Adjacency matrices of probe interval graphs

In this paper we obtain several characterizations of the adjacency matrix of a probe interval graph. In course of this study we describe an easy method of obtaining interval representation of an interval bigraph from its adjacency matrix. Finally, we note that if we add a loop at every probe vertex of a probe interval graph, then the Ferrers dimension of the corresponding symmetric bipartite graph is at most 3.     

Partial Characterizations of 1‐Perfectly Orientable Graphs

We study the class of 1‐perfectly orientable graphs, that is, graphs having an orientation in which every out‐neighborhood induces a tournament. 1‐perfectly orientable graphs form a common generalization of chordal graphs and circular arc graphs. Even though they can be recognized in polynomial time, little is known about their structure. In this article, we develop several results on 1‐perfectly orientable graphs. In particular, we (i) give a characterization of 1‐perfectly orientable graphs in terms of edge clique covers, (ii) identify several graph transformations preserving the class of 1‐perfectly orientable graphs, (iii) exhibit an infinite family of minimal forbidden induced minors for the class of 1‐perfectly orientable graphs, and (iv) characterize the class of 1‐perfectly orientable graphs within the classes of cographs and of cobipartite graphs. The class of 1‐perfectly orientable cobipartite graphs coincides with the class of cobipartite circular arc graphs.     

Interval bigraphs are unit grid intersection graphs

We give a short, elementary proof that the interval bigraphs are a strict subclass of the unit grid intersection graphs.     

Completing orientations of partially oriented graphs

We initiate a general study of what we call orientation completion problems. For a fixed class of oriented graphs, the orientation completion problem asks whether a given partially oriented graph P can be completed to an oriented graph in by orienting the (nonoriented) edges in P. Orientation completion problems commonly generalize several existing problems including recognition of certain classes of graphs and digraphs as well as extending representations of certain geometrically representable graphs. We study orientation completion problems for various classes of oriented graphs, including k‐arc‐strong oriented graphs, k‐strong oriented graphs, quasi‐transitive‐oriented graphs, local tournaments, acyclic local tournaments, locally transitive tournaments, locally transitive local tournaments, in‐tournaments, and oriented graphs that have directed cycle factors. We show that the orientation completion problem for each of these classes is either polynomial time solvable or NP‐complete. We also show that some of the NP‐complete problems become polynomial time solvable when the input‐oriented graphs satisfy certain extra conditions. Our results imply that the representation extension problems for proper interval graphs and for proper circular arc graphs are polynomial time solvable. The latter generalizes a previous result.     

Convex‐round graphs are circular‐perfect

We show a connection between two concepts that have hitherto been investigated separately, namely convex‐round graphs and circular cliques. The connections are twofold. We prove that the circular cliques are precisely the cores of convex‐round graphs; this implies that convex‐round graphs are circular‐perfect, a concept introduced recently by Zhu [10]. Secondly, we characterize maximal K_r‐free convex‐round graphs and show that they can be obtained from certain circular cliques in a simple fashion. Our proofs rely on several structural properties of convex‐round graphs. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 40: 182–194, 2002     

Partial characterizations of circular‐arc graphs

A circular‐arc graph is the intersection graph of a family of arcs on a circle. A characterization by forbidden induced subgraphs for this class of graphs is not known, and in this work we present a partial result in this direction. We characterize circular‐arc graphs by a list of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs when the graph belongs to any of the following classes: P₄ ‐free graphs, paw‐free graphs, claw‐free chordal graphs and diamond‐free graphs. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 61: 289–306, 2009     

Unit Interval Graphs of Open and Closed Intervals

We give two structural characterizations of the class of finite intersection graphs of the open and closed real intervals of unit length. This class is a proper superclass of the well‐known unit interval graphs.     

Dominating sets and domatic number of circular arc graphs

A dominating set of a graph G = (N,E) is a subset S of nodes such that every node is either in S or adjacent to a node which is in S. The domatic number of G is the size of a maximum cardinality partition of N into dominating sets. The problems of finding a minimum cardinality dominating set and the domatic number are both NP-complete even for special classes of graphs. In the present paper we give an O(n∣E∣) time algorithm that finds a minimum cardinality dominating set when G is a circular arc graph (intersection graph of arcs on a circle). The domatic number problem is solved in O(n² log n) time when G is a proper circular arc graph, and it is shown NP-complete for general circular arc graphs.     

