Maximal chordal subgraphs

An algorithm for finding maximal chordal subgraphs is developed that has worst-case time complexity of O(|E|Δ), where |E| is the number of edges in G and Δ is the maximum vertex degree in G. The study of maximal chordal subgraphs is motivated by their usefulness as computationally efficient structures with which to approximate a general graph. Two examples are given that illustrate potential applications of maximal chordal subgraphs. One provides an alternative formulation to the maximum independent set problem on a graph. The other involves a novel splitting scheme for solving large sparse systems of linear equations.