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We define new graph parameters, called flip-width, that generalize treewidth, degeneracy, and generalized coloring numbers for sparse graphs, and clique-width and twin-width for dense graphs. The flip-width parameters are defined using variants of the Cops and Robber game, in which the robber has speed bounded by a fixed constant $r\in\mathbb N\cup\{\infty\}$, and the cops perform flips (or perturbations) of the considered graph. We then propose a new notion of tameness of a graph class, called bounded flip-width, which is a dense counterpart of classes of bounded expansion of Ne\v{s}etril and Ossona de Mendez, and includes classes of bounded twin-width of Bonnet, Kim, Thomass{\'e}, and Watrigant. This unifies Sparsity Theory and Twin-width Theory, providing a common language for studying the central notions of the two theories, such as weak coloring numbers and twin-width -- corresponding to winning strategies of one player -- or dense shallow minors, rich divisions, or well-linked sets, corresponding to winning strategies of the other player. We prove that boundedness of flip-width is preserved by first-order interpretations, or transductions, generalizing previous results concerning classes of bounded expansion and bounded twin-width. We provide an algorithm approximating the flip-width of a given graph, which runs in slicewise polynomial time (XP) in the size of the graph. Finally, we propose a more general notion of tameness, called almost bounded flip-width, which is a dense counterpart of nowhere dense classes. We conjecture, and provide evidence, that classes with almost bounded flip-width coincide with monadically dependent (or monadically NIP) classes, introduced by Shelah in model theory. We also provide evidence that classes of almost bounded flip-width characterise the hereditary graph classes for which the model-checking problem is fixed-parameter tractable., Comment: 79 pages

The fascinating question of the maximum value of twin-width on planar graphs is nowadays not far from the final resolution; there is a lower bound of 7 coming from a construction by Kr\'al' and Lamaison [arXiv, September 2022], and an upper bound of 8 by Hlin\v{e}n\'y and Jedelsk\'y [arXiv, October 2022]. The upper bound (currently best) of 8, however, is rather complicated and involved. We give a short and simple self-contained proof that the twin-width of planar graphs is at most 11., Comment: to appear in Eurocomb'23

Galinier, Habib, and Paul introduced the reduced clique graph of a chordal graph G. The nodes of the reduced clique graph are the maximal cliques of $G$, and two nodes are joined by an edge if and only if they form a non-disjoint separating pair of cliques in G. In this case the weight of the edge is the size of the intersection of the two cliques. A clique tree of G is a tree with the maximal cliques of G as its nodes, where for any v in V(G), the subgraph induced by the nodes containing v is connected. Galinier et al. prove that a spanning tree of the reduced clique graph is a clique tree if and only if it has maximum weight, but their proof contains an error. We explain and correct this error. In addition, we initiate a study of the structure of reduced clique graphs by proving that they cannot contain any induced cycle of length five (although they may contain induced cycles of length three, four, or six). We show that no cycle of length four or more is isomorphic to a reduced clique graph. We prove that the class of clique graphs of chordal graphs is not comparable to the class of reduced clique graphs of chordal graphs by providing examples that are in each of these classes without being in the other.

Median graphs are connected graphs in which for all three vertices there is a unique vertex that belongs to shortest paths between each pair of these three vertices. To be more formal, a graph $G$ is a median graph if, for all $\mu, u,v\in V(G)$, it holds that $|I(\mu,u)\cap I(\mu,v)\cap I(u,v)|=1$ where $I(x,y)$ denotes the set of all vertices that lie on shortest paths connecting $x$ and $y$. In this paper we are interested in a natural generalization of median graphs, called $k$-median graphs. A graph $G$ is a $k$-median graph, if there are $k$ vertices $\mu_1,\dots,\mu_k\in V(G)$ such that, for all $u,v\in V(G)$, it holds that $|I(\mu_i,u)\cap I(\mu_i,v)\cap I(u,v)|=1$, $1\leq i\leq k$. By definition, every median graph with $n$ vertices is an $n$-median graph. We provide several characterizations of $k$-median graphs that, in turn, are used to provide many novel characterizations of median graphs.

