The edge intersection graphs of paths in a tree

The class of edge intersection graphs of a collection of paths in a tree (EPT graphs) is investigated, where two paths edge intersect if they share an edge. The cliques of an EPT graph are characterized and shown to have strong Helly number 4. From this it is demonstrated that the problem of finding a maximum clique of an EPT graph can be solved in polynomial time. It is shown that the strong perfect graph conjecture holds for EPT graphs. Further complexity results follow from the observation that every line graph is an EPT graph. The class of EPT graphs is equivalent to the class of fundamental cycle graphs.     

Representing edge intersection graphs of paths on degree 4 trees

Let P be a collection of nontrivial simple paths on a host tree T. The edge intersection graph of P, denoted by EPT(P), has vertex set that corresponds to the members of P, and two vertices are joined by an edge if and only if the corresponding members of P share at least one common edge in T. An undirected graph G is called an edge intersection graph of paths in a tree if G=EPT(P) for some P and T. The EPT graphs are useful in network applications. Scheduling undirected calls in a tree network or assigning wavelengths to virtual connections in an optical tree network are equivalent to coloring its EPT graph.An undirected graph G is chordal if every cycle in G of length greater than 3 possesses a chord. Chordal graphs correspond to vertex intersection graphs of subtrees on a tree. An undirected graph G is weakly chordal if every cycle of length greater than 4 in G and in its complement possesses a chord. It is known that the EPT graphs restricted to host trees of vertex degree 3 are precisely the chordal EPT graphs. We prove a new analogous result that weakly chordal EPT graphs are precisely the EPT graphs with host tree restricted to degree 4. Moreover, this provides an algorithm to reduce a given EPT representation of a weakly chordal EPT graph to an EPT representation on a degree 4 tree. Finally, we raise a number of intriguing open questions regarding related families of graphs.     

Integrality properties of edge path tree families

An Edge Path Tree (EPT) family is a family whose members are edge sets of paths in a tree. Relying on the notion of Pie introduced in [M.C. Golumbic, R.E. Jamison, The edge intersection graphs of paths in a tree, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B 38 (1985) 8-22], we characterize Ideal and Mengerian EPT families. In particular, we show that an EPT family is Ideal if and only if it is Mengerian. If, in addition, the EPT family is uniform, then it is Ideal if and only if it is Unimodular. The latter equivalence generalizes the well-known fact that the edge set of a graph is an Ideal clutter if and only if the graph is bipartite.     

A superclass of Edge-Path-Tree graphs with few cliques

Edge-Path-Tree (EPT) graphs are intersection graphs of EPT matrices that is matrices whose columns are incidence vectors of edge-sets of paths in a given tree. EPT graphs have polynomially many cliques [M.C. Golumbic, R.E. Jamison, The edge intersection graphs of paths in a tree, Journal of Combinational Theory Series B 38 (1985) 8–22; C.L. Monma, V.K. Wey, Intersection graphs of paths in a tree, Journal of Combinational Theory Series B 41 (1986) 141–181]. Therefore, the problem of finding a clique of maximum weight in these graphs is solvable in strongly polynomial time. We extend this result to a proper superclass of EPT graphs.     

Asteroids in rooted and directed path graphs

An asteroidal triple is a stable set of three vertices such that each pair is connected by a path avoiding the neighborhood of the third vertex. Asteroidal triples play a central role in a classical characterization of interval graphs by Lekkerkerker and Boland. Their result says that a chordal graph is an interval graph if and only if it contains no asteroidal triple. In this paper, we prove an analogous theorem for directed path graphs which are the intersection graphs of directed paths in a directed tree. For this purpose, we introduce the notion of a strong path. Two non-adjacent vertices are linked by a strong path if either they have a common neighbor or they are the endpoints of two vertex-disjoint chordless paths satisfying certain conditions. A strong asteroidal triple is an asteroidal triple such that each pair is linked by a strong path. We prove that a chordal graph is a directed path graph if and only if it contains no strong asteroidal triple. We also introduce a related notion of asteroidal quadruple, and conjecture a characterization of rooted path graphs which are the intersection graphs of directed paths in a rooted tree.     

