Pathwidth of outerplanar graphs

We are interested in the relation between the pathwidth of a biconnected outerplanar graph and the pathwidth of its (geometric) dual. Bodlaender and Fomin [3], after having proved that the pathwidth of every biconnected outerplanar graph is always at most twice the pathwidth of its (geometric) dual plus two, conjectured that there exists a constant c such that the pathwidth of every biconnected outerplanar graph is at most c plus the pathwidth of its dual. They also conjectured that this was actually true with c being one for every biconnected planar graph. Fomin [10] proved that the second conjecture is true for all planar triangulations. First, we construct for each p ≥ 1, a biconnected outerplanar graph of pathwidth 2p + 1 whose (geometric) dual has pathwidth p + 1, thereby disproving both conjectures. Next, we also disprove two other conjectures (one of Bodlaender and Fomin [3], implied by one of Fomin [10]. Finally we prove, in an algorithmic way, that the pathwidth of every biconnected outerplanar graph is at most twice the pathwidth of its (geometric) dual minus one. A tight interval for the studied relation is therefore obtained, and we show that all cases in the interval happen. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55: 27–41, 2007     

The reconstruction of outerplanar graphs

Ulam's conjecture is that a graph G with at least three vertices can be reconstructed from the family of subgraphs of G obtained by deleting single vertices of G. This paper proves the conjecture for G outerplanar, by working first with partially labeled graphs and then applying the results obtained to the unlabeled case.     

Centers of maximal outerplanar graphs

The center of a graph is defined to be the subgraph induced by the set of vertices that have minimum eccentricities (i.e., minimum distance to the most distant vertices). It is shown that only seven graphs can be centers of maximal outerplanar graphs.     

Minimum rank of outerplanar graphs

The problem of finding the minimum rank over all symmetric matrices corresponding to a given graph has grown in interest recently. It is well known that the minimum rank of any graph is bounded above by the clique cover number, the minimum number of cliques needed to cover all edges of the graph. We generalize the idea of the clique cover number by defining the rank sum of a cover to be the sum of the minimum ranks of the graphs in the cover. Using this idea we obtain a combinatorial solution to the minimum rank problem for an outerplanar graph. As a consequence the minimum rank of an outerplanar graph is field independent and all outerplanar graphs have a universally optimal matrix. We also consider implications of the main result to the inverse inertia problem.     

On reconstructing maximal outerplanar graphs

Manvel has proved that a maximal outerplanar graph can be reconstructed from the collection of isomorphism types of subgraphs obtained by deleting vertices of the given graph. This paper sharpens Manvel's result by showing that if the graph is not a triangulation of a hexagon, then reconstruction can be accomplished using only those isomorphism types of subgraphs corresponding to deletion of vertices of valence two.     

Approximation of pathwidth of outerplanar graphs

There exists a polynomial time algorithm to compute the pathwidth of outerplanar graphs, but the large exponent makes this algorithm impractical. In this paper, we give an algorithm that, given a biconnected outerplanar graph G, finds a path decomposition of G of pathwidth at most twice the pathwidth of G plus one. To obtain the result, several relations between the pathwidth of a biconnected outerplanar graph and its dual are established.     

Game chromatic number of outerplanar graphs

This note proves that the game chromatic number of an outerplanar graph is at most 7. This improves the previous known upper bound of the game chromatic number of outerplanar graphs. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 30: 67–70, 1999     

外平面图的弱完备染色

假设G=（V,E,F）是一个平面图。如果e₁和e₂是G中两条相邻边且在关联的面的边界上连续出现,那么称e₁和e₂面相邻。图G的一个弱完备k-染色是指存在一个从V ∪ E ∪ F到k色集合{1, …, K}的映射,使得任意两个相邻点,两个相邻面,两条面相邻的边,以及V ∪ E ∪ F中任意两个相关联的元素都染不同的颜色。若图G有一个弱完备k-染色,则称G是弱完备k-可染的。平面图G的弱完备色数是指G是弱完备k-可染的正整数k的最小值,记成χ_vef（G）。2016年,Fabrici等人猜想：每个无环且无割边的连通平面图是弱完备7-可染的。证明外平面图满足猜想,即外平面图是弱完备7-可染的。     

A generalization of total graphs

Let R be a commutative ring with nonzero identity, \(L_{n}(R)\) be the set of all lower triangular \(n\times n\) matrices, and U be a triangular subset of \(R^{n}\), i.e., the product of any lower triangular matrix with the transpose of any element of U belongs to U. The graph \(GT^{n}_{U}(R^n)\) is a simple graph whose vertices consists of all elements of \(R^{n}\), and two distinct vertices \((x_{1},\dots ,x_{n})\) and \((y_{1},\dots ,y_{n})\) are adjacent if and only if \((x_{1}+y_{1}, \ldots ,x_{n}+y_{n})\in U\). The graph \(GT^{n}_{U}(R^n)\) is a generalization for total graphs. In this paper, we investigate the basic properties of \(GT^{n}_{U}(R^n)\). Moreover, we study the planarity of the graphs \(GT^{n}_{U}(U)\), \(GT^{n}_{U}(R^{n}{\setminus } U)\) and \(GT^{n}_{U}(R^n)\).     