The family of cycle completable graphs has several cryptomorphic descriptions, the equivalence of which has heretofore been proven by a laborious implication-cycle that detours through a motivating matrix completion problem. We give a concise proof, partially by introducing a new characterization. Then we generalize this family to ``$k$-quasichordal'' graphs, with three natural characterizations., Comment: 8 pages

Consider a graph G with an assignment of costs to vertices. Even if G and all its subgraphs admit balanced separators of sublinear size, G may only admit a balanced separator of sublinear cost after deleting a small set Z of exceptional vertices. We improve the bound on |Z| from O(log |V(G)|) to O(log log...log |V(G)|), for any fixed number of iterations of the logarithm., 14 pages, 0 figures. (v2) Correction to the statement and proof of Theorem 6 (v3) minor changes from reviews after reviews

International audience; Truemper configurations are four types of graphs (namely thetas, wheels, prisms and pyramids) that play an important role in the proof of several decomposition theorems for hereditary graph classes. In this paper, we prove two structure theorems: one for graphs with no thetas, wheels and prisms as induced subgraphs, and one for graphs with no thetas, wheels and pyramids as induced subgraphs. A consequence is a polynomial time recognition algorithms for these two classes. In Part II of this series we generalize these results to graphs with no thetas and wheels as induced subgraphs, and in Parts III and IV, using the obtained structure, we solve several optimization problems for these graphs. AMS classification: 05C75

A regular graph is co-edge regular if there exists a constant $\mu$ such that any two distinct and non-adjacent vertices have exactly $\mu$ common neighbors. In this paper, we show that for integers $s\ge 2$ and $n$ large enough, any co-edge-regular graph which is cospectral with the $s$-clique extension of the triangular graph $T((n)$ is exactly the $s$-clique extension of the triangular graph $T(n)$., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1806.03593

A walk $u_0u_1 \ldots u_{k-1}u_k$ is a \textit{weakly toll walk} if $u_0u_i \in E(G)$ implies $u_i = u_1$ and $u_ju_k\in E(G)$ implies $u_j=u_{k-1}$. A set $S$ of vertices of $G$ is {\it weakly toll convex} if for any two non-adjacent vertices $x,y \in S$ any vertex in a weakly toll walk between $x$ and $y$ is also in $S$. The {\em weakly toll convexity} is the graph convexity space defined over weakly toll convex sets. Many studies are devoted to determine if a graph equipped with a convexity space is a {\em convex geometry}. An \emph{extreme vertex} is an element $x$ of a convex set $S$ such that the set $S\backslash\{x\}$ is also convex. A graph convexity space is said to be a convex geometry if it satisfies the Minkowski-Krein-Milman property, which states that every convex set is the convex hull of its extreme vertices. It is known that chordal, Ptolemaic, weakly polarizable, and interval graphs can be characterized as convex geometries with respect to the monophonic, geodesic, $m^3$, and toll convexities, respectively. Other important classes of graphs can also be characterized in this way. In this paper, we prove that a graph is a convex geometry with respect to the weakly toll convexity if and only if it is a proper interval graph. Furthermore, some well-known graph invariants are studied with respect to the weakly toll convexity., 17 pages

Graph convexity has been used as an important tool to better understand the structure of classes of graphs. Many studies are devoted to determine if a graph equipped with a convexity is a {\em convex geometry}. In this work we survey results on characterizations of well-known classes of graphs via convex geometries. We also give some contributions to this subject., 19 pages

For every integer $\ell \geq 7$, we give a structural description of the class of graphs whose chordless cycles of length at least 4 all have length $\ell$., 99 pages, 6 figures

A graph is $k$-chordal if it does not have an induced cycle with length greater than $k$. We call a graph chordal if it is $3$-chordal. Let $G$ be a graph. The distance between the vertices $x$ and $y$, denoted by $d_{G}(x,y)$, is the length of a shortest path from $x$ to $y$ in $G$. The eccentricity of a vertex $x$ is defined as $\epsilon_{G}(x)= \max\{d_{G}(x,y)|y\in V(G)\}$. The radius of $G$ is defined as $Rad(G)=\min\{\epsilon_{G}(x)|x\in V(G)\}$. The diameter of $G$ is defined as $Diam(G)=\max\{\epsilon_{G}(x)|x\in V(G)\}$. The graph induced by the set of vertices of $G$ with eccentricity equal to the radius is called the center of $G$. In this paper we present new bounds for the diameter of $k$-chordal graphs, and we give a concise characterization of the centers of chordal graphs.