Claw‐free circular‐perfect graphs

The circular chromatic number of a graph is a well‐studied refinement of the chromatic number. Circular‐perfect graphs form a superclass of perfect graphs defined by means of this more general coloring concept. This article studies claw‐free circular‐perfect graphs. First, we prove that if G is a connected claw‐free circular‐perfect graph with χ(G)>ω(G), then min{α(G), ω(G)}=2. We use this result to design a polynomial time algorithm that computes the circular chromatic number of claw‐free circular‐perfect graphs. A consequence of the strong perfect graph theorem is that minimal imperfect graphs G have min{α(G), ω(G)}=2. In contrast to this result, it is shown in Z. Pan and X. Zhu [European J Combin 29(4) (2008), 1055–1063] that minimal circular‐imperfect graphs G can have arbitrarily large independence number and arbitrarily large clique number. In this article, we prove that claw‐free minimal circular‐imperfect graphs G have min{α(G), ω(G)}≤3. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 65: 163–172, 2010     

A Characterization of Mixed Unit Interval Graphs

We give a complete characterization of mixed unit interval graphs, the intersection graphs of closed, open, and half‐open unit intervals of the real line. This is a proper superclass of the well‐known unit interval graphs. Our result solves a problem posed by Dourado, Le, Protti, Rautenbach, and Szwarcfiter (Mixed unit interval graphs, Discrete Math 312, 3357–3363 (2012)).     

Powers of cycles, powers of paths, and distance graphs

In 1988, Golumbic and Hammer characterized the powers of cycles, relating them to circular arc graphs. We extend their results and propose several further structural characterizations for both powers of cycles and powers of paths. The characterizations lead to linear-time recognition algorithms of these classes of graphs. Furthermore, as a generalization of powers of cycles, powers of paths, and even of the well-known circulant graphs, we consider distance graphs. While the colorings of these graphs have been intensively studied, the recognition problem has been so far neglected. We propose polynomial-time recognition algorithms for these graphs under additional restrictions.     

Unitary Graphs

Unitary graphs are arc‐transitive graphs with vertices the flags of Hermitian unitals and edges defined by certain elements of the underlying finite fields. They played a significant role in a recent classification of a class of arc‐transitive graphs that admit an automorphism group acting imprimitively on the vertices. In this article, we prove that all unitary graphs are connected of diameter two and girth three. Based on this, we obtain, for any prime power , a lower bound of order on the maximum number of vertices in an arc‐transitive graph of degree and diameter two.     

Completion of the mixed unit interval graphs hierarchy

We describe the missing class of the hierarchy of mixed unit interval graphs. This class is generated by the intersection graphs of families of unit intervals that are allowed to be closed, open, and left‐closed‐right‐open. (By symmetry, considering closed, open, and right‐closed‐left‐open unit intervals generates the same class.) We show that this class lies strictly between unit interval graphs and mixed unit interval graphs. We give a complete characterization of this new class, as well as quadratic‐time algorithms that recognize graphs from this class and produce a corresponding interval representation if one exists. We also show that the algorithm from Shuchat et al. [8] directly extends to provide a quadratic‐time algorithm to recognize the class of mixed unit interval graphs.     

Bigraphs versus digraphs via matrices

It was observed by Dulmage and Mendelsohn in their work on matrix reducibility that there is a one-to-one correspondence between bigraphs and digraphs determined by the utilization of the adjacency matrix. In this semiexpository paper we explore the interaction between this correspondence and a theory of matrix decomposability that is developed in several different articles. These results include: (a) a characterization of those bipartite graphs that can be labeled so that the resulting digraph is symmetric; (b) a criterion for the bigraph of a symmetric digraph to be connected; (c) a necessary and sufficient condition for a square binary matrix to be fully indecomposable in terms of its associated bigraph, and (d) matrix criteria for a digraph to be strongly, unilaterally, or weakly connected. We close with an unsolved extermal problem on the number of components of the bigraph of various orientations of a given graph. This leads to new amusing characterizations of trees and bigraphs. Dedicated to the graph-theoretic partnership of Lloyd Dulmage and Nathan Mendelsohn.     

