Strong clique trees,neighborhood trees,and strongly chordal graphs

Maximal complete subgraphs and clique trees are basic to both the theory and applications of chordal graphs. A simple notion of strong clique tree extends this structure to strongly chordal graphs. Replacing maximal complete subgraphs with open or closed vertex neighborhoods discloses new relationships between chordal and strongly chordal graphs and the previously studied families of chordal bipartite graphs, clique graphs of chordal graphs (dually chordal graphs), and incidence graphs of biacyclic hypergraphs. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Graph Theory 33: 151–160, 2000     

Special Eccentric Vertices for the Class of Chordal Graphs and Related Classes

A vertex is simplicial if the vertices of its neighborhood are pairwise adjacent. It is known that, for every vertex v of a chordal graph, there exists a simplicial vertex among the vertices at maximum distance from v. Here we prove similar properties in other classes of graphs related to that of chordal graphs. Those properties will not be in terms of simplicial vertices, but in terms of other types of vertices that are used to characterize those classes.     

Chordal bipartite completion of colored graphs

Golumbic, Kaplan, and Shamir [Graph sandwich problems, J. Algorithms 19 (1995) 449-473], in their paper on graph sandwich problems published in 1995, left the status of the sandwich problems for strongly chordal graphs and chordal bipartite graphs open. It was recently shown [C.M.H. de Figueiredo, L. Faria, S. Klein, R. Sritharan, On the complexity of the sandwich problems for strongly chordal graphs and chordal bipartite graphs, Theoret. Comput. Sci., accepted for publication] that the sandwich problem for strongly chordal graphs is NP-complete. We show that given graph G with a proper vertex coloring c, determining whether there is a supergraph of G that is chordal bipartite and also is properly colored by c is NP-complete. This implies that the sandwich problem for chordal bipartite graphs is also NP-complete.     

Complexity and approximation results for the connected vertex cover problem in graphs and hypergraphs

We study a variation of the vertex cover problem where it is required that the graph induced by the vertex cover is connected. We prove that this problem is polynomial in chordal graphs, has a PTAS in planar graphs, is APX-hard in bipartite graphs and is 5/3-approximable in any class of graphs where the vertex cover problem is polynomial (in particular in bipartite graphs). Finally, dealing with hypergraphs, we study the complexity and the approximability of two natural generalizations.     

A characterization of signed graphs with generalized perfect elimination orderings

An important property of chordal graphs is that these graphs are characterized by the existence of perfect elimination orderings on their vertex sets. In this paper, we generalize the notion of perfect elimination orderings to signed graphs, and give a characterization for graphs admitting such orderings, together with characterizations restricted to some subclasses and further properties of those graphs. The definition of our generalized perfect elimination orderings is motivated by a generalization of the classical result that a so-called graphic hyperplane arrangement is free if and only if the corresponding graph is chordal.     

Clique trees of chordal graphs: leafage and 3-asteroidals

Chordal graphs were characterized as those graphs having a tree, called clique tree, whose vertices are the cliques of the graph and for every vertex in the graph, the set of cliques that contain it form a subtree of clique tree. In this work, we study the relationship between the clique trees of a chordal graph and its subgraphs. We will prove that clique trees can be described locally and all clique trees of a graph can be obtained from clique trees of subgraphs. In particular, we study the leafage of chordal graphs, that is the minimum number of leaves among the clique trees of the graph. It is known that interval graphs are chordal graphs without 3-asteroidals. We will prove a generalization of this result using the framework developed in the present article. We prove that in a clique tree that realizes the leafage, for every vertex of degree at least 3, and every choice of 3 branches incident to it, there is a 3−asteroidal in these branches.     

On the Structure of Contractible Vertex Pairs in Chordal Graphs

An edge/non-edge in a k-connected graph is contractible if its contraction does not result in a graph of lower connectivity. We focus our study on contractible edges and non-edges in chordal graphs. Firstly, we characterize contractible edges in chordal graphs using properties of tree decompositions with respect to minimal vertex separators. Secondly, we show that in every chordal graph each non-edge is contractible. We also characterize non-edges whose contraction leaves a k-connected chordal graph.     

Restricted unimodular chordal graphs

A chordal graph is called restricted unimodular if each cycle of its vertex‐clique incidence bipartite graph has length divisible by 4. We characterize these graphs within all chordal graphs by forbidden induced subgraphs, by minimal relative separators, and in other ways. We show how to construct them by starting from block graphs and multiplying vertices subject to a certain restriction, which leads to a linear‐time recognition algorithm. We show how they are related to other classes such as distance‐hereditary chordal graphs and strongly chordal graphs. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 30: 121–136, 1999     

无向路图和块图上的混合控制

图G=(V,E)的一个混合控制集是一个满足如下条件的集合DV∪E:不在D中的每个点或每条边都相邻或关联于D中的至少一个点或一条边.确定图的最小基数的混合控制集的问题称为混合控制问题.本文研究混合控制问题的算法复杂性,证明了混合控制问题在无向路图上是NP-完全的,但在块图上有线性时间算法.无向路图和块图都是弦图的子类,又是树的母类.     