Let $G$ be a finite, connected, simple graph. The critical group $K(G)$, or equivalently the sandpile group, is the torsion group constructed by taking the cokernel of the graph Laplacian $\operatorname{cok}(L)$. We investigate a family of graphs with relatively simple non-cyclic critical group with an end goal of understanding whether multiple divisors, i.e., formal linear combinations of vertices of $G$, generate $K(G)$. These graphs, referred to as hinge graphs, can be intuitively understood by taking multiple base shapes and "gluing" them together by a single shared edge and two corresponding shared vertices. In the case where all base shapes are identical, we prove the explicit structure of the critical group. Additionally, we prove the order of three special divisors. Towards proving the structure of the critical group of hinge graphs when variance in the number of vertices of each base shape is allowed, we generalize many of the aforementioned results., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, Comments welcomed!

The orientation completion problem for a fixed class of oriented graphs asks whether a given partially oriented graph can be completed to an oriented graph in the class. Orientation completion problems have been studied recently for several classes of oriented graphs, yielding both polynomial time solutions and NP-completeness results. Local tournaments are a well-structured class of oriented graphs that generalize tournaments and their underlying graphs are intimately related to proper circular-arc graphs. Proper interval graphs are precisely those which can be oriented as acyclic local tournaments. It has been proved that the orientation completion problems for local tournaments and acyclic local tournaments are both polynomial time solvable. In this paper we identify the obstructions for acyclic local tournament orientation completions. These are in a sense minimal partially oriented graphs that cannot be completed to acyclic local tournaments. Our description of the obstructions imply that they can be recognized in polynomial time. In a companion paper we will determine all obstructions for local tournament orientation completions., 13 pages, 2 figures

A graph is "$\ell$-holed" if all its induced cycles of length at least four have length exactly $\ell$. We give a complete description of the $\ell$-holed graphs for each $\ell\ge 7$.

Given two graphs $H_1$ and $H_2$, a graph $G$ is $(H_1,H_2)$-free if it contains no subgraph isomorphic to $H_1$ or $H_2$. We continue a recent study into the clique-width of $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs and present three new classes of $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs of bounded clique-width and one of unbounded clique-width. The four new graph classes have in common that one of their two forbidden induced subgraphs is the diamond (the graph obtained from a clique on four vertices by deleting one edge). To prove boundedness of clique-width for the first three cases we develop a technique based on bounding clique covering number in combination with reduction to subclasses of perfect graphs. We extend our proof of unboundedness for the fourth case to show that Graph Isomorphism is Graph Isomorphism-complete on the same graph class. We also show the implications of our results for the computational complexity of the Colouring problem restricted to $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs., Comment: 22 Pages, 2 figures, An extended abstract of this paper will appear in the proceedings of LATA 2015 (LNCS vol. 8977)

We prove a quantitative, finitary version of Trofimov's result that a connected, locally finite vertex-transitive graph G of polynomial growth admits a quotient with finite fibres on which the action of Aut(G) is virtually nilpotent with finite vertex stabilisers. We also present some applications. We show that a finite, connected vertex-transitive graph G of large diameter admits a quotient with fibres of small diameter on which the action of Aut(G) is virtually abelian with vertex stabilisers of bounded size. We also show that G has moderate growth in the sense of Diaconis and Saloff-Coste, which is known to imply that the mixing and relaxation times of the lazy random walk on G are quadratic in the diameter. These results extend results of Breuillard and the second author for finite Cayley graphs of large diameter. Finally, given a connected, locally finite vertex-transitive graph G exhibiting polynomial growth at a single, sufficiently large scale, we describe its growth at subsequent scales, extending a result of Tao and an earlier result of our own for Cayley graphs. In forthcoming work we will give further applications., 26 pages. Minor proof-reading corrections. Final version to appear in Combinatorica

We characterise the quintic (i.e. 5-regular) multigraphs with the property that every edge lies in a triangle. Such a graph is either from a set of small graphs or is formed by adding a perfect matching to a line graph of a cubic graph as double edges, or can be reduced by a sequence of operations to one of these graphs., Comment: 32 pages, 33 figures, 1 table

The processes of constructing some graphs from others using binary operations of union with intersection (gluing) are studied. For graph classes closed with respect to gluing operations the elemental and operational bases are introduced. The generating bases together with the system of restrictions on the gluing operation that preserves the characteristic properties of graphs form constructive descriptions of the closed classes of graphs. It is shown that each closed class of graphs has a unique elemental basis and at least one operational basis. A constructive description of a closed class of all graphs and all bases precompletion closed sub-classes of it are considered. For each of them its characteristic properties and a diagram of the inclusion of sub-classes in super classes is given. Constructive descriptions are obtained for some classes of graphs with classical properties. In conclusion, some possible applications of constructive graph theory are discussed., 18 pages, 4 figures

