Chordal bipartite, strongly chordal, and strongly chordal bipartite graphs

Robert E. Jamison characterized chordal graphs by the edge set of every k-cycle being the symmetric difference of k−2 triangles. Strongly chordal (and chordal bipartite) graphs can be similarly characterized in terms of the distribution of triangles (respectively, quadrilaterals). These results motivate a definition of ‘strongly chordal bipartite graphs’, forming a class intermediate between bipartite interval graphs and chordal bipartite graphs.     

Connected matchings in chordal bipartite graphs

A connected matching in a graph is a collection of edges that are pairwise disjoint but joined by another edge of the graph. Motivated by applications to Hadwiger’s conjecture, Plummer, Stiebitz, and Toft (2003) introduced connected matchings and proved that, given a positive integer $k$, determining whether a graph has a connected matching of size at least $k$ is NP-complete. Cameron (2003) proved that this problem remains NP-complete on bipartite graphs, but can be solved in polynomial-time on chordal graphs. We present a polynomial-time algorithm that finds a maximum connected matching in a chordal bipartite graph. This includes a novel edge-without-vertex-elimination ordering of independent interest. We give several applications of the algorithm, including computing the Hadwiger number of a chordal bipartite graph, solving the unit-time bipartite margin-shop scheduling problem in the case in which the bipartite complement of the precedence graph is chordal bipartite, and determining–in a totally balanced binary matrix–the largest size of a square sub-matrix that is permutation equivalent to a matrix with all zero entries above the main diagonal.     

Chordal bipartite graphs and crowns

We prove that a bipartite graph is chordal if and only if it has an elimination scheme. This leads to a polynomial algorithm to recognize whether an ordered set is cycle-free.     

Bandwidth of bipartite permutation graphs in polynomial time

We give the first polynomial-time algorithm that computes the bandwidth of bipartite permutation graphs. Bandwidth is an NP-complete graph layout problem that is notorious for its difficulty even on small graph classes. For example, it remains NP-complete on caterpillars of hair length at most 3, a very restricted subclass of trees. Much attention has been given to designing approximation algorithms for computing the bandwidth, as it is NP-hard to approximate the bandwidth of general graphs with a constant factor guarantee. The problem is considered important even for approximation on restricted classes, with several distinguished results in this direction. Prior to our work, polynomial-time algorithms for exact computation of bandwidth were known only for caterpillars of hair length at most 2, chain graphs, cographs, and most interestingly, interval graphs.     

On the interval completion of chordal graphs

For a given graph G=(V,E), the interval completion problem of G is to find an edge set F such that the supergraph H=(V,E∪F) of G is an interval graph and |F| is minimum. It has been shown that it is equivalent to the minimum sum cut problem, the profile minimization problem and a kind of graph searching problems. Furthermore, it has applications in computational biology, archaeology, and clone fingerprinting. In this paper, we show that it is NP-complete on split graphs and propose an efficient algorithm on primitive starlike graphs.     

On the strong chromatic index and maximum induced matching of tree-cographs,permutation graphs and chordal bipartite graphs

We show that there exist linear-time algorithms that compute the strong chromatic index and a maximum induced matching of tree-cographs when the decomposition tree is a part of the input. We also show that there exist efficient algorithms for the strong chromatic index of (bipartite) permutation graphs and of chordal bipartite graphs.     

Unbalanced bipartite factorizations of complete bipartite graphs

We construct a new infinite family of factorizations of complete bipartite graphs by factors all of whose components are copies of a (fixed) complete bipartite graph K_p,q. There are simple necessary conditions for such factorizations to exist. The family constructed here demonstrates sufficiency in many new cases. In particular, the conditions are always sufficient when q=p+1.     

Completing partial packings of bipartite graphs

Given a bipartite graph H and an integer n, let f(n;H) be the smallest integer such that any set of edge disjoint copies of H on n vertices can be extended to an H-design on at most n+f(n;H) vertices. We establish tight bounds for the growth of f(n;H) as n→∞. In particular, we prove the conjecture of Füredi and Lehel (2010) [4] that f(n;H)=o(n). This settles a long-standing open problem.     

Chordal Coxeter groups

A solution of the isomorphism problem is presented for the class of Coxeter groups W that have a finite set of Coxeter generators S such that the underlying graph of the presentation diagram of the system (W,S) has the property that every cycle of length at least four has a chord. As an application, we construct counterexamples to two conjectures concerning the isomorphism problem for Coxeter groups.      

Weakly bipartite graphs and the Max-cut problem

A new class of graphs, called weakly bipartite graphs, is introduced. A graph is called weakly bipartite if its bipartite subgraph polytope coincides with a certain polyhedron related to odd cycle constraints. The class of weakly bipartite graphs contains for instance the class of bipartite graphs and the class of planar graphs. It is shown that the max-cut problem can be solved in polynomial time for weakly bipartite graphs. The polynomical algorithm presented is based on the ellipsoid method and an algorithm that computes a shortest path of even length.     