Intersection graphs of paths in a tree

The intersection graph for a family of sets is obtained by associating each set with a vertex of the graph and joining two vertices by an edge exactly when their corresponding sets have a nonempty intersection. Intersection graphs arise naturally in many contexts, such as scheduling conflicting events, and have been widely studied.We present a unified framework for studying several classes of intersection graphs arising from families of paths in a tree. Four distinct classes of graphs arise by considering paths to be the sets of vertices or the edges making up the path, and by allowing the underlying tree to be undirected or directed; in the latter case only directed paths are allowed. Two further classes are obtained by requiring the directed tree to be rooted. We introduce other classes of graphs as well. The rooted directed vertex path graphs have been studied by Gavril; the vertex path graphs have been studied by Gavril and Renz; the edge path graphs have been studied by Golumbic and Jamison, Lobb, Syslo, and Tarjan.The main results are a characterization of these graphs in terms of their “clique tree” representations and a unified recognition algorithm. The algorithm repeatedly separates an arbitrary graph by a (maximal) clique separator, checks the form of the resultant nondecomposable “atoms,” and finally checks that each separation step is valid. In all cases, the first two steps can be performed in polynomial time. In all but one case, the final step is based on a certain two-coloring condition and so can be done efficiently; in the other case the recognition problem can be shown to be NP-complete since a certain three-coloring condition is needed.The strength of this unified approach is that it clarifies and unifies virtually all of the important known results for these graphs and provides substantial new results as well. For example, the exact intersecting relationships among these graphs, and between these graphs and chordal and perfect graphs fall out easily as corollaries. A number of other results, such as bounds on the number of (maximal) cliques, related optimization problems on these graphs, etc., are presented along with open problems.     

A recognition algorithm for the intersection graphs of directed paths in directed trees

Consider a finite family of non-empty sets. The intersection graph of this family is obtained by representing each set by a vertex, two vertices being connected by an edge if and only if the corresponding sets intersect. The intersection graph of a family of directed paths in a directed tree is called a directed path graph. In this paper we present an efficient algorithm which constructs to a given graph a representation by a family of directed paths on a directed tree, if one exists. Also, we prove that a graph is a proper directed path graph if and only if it is a directed path graph.     

Equivalences and the complete hierarchy of intersection graphs of paths in a tree

An (h,s,t)-representation of a graph G consists of a collection of subtrees of a tree T, where each subtree corresponds to a vertex in G, such that (i) the maximum degree of T is at most h, (ii) every subtree has maximum degree at most s, (iii) there is an edge between two vertices in the graph G if and only if the corresponding subtrees have at least t vertices in common in T. The class of graphs that have an (h,s,t)-representation is denoted by [h,s,t]. It is well known that the class of chordal graphs corresponds to the class [3, 3, 1]. Moreover, it was proved by Jamison and Mulder that chordal graphs correspond to orthodox-[3, 3, 1] graphs defined below.In this paper, we investigate the class of [h,2,t] graphs, i.e., the intersection graphs of paths in a tree. The [h,2,1] graphs are also known as path graphs [F. Gavril, A recognition algorithm for the intersection graphs of paths in trees, Discrete Math. 23 (1978) 211-227] or VPT graphs [M.C. Golumbic, R.E. Jamison, Edge and vertex intersection of paths in a tree, Discrete Math. 55 (1985) 151-159], and [h,2,2] graphs are known as the EPT graphs. We consider variations of [h,2,t] by three main parameters: h, t and whether the graph has an orthodox representation. We give the complete hierarchy of relationships between the classes of weakly chordal, chordal, [h,2,t] and orthodox-[h,2,t] graphs for varied values of h and t.     

