We described a simple algorithm running in linear time for each fixed constant $k$, that either establishes that the pathwidth of a graph $G$ is greater than $k$, or finds a path-decomposition of $G$ of width at most $O(2^{k})$. This provides a simple proof of the result by Bodlaender that many families of graphs of bounded pathwidth can be recognized in linear time.
The Open University, School of Mathematics and Statistics（开放大学数学与统计学院）；Czech Technical University, Department of Theoretical Computer Science（捷克理工大学理论计算机科学系）；University of Florida, Department of Mathematics（佛罗里达大学数学系）
There are many results asserting the existence of tree-decompositions of minimal width which still represent local connectivity properties of the underlying graph, perhaps the best-known being Thomas' theorem that proves for every graph $G$ the existence of a linked tree-decompositon of width tw$(G)$. We prove a general theorem on the existence of linked and lean tree-decompositions, providing a unifying proof of many known results in the field, as well as implying some new results. In particular we prove that every matroid $M$ admits a lean tree-decomposition of width tw$(M)$, generalizing th…
Many of the tools developed for the theory of tree-decompositions of graphs do not work for directed graphs. In this paper we show that some of the most basic tools do work in the case where the model digraph is a directed path. Using these tools we define a notion of a directed blockage in a digraph and prove a min-max theorem for directed path-width analogous to the result of Bienstock, Roberston, Seymour and Thomas for blockages in graphs. Furthermore, we show that every digraph with directed path width $\geq k$ contains each arboresence of order $\leq k + 1$ as a butterfly minor. Finally w…
On the structure of graphs with path-width at most two
南希·G Kinnersley和Michael A. Langston用计算机确定了路宽不超过2的图类的排除子式。他们的名单包括110个图表。这样一个长的列表很难处理，并且无法洞察结构特性。我们走了一条不同的路线，专注于积木以及它们是如何粘在一起的。这样，我们得到了路宽不超过2的2-连通图和2-边连通图的一个刻画。沿着类似的路线，我们画出了路径宽度至多为2的图的完全特征。
We provide generating functions for the popularity and the distribution of patterns of length at most three over the set of Dyck paths having a first return decomposition constrained by height.
We present an interactive framework that, given a membership test for a graph class $\mathcal{G}$ and a number $k$, finds and tests unavoidable sets for the class of graphs in $\mathcal{G}$ of path-width at most $k$. We put special emphasis on the case that $\mathcal{G}$ is the class of cubic graphs and tailor the algorithm to this case. In particular, we introduce the new concept of high-degree-first path-decompositions, which yields highly efficient pruning techniques. Using this framework we determine all extremal girth values of cubic graphs of path-width $k$ for all $k \in \{3,\dots, 10\}…
In 1990, Thomas proved that every graph admits a tree decomposition of minimum width that additionally satisfies a certain vertex-connectivity condition called leanness [A Menger-like property of tree-width: The finite case. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, 48(1):67-76, 1990]. This result had many uses and has been extended to several other decompositions. In this paper, we consider tree-cut decompositions, that have been introduced by Wollan as a possible edge-version of tree decompositions [The structure of graphs not admitting a fixed immersion. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Se…
Let $G$ be a graph of order $n$. The path decomposition of $G$ is a set of disjoint paths, say $\mathcal{P}$, which cover all vertices of $G$. If all paths are induced paths in $G$, then we say $\mathcal{P}$ is an induced path decomposition of $G$. Moreover, if every path is of order at least 2, then we say $G$ has an IPD. In this paper, we prove that every connected $r$-regular graph which is not complete graph of odd order admits an IPD. Also we show that every connected bipartite cubic graph of order $n$ admits an IPD of size at most $\frac{n}{3}$. We classify all connected claw-free graphs…
We prove that if a graph has a tree-decomposition of width at most w, then it has a tree-decomposition of width at most w with certain desirable properties. We will use this result in a subsequent paper to show that every 2-connected graph of large path-width has a minor isomorphic to either a large tree with a vertex attached to every vertex of the tree or a large outerplanar graph.