Bi‐arc graphs and the complexity of list homomorphisms

Given graphs G, H, and lists L(v) ? V(H), v ε V(G), a list homomorphism of G to H with respect to the lists L is a mapping f : V(G) → V(H) such that uv ε E(G) implies f(u)f(v) ε E(H), and f(v) ε L(v) for all v ε V(G). The list homomorphism problem for a fixed graph H asks whether or not an input graph G, together with lists L(v) ? V(H), v ε V(G), admits a list homomorphism with respect to L. In two earlier papers, we classified the complexity of the list homomorphism problem in two important special cases: When H is a reflexive graph (every vertex has a loop), the problem is polynomial time solvable if H is an interval graph, and is NP‐complete otherwise. When H is an irreflexive graph (no vertex has a loop), the problem is polynomial time solvable if H is bipartite and H is a circular arc graph, and is NP‐complete otherwise. In this paper, we extend these classifications to arbitrary graphs H (each vertex may or may not have a loop). We introduce a new class of graphs, called bi‐arc graphs, which contains both reflexive interval graphs (and no other reflexive graphs), and bipartite graphs with circular arc complements (and no other irreflexive graphs). We show that the problem is polynomial time solvable when H is a bi‐arc graph, and is NP‐complete otherwise. In the case when H is a tree (with loops allowed), we give a simpler algorithm based on a structural characterization. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 42: 61–80, 2003     

Two‐arc closed subsets of graphs

A subset of vertices of a graph is said to be 2‐arc closed if it contains every vertex that is adjacent to at least two vertices in the subset. In this paper, 2‐arc closed subsets generated by pairs of vertices at distance at most 2 are studied. Several questions are posed about the structure of such subsets and the relationships between two such subsets, and examples are given from the class of partition graphs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 42: 350–364, 2003     

Tetravalent half‐edge‐transitive graphs and non‐normal Cayley graphs

Let X be a vertex‐transitive graph, that is, the automorphism group Aut(X) of X is transitive on the vertex set of X. The graph X is said to be symmetric if Aut(X) is transitive on the arc set of X. suppose that Aut(X) has two orbits of the same length on the arc set of X. Then X is said to be half‐arc‐transitive or half‐edge‐transitive if Aut(X) has one or two orbits on the edge set of X, respectively. Stabilizers of symmetric and half‐arc‐transitive graphs have been investigated by many authors. For example, see Tutte [Canad J Math 11 (1959), 621–624] and Conder and Maru?i? [J Combin Theory Ser B 88 (2003), 67–76]. It is trivial to construct connected tetravalent symmetric graphs with arbitrarily large stabilizers, and by Maru?i? [Discrete Math 299 (2005), 180–193], connected tetravalent half‐arc‐transitive graphs can have arbitrarily large stabilizers. In this article, we show that connected tetravalent half‐edge‐transitive graphs can also have arbitrarily large stabilizers. A Cayley graph Cay(G, S) on a group G is said to be normal if the right regular representation R(G) of G is normal in Aut(Cay(G, S)). There are only a few known examples of connected tetravalent non‐normal Cayley graphs on non‐abelian simple groups. In this article, we give a sufficient condition for non‐normal Cayley graphs and by using the condition, infinitely many connected tetravalent non‐normal Cayley graphs are constructed. As an application, all connected tetravalent non‐normal Cayley graphs on the alternating group A₆ are determined. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Locally 2‐arc transitive graphs,homogeneous factorizations,and partial linear spaces

We establish natural bijections between three different classes of combinatorial objects; namely certain families of locally 2‐arc transitive graphs, partial linear spaces, and homogeneous factorizations of arc‐transitive graphs. Moreover, the bijections intertwine the actions of the relevant automorphism groups. Thus constructions in any of these areas provide examples for the others. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 139–148, 2006