Solving coloring, minimum clique cover and kernel problems on arc intersection graphs of directed paths on a tree

Let T = (V, A) be a directed tree. Given a collection P{\mathcal{P}} of dipaths on T, we can look at the arc-intersection graph I(P,T){I(\mathcal{P},T)} whose vertex set is P{\mathcal{P}} and where two vertices are connected by an edge if the corresponding dipaths share a common arc. Monma and Wei, who started their study in a seminal paper on intersection graphs of paths on a tree, called them DE graphs (for directed edge path graphs) and proved that they are perfect. DE graphs find one of their applications in the context of optical networks. For instance, assigning wavelengths to set of dipaths in a directed tree network consists in finding a proper coloring of the arc-intersection graph. In the present paper, we give

Characterizing directed path graphs by forbidden asteroids

An asteroidal triple is a stable set of three vertices such that each pair is connected by a path avoiding the neighborhood of the third vertex. Asteroidal triples play a central role in a classical characterization of interval graphs by Lekkerkerker and Boland. Their result says that a chordal graph is an interval graph if and only if it does not contain an asteroidal triple. In this paper, we prove an analogous theorem for directed path graphs which are the intersection graphs of directed paths in a directed tree. For this purpose, we introduce the notion of a special connection. Two non‐adjacent vertices are linked by a special connection if either they have a common neighbor or they are the endpoints of two vertex‐disjoint chordless paths satisfying certain conditions. A special asteroidal triple is an asteroidal triple such that each pair is linked by a special connection. We prove that a chordal graph is a directed path graph if and only if it does not contain a special asteroidal triple. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 68:103‐112, 2011     

On Models of Directed Path Graphs Non Rooted Directed Path Graphs

A directed path graph is the intersection graph of a family of directed subpaths of a directed tree. A rooted directed path graph is the intersection graph of a family of directed subpaths of a rooted tree. Clearly, rooted directed path graphs are directed path graphs. Several characterizations are known for directed path graphs: one by forbidden induced subgraphs and one by forbidden asteroids. It is an open problem to find such characterizations for rooted directed path graphs. With the purpose of proving knowledge in this direction, we show in this paper properties of directed path models that can not be rooted for chordal graphs with any leafage and with leafage four. Therefore, we prove that for leafage four directed path graphs minimally non rooted directed path graphs have a unique asteroidal quadruple, and can be characterized by the presence of certain type of asteroidal quadruples.     

Graphoidal bipartite graphs

A graphoidal cover of a graph G is a collection ψ of (not necessarily open) paths inG such that every path in ψ has at least two vertices, every vertex ofG is an internal vertex of at most one path in ψ and every edge of G is in exactly one path in ψ. Let Ω (ψ) denote the intersection graph of ψ. A graph G is said to be graphoidal if there exists a graphH and a graphoidal cover ψof H such that G is isomorphic to Ω(ψ). In this paper we study the properties of graphoidal graphs and obtain a forbidden subgraph characterisation of bipartite graphoidal graphs.     

Characterizing path graphs by forbidden induced subgraphs

A path graph is the intersection graph of subpaths of a tree. In 1970, Renz asked for a characterization of path graphs by forbidden induced subgraphs. We answer this question by determining the complete list of graphs that are not path graphs and are minimal with this property. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62: 369–384, 2009     

Metric characterizations of proper interval graphs and tree-clique graphs

A connected graph G is a tree-clique graph if there exists a spanning tree T (a compatible tree) such that every clique of G is a subtree of T. When T is a path the connected graph G is a proper interval graph which is usually defined as intersection graph of a family of closed intervals of the real line such that no interval contains another. We present here metric characterizations of proper interval graphs and extend them to tree-clique graphs. This is done by demonstrating “local” properties of tree-clique graphs with respect to the subgraphs induced by paths of a compatible tree. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Recognizing Helly Edge-Path-Tree graphs and their clique graphs

We present a unifying procedure for recognizing intersection graphs of Helly families of paths in a tree and their clique graphs. The Helly property makes it possible to look at these recognition problems as variants of the Graph Realization Problem, namely, the problem of recognizing Edge-Path-Tree matrices. Our result heavily relies on the notion of pie introduced in [M.C. Golumbic, R.E. Jamison, The edge intersection graphs of paths in a tree, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B 38 (1985) 8-22] and on the observation that Helly Edge-Path-Tree matrices form a self-dual class of Helly matrices. Coupled to the notion of reduction presented in the paper, these facts are also exploited to reprove and slightly refine some known results for Edge-Path-Tree graphs.     