We prove that a complete multipartite graph $K$ with $n>1$ vertices and $m$ edges can be decomposed into edge-disjoint Hamilton paths if and only if $\frac m{n-1}$ is an integer and the maximum degree of $K$ is at most $\frac {2m}{n-1}$.
In 1968, Gallai conjectured that the edges of any connected graph with $n$ vertices can be partitioned into $\lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil$ paths. We show that this conjecture is true for every planar graph. More precisely, we show that every connected planar graph except $K_3$ and $K_5^-$ ($K_5$ minus one edge) can be decomposed into $\lfloor \frac{n}{2} \rfloor$ paths.
Nesetril and Ossona de Mendez introduced the notion of first order convergence as an attempt to unify the notions of convergence for sparse and dense graphs. It is known that there exist first order convergent sequences of graphs with no limit modeling (an analytic representation of the limit). On the positive side, every first order convergent sequence of trees or graphs with no long path (graphs with bounded tree-depth) has a limit modeling. We strengthen these results by showing that every first order convergent sequence of plane trees (trees with embeddings in the plane) and every first or…
A subcycle of an Eulerian circuit is a sequence of edges that are consecutive in the circuit and form a cycle. We characterise the quartic planar graphs that admit Eulerian circuits avoiding 3-cycles and 4-cycles. From this, it follows that a quartic planar graph of order $n$ can be decomposed into $k_1+k_2+k_3+k_4$ many paths with $k_i$ copies of $P_{i+1}$, the path with $i$ edges, if and only if $k_1+2k_2+3k_3+4k_4 = 2n$. In particular, every connected quartic planar graph of even order admits a $P_5$-decomposition.
Path-width of matroids naturally generalizes the better known parameter of path-width for graphs, and is NP-hard by a reduction from the graph case. While the term matroid path-width was formally introduced by Geelen-Gerards-Whittle [JCTB 2006] in pure matroid theory, it was soon recognized by Kashyap [SIDMA 2008] that it is the same concept as long-studied so called trellis complexity in coding theory, later named trellis-width, and hence it is an interesting notion also from the algorithmic perspective. It follows from a result of Hlineny [JCTB 2006] that the decision problem, whether a give…
Given $n$ subspaces of a finite-dimensional vector space over a fixed finite field $\mathbb F$, we wish to find a "branch-decomposition" of these subspaces of width at most $k$ that is a subcubic tree $T$ with $n$ leaves mapped bijectively to the subspaces such that for every edge $e$ of $T$, the sum of subspaces associated to the leaves in one component of $T-e$ and the sum of subspaces associated to the leaves in the other component have the intersection of dimension at most $k$. This problem includes the problems of computing branch-width of $\mathbb F$-represented matroids, rank-width of g…
Hajós conjecture asserts that a simple Eulerian graph on n vertices can be decomposed into at most (n - 1)/2 cycles. The conjecture is only proved for graph classes in which every element contains vertices of degree 2 or 4. We develop new techniques to construct cycle decompositions. They work on the common neighbourhood of two degree-6 vertices. With these techniques we find structures that cannot occur in a minimal counterexample to Hajós conjecture and verify the conjecture for Eulerian graphs of pathwidth at most 6. This implies that these graphs satisfy the small cycle double cover conjec…
In this paper we consider the directed path-width and directed tree-width of recursively defined digraphs. As an important combinatorial tool, we show how the directed path-width and the directed tree-width can be computed for the disjoint union, order composition, directed union, and series composition of two directed graphs. These results imply the equality of directed path-width and directed tree-width for all digraphs which can be defined by these four operations. This allows us to show a linear-time solution for computing the directed path-width and directed tree-width of all these digrap…
Tree-cut width is a graph parameter introduced by Wollan that is an analogue of treewidth for the immersion order on graphs in the following sense: the tree-cut width of a graph is functionally equivalent to the largest size of a wall that can be found in it as an immersion. In this work we propose a variant of the definition of tree-cut width that is functionally equivalent to the original one, but for which we can state and prove a tight duality theorem relating it to naturally defined dual objects: appropriately defined brambles and tangles. Using this result we also propose a game characte…
In 1976, Alspach, Mason, and Pullman conjectured that any tournament $T$ of even order can be decomposed into exactly ${\rm ex}(T)$ paths, where ${\rm ex}(T):= \frac{1}{2}\sum_{v\in V(T)}|d_T^+(v)-d_T^-(v)|$. We prove this conjecture for all sufficiently large tournaments. We also prove an asymptotically optimal result for tournaments of odd order.