On the Structure of Bull-Free Perfect Graphs, 2: the Weakly Chordal Case

 A bull is a graph obtained by adding a pendant vertex at two vertices of a triangle. A graph is perfectly orderable if it admits an ordering such that the greedy sequential method applied on this ordering produces an optimal coloring for every induced subgraph. Chvátal conjectured that every bull-free graph with no odd hole or antihole is perfectly orderable. In a previous paper we studied the structure of general bull-free perfect graphs, and reduced Chvátal's conjecture to the case of weakly chordal graphs. Here we focus on weakly chordal graphs, and we reduce Chvátal's conjecture to a restricted case. Our method lays out the structure of all bull-free weakly chordal graphs. These results have been used recently by Hayward to establish Chvátal's conjecture for this restricted case and therefore in full. Received: November 26, 1997?Final version received: February 27, 2001     

Vertex Ordering Characterizations of Graphs of Bounded Asteroidal Number

Asteroidal Triple‐free (AT‐free) graphs have received considerable attention due to their inclusion of various important graphs families, such as interval and cocomparability graphs. The asteroidal number of a graph is the size of a largest subset of vertices such that the removal of the closed neighborhood of any vertex in the set leaves the remaining vertices of the set in the same connected component. (AT‐free graphs have asteroidal number at most 2.) In this article, we characterize graphs of bounded asteroidal number by means of a vertex elimination ordering, thereby solving a long‐standing open question in algorithmic graph theory. Similar characterizations are known for chordal, interval, and cocomparability graphs.     

A linear time algorithm to list the minimal separators of chordal graphs

Kumar and Madhavan [Minimal vertex separators of chordal graphs, Discrete Appl. Math. 89 (1998) 155-168] gave a linear time algorithm to list all the minimal separators of a chordal graph. In this paper we give another linear time algorithm for the same purpose. While the algorithm of Kumar and Madhavan requires that a specific type of PEO, namely the MCS PEO is computed first, our algorithm works with any PEO. This is interesting when we consider the fact that there are other popular methods such as Lex BFS to compute a PEO for a given chordal graph.     

Perfect elimination orderings for symmetric matrices

We introduce a new class of structured symmetric matrices by extending the notion of perfect elimination ordering from graphs to weighted graphs or matrices. This offers a common framework capturing common vertex elimination orderings of monotone families of chordal graphs, Robinsonian matrices and ultrametrics. We give a structural characterization for matrices that admit perfect elimination orderings in terms of forbidden substructures generalizing chordless cycles in graphs.

     

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     

Enumeration of <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis><Subscript>4</Subscript>-Free Chordal Graphs

We count labelled chordal graphs with no induced path of length 3, both exactly and asymptotically. These graphs correspond to rooted trees in which no vertex has exactly one child, and each vertex has been expanded to a clique. Some properties of random graphs of this type are also derived. The corresponding unlabelled graphs are in 1-1 correspondence with unlabelled rooted trees on the same number of vertices. Research supported by the Australian Research Council. Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaResearch carried out while this author was working at CWI and Utrecht University, The Netherlands     

Bounding the Clique‐Width of H‐Free Chordal Graphs

A graph is H‐free if it has no induced subgraph isomorphic to H. Brandstädt, Engelfriet, Le, and Lozin proved that the class of chordal graphs with independence number at most 3 has unbounded clique‐width. Brandstädt, Le, and Mosca erroneously claimed that the gem and co‐gem are the only two 1‐vertex P₄‐extensions H for which the class of H‐free chordal graphs has bounded clique‐width. In fact we prove that bull‐free chordal and co‐chair‐free chordal graphs have clique‐width at most 3 and 4, respectively. In particular, we find four new classes of H‐free chordal graphs of bounded clique‐width. Our main result, obtained by combining new and known results, provides a classification of all but two stubborn cases, that is, with two potential exceptions we determine all graphs H for which the class of H‐free chordal graphs has bounded clique‐width. We illustrate the usefulness of this classification for classifying other types of graph classes by proving that the class of ‐free graphs has bounded clique‐width via a reduction to K₄‐free chordal graphs. Finally, we give a complete classification of the (un)boundedness of clique‐width of H‐free weakly chordal graphs.     

Dominator Colorings in Some Classes of Graphs

A dominator coloring is a coloring of the vertices of a graph such that every vertex is either alone in its color class or adjacent to all vertices of at least one other class. We present new bounds on the dominator coloring number of a graph, with applications to chordal graphs. We show how to compute the dominator coloring number in polynomial time for P ₄-free graphs, and we give a polynomial-time characterization of graphs with dominator coloring number at most 3.     

Generating weakly triangulated graphs

We show that a graph is weakly triangulated, or weakly chordal, if and only if it can be generated by starting with a graph with no edges, and repeatedly adding an edge, so that the new edge is not the middle edge of any chordless path with four vertices. This is a corollary of results due to Sritharan and Spinrad, and Hayward, Hoång and Maffray, and a natural analog of a theorem due to Fulkerson and Gross, which states that a graph is triangulated, or chordal, if and only if it can be generated by starting with a graph with no vertices, and repeatedly adding a vertex, so that the new vertex is not the middle vertex of any chordless path with three vertices. Our result answers the question of whether there exists a composition scheme that generates exactly the class of weakly triangulated graphs. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

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.     

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.