Balanced coloring of bipartite graphs

Given a bipartite graph G(U∪V, E) with n vertices on each side, an independent set I∈G such that |U∩I|=|V∩I| is called a balanced bipartite independent set. A balanced coloring of G is a coloring of the vertices of G such that each color class induces a balanced bipartite independent set in G. If graph G has a balanced coloring we call it colorable. The coloring number χ_B(G) is the minimum number of colors in a balanced coloring of a colorable graph G. We shall give bounds on χ_B(G) in terms of the average degree $\bar{d}$ of G and in terms of the maximum degree Δ of G. In particular we prove the following:

• $\chi_{{{B}}}({{G}}) \leq {{max}} \{{{2}},\lfloor {{2}}\overline{{{d}}}\rfloor+{{1}}\}$.
• For any 0<ε<1 there is a constant Δ₀ such that the following holds. Let G be a balanced bipartite graph with maximum degree Δ≥Δ₀ and n≥(1+ε)2Δ vertices on each side, then $\chi_{{{B}}}({{G}})\leq \frac{{{{20}}}}{\epsilon^{{{2}}}} \frac{\Delta}{{{{ln}}}\,\Delta}$.

© 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 64: 277–291, 2010     

Decomposition of bipartite graphs into special subgraphs

Let F and G be two graphs and let H be a subgraph of G. A decomposition of G into subgraphs F₁,F₂,…,F_m is called an F-factorization of G orthogonal to H if F_i≅F and |E(F_i∩H)|=1 for each i=1,2,…,m. Gyárfás and Schelp conjectured that the complete bipartite graph K_4k,4k has a C₄-factorization orthogonal to H provided that H is a k-factor of K_4k,4k. In this paper, we show that (1) the conjecture is true when H satisfies some structural conditions; (2) for any two positive integers r?k, K_kr²,kr² has a K_r,r-factorization orthogonal to H if H is a k-factor of K_kr²,kr²; (3) K_2d²,2d² has a C₄-factorization such that each edge of H belongs to a different C₄ if H is a subgraph of K_2d²,2d² with maximum degree Δ(H)?d.     

An extremal bandwidth problem for bipartite graphs

This paper discusses the problem of finding the maximum number of edges E(m, n, B) in a bipartite graph having partite set sizes m and n and bandwidth B. Exact values for E(m, n, B) are found for many cases. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 35: 278–289, 2000     

Kp,q-factorization of complete bipartite graphs

Let K_(m,n) be a complete bipartite graph with two partite sets having m and nvertices, respectively. A K_(p,q)-factorization of K_(m,n) is a set of edge-disjoint K_(p,q)-factorsof K_(m,n) which partition the set of edges of K_(m,n). When p=i and q is a prime number,Wang, in his paper "On K_(1,k)-factorizations of a complete bipartite graph" (Discrete Math,1994, 126; 359-364), investigated the K_(1,q)-factorization of K_(m,n) and gave a sufficientcondition for such a factorization to exist. In the paper "K_(1,k)-factorizations of completebipartite graphs" (Discrete Math, 2002, 259: 301-306), Du and Wang extended Wang'sresult to the case that q is any positive integer In this paper, we give a sufficient conditionfor K_(m,n) to have a K_(p,q)-factorization. As a special case, it is shown that the Martin's BACconjecture is true when p: q=k: (k+1) for any positive integer k.     

Multicolored forests in complete bipartite graphs

If the edges of a graph G are colored using k colors, we consider the color distribution for this coloring a=(a₁,a₂,…,a_k), in which a_i denotes the number of edges of color i for i=1,2,…,k. We find inequalities and majorization conditions on color distributions of the complete bipartite graph K_n,n which guarantee the existence of multicolored subgraphs: in particular, multicolored forests and trees. We end with a conjecture on partitions of K_n,n into multicolored trees.     

On bipartite zero-divisor graphs

A (finite or infinite) complete bipartite graph together with some end vertices all adjacent to a common vertex is called a complete bipartite graph with a horn. For any bipartite graph G, we show that G is the graph of a commutative semigroup with 0 if and only if it is one of the following graphs: star graph, two-star graph, complete bipartite graph, complete bipartite graph with a horn. We also prove that a zero-divisor graph is bipartite if and only if it contains no triangles. In addition, we give all corresponding zero-divisor semigroups of a class of complete bipartite graphs with a horn and determine which complete r-partite graphs with a horn have a corresponding semigroup for r≥3.     

Crossing minimization in weighted bipartite graphs

Given a bipartite graph G=(L₀,L₁,E) and a fixed ordering of the nodes in L₀, the problem of finding an ordering of the nodes in L₁ that minimizes the number of crossings has received much attention in literature. The problem is NP-complete in general and several practically efficient heuristics and polynomial-time algorithms with a constant approximation ratio have been suggested. We generalize the problem and consider the version where the edges have nonnegative weights. Although this problem is more general and finds specific applications in automatic graph layout problems similar to those of the unweighted case, it has not received as much attention. We provide a new technique that efficiently approximates a solution to this more general problem within a constant approximation ratio of 3. In addition we provide appropriate generalizations of some common heuristics usually employed for the unweighted case and compare their performances.     

Matrix Completions and Chordal Graphs

In a matrix-completion problem the aim is to specifiy the missing entries of a matrix in order to produce a matrix with particular properties. In this paper we survey results concerning matrix-completion problems where we look for completions of various types for partial matrices supported on a given pattern. We see that the existence of completions of the required type often depends on the chordal properties of graphs associated with the pattern.