Countable Graphs with Finite Path-width: Characterisation and Universality
Institute for Basic Science (IBS)（基础科学研究所）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）；Monash University（蒙纳士大学）；University of Auckland（奥克兰大学）；Texas A&M University（德克萨斯农工大学）；Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics（阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所）
Motivated by longstanding conjectures regarding decompositions of graphs into paths and cycles, we prove the following optimal decomposition results for random graphs. Let $0<p<1$ be constant and let $G\sim G_{n,p}$. Let $odd(G)$ be the number of odd degree vertices in $G$. Then a.a.s. the following hold: (i) $G$ can be decomposed into $\lfloorΔ(G)/2\rfloor$ cycles and a matching of size $odd(G)/2$. (ii) $G$ can be decomposed into $\max\{odd(G)/2,\lceilΔ(G)/2\rceil\}$ paths. (iii) $G$ can be decomposed into $\lceilΔ(G)/2\rceil$ linear forests. Each of these bounds is best possible. We actually…
The 3-decomposition conjecture is wide open. It asserts that every finite connected cubic graph can be decomposed into a spanning tree, a disjoint union of cycles, and a matching. We show that every such decomposition is derived from a homeomorphically irreducible spanning tree (HIST). This allows us to propose a novel reformulation of the 3-decomposition conjecture: the HIST-extension conjecture. We also prove that the following graphs are reducible configurations with respect to the 3-decomposition conjecture: the triangle, the K_{2,3}, the Petersen graph with one vertex removed, the claw-sq…
We consider edge decompositions of the $n$-dimensional hypercube $Q_n$ into isomorphic copies of a given graph $H$. While a number of results are known about decomposing $Q_n$ into graphs from various classes, the simplest cases of paths and cycles of a given length are far from being understood. A conjecture of Erde asserts that if $n$ is even, $\ell < 2^n$ and $\ell$ divides the number of edges of $Q_n$, then the path of length $\ell$ decomposes $Q_n$. Tapadia et al.\ proved that any path of length $2^mn$, where $2^m<n$, satisfying these conditions decomposes $Q_n$. Here, we make progress to…
In 1981, Alspach conjectured that the complete graph $ K_{n} $ could be decomposed into cycles of arbitrary lengths, provided that the obvious necessary conditions would hold. This conjecture was proved completely by Bryant, Horsley and Pettersson in 2014. Moreover, in 1983, Tarsi conjectured that the obvious necessary conditions for packing pairwise edge-disjoint paths of arbitrary lengths in the complete multigraphs were also sufficient. The conjecture was confirmed by Bryant in 2010. In this paper, we investigate an analogous problem as the decomposition of the complete uniform multi-hyperg…
This paper studies graphs that have two tree decompositions with the property that every bag from the first decomposition has a bounded-size intersection with every bag from the second decomposition. We show that every graph in each of the following classes has a tree decomposition and a linear-sized path decomposition with bounded intersections: (1) every proper minor-closed class, (2) string graphs with a linear number of crossings in a fixed surface, (3) graphs with linear crossing number in a fixed surface. Here `linear size' means that the total size of the bags in the path decomposition …
Gallai's path decomposition conjecture states that the edges of any connected graph on n vertices can be decomposed into at most (n+1)/2 paths. We confirm that conjecture for all graphs with maximum degree at most five.