A generalization of chordal graphs

In a 3-connected planar triangulation, every circuit of length ≥ 4 divides the rest of the edges into two nontrivial parts (inside and outside) which are “separated” by the circuit. Neil Robertson asked to what extent triangulations are characterized by this property, and conjectured an answer. In this paper we prove his conjecture, that if G is simple and 3-connected and every circuit of length ≥ 4 has at least two “bridges,” then G may be built up by “clique-sums” starting from complete graphs and planar triangulations. This is a generalization of Dirac's theorem about chordal graphs.     

Area-efficient planar straight-line drawings of outerplanar graphs

It is important to minimize the area of a drawing of a graph, so that the drawing can fit in a small drawing-space. It is well-known that a planar graph with n vertices admits a planar straight-line grid drawing with O(n²) area [H. de Fraysseix, J. Pach, R. Pollack, How to draw a planar graph on a grid, Combinatorica 10(1) (1990) 41-51; W. Schnyder, Embedding planar graphs on the grid, in: Proceedings of the First ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 1990, pp. 138-148]. Unfortunately, there is a matching lower-bound of Ω(n²) on the area-requirements of the planar straight-line grid drawings of certain planar graphs. Hence, it is important to investigate important categories of planar graphs to determine if they admit planar straight-line grid drawings with o(n²) area.In this paper, we investigate an important category of planar graphs, namely, outerplanar graphs. We show that an outerplanar graph G with degree d admits a planar straight-line grid drawing with area O(dn^1.48) in O(n) time. This implies that if d=o(n^0.52), then G can be drawn in this manner in o(n²) area.     

On an interpolation property of outerplanar graphs

Let D be an acyclic orientation of a graph G. An arc of D is said to be dependent if its reversal creates a directed cycle. Let d(D) denote the number of dependent arcs in D. Define d_min(G) (d_max(G)) to be the minimum (maximum) number of d(D) over all acyclic orientations D of G. We determine d_min(G) for an outerplanar graph G and prove that G has an acyclic orientation with exactly k dependent arcs if d_min(G)?k?d_max(G).     

b-colouring outerplanar graphs with large girth

A b-colouring of a graph is a colouring of its vertices such that every colour class contains a vertex that has a neighbour in all other classes. The b-chromatic number of a graph is the largest integer $k$ such that the graph has a $b$-colouring with $k$ colours. We show here how to compute in polynomial time the $b$-chromatic number of an outerplanar graph of girth at least $8$. This generalizes the seminal result of Irving and Manlove on trees.     

Algebraic characterizations of outerplanar and planar graphs

A drawing of a graph in the plane is even if nonadjacent edges have an even number of intersections. Hanani’s theorem characterizes planar graphs as those graphs that have an even drawing. In this paper we present an algebraic characterization of graphs that have an even drawing. Together with Hanani’s theorem this yields an algebraic characterization of planar graphs. We will also present algebraic characterizations of subgraphs of paths, and of outerplanar graphs.     

On the chromatic index of outerplanar graphs

Vizing [Diskret. Analiz3 (1964), 25–30] has shown that if ? denotes the maximum valency of a simple graph, then its chromatic index is either ? or ? + 1. The object of this paper is to show that the chromatic index of an outerplanar graph G is ? if and only if G is not an odd circuit.     

Colouring games on outerplanar graphs and trees

Let f be a graph function which assigns to each graph H a non-negative integer f(H)≤|V(H)|. The f-game chromatic number of a graph G is defined through a two-person game. Let X be a set of colours. Two players, Alice and Bob, take turns colouring the vertices of G with colours from X. A partial colouring c of G is legal (with respect to graph function f) if for any subgraph H of G, the sum of the number of colours used in H and the number of uncoloured vertices of H is at least f(H). Both Alice and Bob must colour legally (i.e., the partial colouring produced needs to be legal). The game ends if either all the vertices are coloured or there are uncoloured vertices with no legal colour. In the former case, Alice wins the game. In the latter case, Bob wins the game. The f-game chromatic number of G, χ_g(f,G), is the least number of colours that the colour set X needs to contain so that Alice has a winning strategy. Let be the graph function defined as , for any n≥3 and otherwise. Then is called the acyclic game chromatic number of G. In this paper, we prove that any outerplanar graph G has acyclic game chromatic number at most 7. For any integer k, let ?_k be the graph function defined as ?_k(K₂)=2 and ?_k(P_k)=3 (P_k is the path on k vertices) and ?_k(H)=0 otherwise. This paper proves that if k≥8 then for any tree T, χ_g(?_k,T)≤9. On the other hand, if k≤6, then for any integer n, there is a tree T such that χ_g(?_k,T)≥n.     

A common generalization of line graphs and clique graphs

Both the line graph and the clique graph are defined as intersection graphs of certain families of complete subgraphs of a graph. We generalize this concept. By a k-edge of a graph we mean a complete subgraph with k vertices or a clique with fewer than k vertices. The k-edge graph Δ_k(G) of a graph G is defined as the intersection graph of the set of all k-edges of G. The following three problems are investigated for k-edge graphs. The first is the characterization problem. Second, sets of graphs closed under the k-edge graph operator are found. The third problem is the question of convergence: What happens to a graph if we take iterated k-edge graphs?     

A generalization of edge-coloring in graphs

Bounds are given on the number of colors required to color the edges of a graph (multigraph) such that each color appears at each vertex v at most m(ν) times. The known results and proofs generalize in natural ways. Certain new edge-coloring problems, which have no counterparts when m(ν) = 1 for all ν ? V, are studied.