by Holroyd, Spencer and Talbot for the Erdos-Ko-Rado theorem. In particular we build on a result …
A well-known question of Gallai (1966) asked whether there is a vertex which passes through all longest paths of a connected graph. Although this has been verified for some special classes of graphs such as outerplanar graphs, circular arc graphs, and series-parallel graphs, the answer is negative for general graphs. In this paper, we prove among other results that if we replace the vertex by a bond, then the answer is affirmative. A bond of a graph is a minimal nonempty edge-cut. In particular, in any 2-connected graph, the set of all edges incident to a vertex is a bond, called a vertex-bond…
Let $\lpt(G)$ be the minimum cardinality of a set of vertices that intersects all longest paths in a graph $G$. Let $ω(G)$ be the size of a maximum clique in $G$, and $\tw(G)$ be the treewidth of $G$. We prove that $ \lpt(G) \leq \max\{1,ω(G)-2\}$ when $G$ is a connected chordal graph; that $\lpt(G) =1$ when $G$ is a connected bipartite permutation graph or a connected full substar graph; and that $\lpt(G) \leq \tw(G)$ for any connected graph $G$.
A strong clique in a graph is a clique intersecting every maximal independent set. We study the computational complexity of six algorithmic decision problems related to strong cliques in graphs and almost completely determine their complexity in the classes of chordal graphs, weakly chordal graphs, line graphs and their complements, and graphs of maximum degree at most three. Our results rely on connections with matchings and relate to several graph properties studied in the literature, including well-covered graphs, localizable graphs, and general partition graphs.
Let $G$ be a connected graph. The eccentricity of a path $P$, denoted by ecc$_G(P)$, is the maximum distance from $P$ to any vertex in $G$. In the \textsc{Central path} (CP) problem our aim is to find a path of minimum eccentricity. This problem was introduced by Cockayne et al., in 1981, in the study of different centrality measures on graphs. They showed that CP can be solved in linear time in trees, but it is known to be NP-hard in many classes of graphs such as chordal bipartite graphs, planar 3-connected graphs, split graphs, etc. We investigate the path eccentricity of a connected graph~…
Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in the plane in general position. Two line segments connecting pairs of points of $S$ cross if they have an interior point in common. Two vertex disjoint geometric graphs with vertices in $S$ cross if there are two edges, one from each graph, which cross. A set of vertex disjoint geometric graphs with vertices in $S$ is called mutually crossing if any two of them cross. We show that there exists a constant $c$ such that from any family of $n$ mutually crossing triangles, one can always obtain a family of at least $n^c$ mutually crossing $2$-paths (each of which i…
For a connected graph, the Hamiltonian cycle (path) is a simple cycle (path) that spans all the vertices in the graph. It is known from \cite{muller,garey} that HAMILTONIAN CYCLE (PATH) are NP-complete in general graphs and chordal bipartite graphs. A convex bipartite graph $G$ with bipartition $(X,Y)$ and an ordering $X=(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$, is a bipartite graph such that for each $y \in Y$, the neighborhood of $y$ in $X$ appears consecutively. $G$ is said to have convexity with respect to $X$. Further, convex bipartite graphs are a subclass of chordal bipartite graphs. In this paper, we present…