Path Decomposition of Graphs with Given Path Length

A path decomposition of a graph G is a list of paths such that each edge appears in exactly onepath in the list.G is said to admit a {P_l}-decomposition if G can be decomposed into some copies of P_l,whereP_l is a path of length l-1.Similarly,G is said to admit a {P_l,P_k}=decomposition if G can be decomposed intosome copies of P_l or P_k.An k-cycle,denoted by C_k,is a cycle with k vertices.An odd tree is a tree of which allvertices have odd degree.In this paper,it is shown that a connected graph G admits a {P_3,P_4}-decompositionif and only if G is neither a 3-cycle nor an odd tree.This result includes the related result of Yan,Xu andMutu.Moreover,two polynomial algorithms are given to find {P_3}-decomposition and {P_3,P_4}-decompositionof graphs,respectively.Hence,{P_3}-decomposition problem and {P_3,P_4}-decomposition problem of graphs aresolved completely.     

A recognition algorithm for the intersection graphs of paths in trees

Let F be a finite family of non-empty sets. An undirected graph G is an intersection graph for F if there is a one-to-one correspondence between the vertices of G and the sets of F such that two sets have a non-empty intersection exactly when the corresponding vertices are adjacent in G. If this is the case then F is said to be an intersection model for the graph G. If F is a family of paths within a tree T, then G is called a path graph. This paper proves a characterization for the path graphs and then gives a polynomial time algorithm for their recognition. If G is a path graph the algorithm constructs a path intersection model for G.     

Intersection models of weakly chordal graphs

We first present new structural properties of a two-pair in various graphs. A two-pair is used in a well-known characterization of weakly chordal graphs. Based on these properties, we prove the main theorem: a graph G is a weakly chordal ()-free graph if and only if G is an edge intersection graph of subtrees on a tree with maximum degree 4. This characterizes the so called [4, 4, 2] graphs. The proof of the theorem constructively finds the representation. Thus, we obtain an algorithm to construct an edge intersection model of subtrees on a tree with maximum degree 4 for such a given graph. This is a recognition algorithm for [4, 4, 2] graphs.     

Some properties of edge intersection graphs of single bend paths on a grid

We consider the family of intersection graphs G of paths on a grid, where every vertex v in G corresponds to a single bend path P_v on a grid, and two vertices are adjacent in G if and only if the corresponding paths share an edge on the grid. We first show that these graphs have the Erdös-Hajnal property. Then we present some properties concerning the neighborhood of a vertex in these graphs, and finally we consider some subclasses of chordal graphs for which we give necessary and sufficient conditions to be edge intersection graphs of single bend paths in a grid.     

图的{P4}-分解

一个图G的路分解是指一路集合使得G的每条边恰好出现在其中一条路上.记Pl长度为l-1的路,如果G能够分解成若干个Pl,则称G存在{Pl}—分解.关于图的给定长路分解问题主要结果有:(i)连通图G存在{P3}—分解当且仅当G有偶数条边(见[1]);(ii)连通图G存在{P3,P4}—分解当且仅当G不是C3和奇树,这里C3的长度为3的圈而奇树是所有顶点皆度数为奇数的树(见[3]).本文讨论了3正则图的{P4}—分解情况,并构造证明了边数为3k(k热∈Z且k≥2)的完全图Kn和完全二部图Kr,s存在{P4}—分解.