Let $V$ be a set of $n$ points in the plane. For each $x\in V$, let $B_x$ be the closed circular disk centered at $x$ with radius equal to the distance from $x$ to its closest neighbor. The {\it closed sphere of influence graph} on $V$ is defined as the undirected graph where $x$ and $y$ are adjacent if and only if the $B_x$ and $B_y$ have nonempty intersection. It is known that every $n$-vertex closed sphere of influence graph has at most $cn$ edges, for some absolute positive constant $c$. The first result was obtained in 1985 by Avis and Horton who provided the value $c=29$. Their result was successively improved by several authors: Bateman and Erd\H{o}s (c=18), Michael and Quint (c=17.5), and Soss (c=15). In this paper we prove that one can take $c=14.5$.

A hole in a graph is a chordless cycle of length at least 4. A theta is a graph formed by three paths between the same pair of distinct vertices so that the union of any two of the paths induces a hole. A wheel is a graph formed by a hole and a node that has at least 3 neighbors in the hole. In this paper we obtain a decomposition theorem for the class of graphs that do not contain an induced subgraph isomorphic to a theta or a wheel, i.e. the class of (theta, wheel)-free graphs. The decomposition theorem uses clique cutsets and 2-joins. Clique cutsets are vertex cutsets that work really well in decomposition based algorithms, but are unfortunately not general enough to decompose more complex hereditary graph classes. A 2-join is an edge cutset that appeared in decomposition theorems of several complex classes, such as perfect graphs, even-hole-free graphs and others. In these decomposition theorems 2-joins are used together with vertex cutsets that are more general than clique cutsets, such as star cutsets and their generalizations (which are much harder to use in algorithms). This is a first example of a decomposition theorem that uses just the combination of clique cutsets and 2-joins. This has several consequences. First, we can easily transform our decomposition theorem into a complete structure theorem for (theta, wheel)-free graphs, i.e. we show how every (theta, wheel)-free graph can be built starting from basic graphs that can be explicitly constructed, and gluing them together by prescribed composition operations; and all graphs built this way are (theta, wheel)-free. Such structure theorems are very rare for hereditary graph classes, only a few examples are known. Secondly, we obtain an O ( n 4 m ) -time decomposition based recognition algorithm for (theta, wheel)-free graphs. Finally, in Parts III and IV of this series, we give further applications of our decomposition theorem.

Let $P_{n}$ be a path graph on $n$ vertices. We say that a graph $G$ is $P_{n}$-induced-saturated if $G$ contains no induced copy of $P_{n}$, but deleting any edge of $G$ as well as adding to $G$ any edge of $G^{c}$ creates such a copy. Martin and Smith (2012) showed that there is no $P_{4}$-induced-saturated graph. On the other hand, there trivially exist $P_{n}$-induced-saturated graphs for $n=2,3$. Axenovich and Csik\'{o}s (2019) ask for which integers $n \geq 5$ do there exist $P_{n}$-induced-saturated graphs. R\"{a}ty (2019) constructed such a graph for $n=6$, and Cho, Choi and Park (2019) later constructed such graphs for all $n=3k$ for $k \geq 2$. We show by a different construction that $P_{n}$-induced-saturated graphs exist for all $n \geq 6$, leaving only the case $n=5$ open., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; added note about the case n=5 being solved in previously unpublished work of different authors

Daligault, Rao and Thomass\'e asked whether every hereditary graph class that is well-quasi-ordered by the induced subgraph relation has bounded clique-width. Lozin, Razgon and Zamaraev (JCTB 2017+) gave a negative answer to this question, but their counterexample is a class that can only be characterised by infinitely many forbidden induced subgraphs. This raises the issue of whether the question has a positive answer for finitely defined hereditary graph classes. Apart from two stubborn cases, this has been confirmed when at most two induced subgraphs $H_1,H_2$ are forbidden. We confirm it for one of the two stubborn cases, namely for the $(H_1,H_2)=(\mbox{triangle},P_2+P_4)$ case, by proving that the class of $(\mbox{triangle},P_2+P_4)$-free graphs has bounded clique-width and is well-quasi-ordered. Our technique is based on a special decomposition of $3$-partite graphs. We also use this technique to prove that the class of $(\mbox{triangle},P_1+P_5)$-free graphs, which is known to have bounded clique-width, is well-quasi-ordered. Our results enable us to complete the classification of graphs $H$ for which the class of $(\mbox{triangle},H)$-free graphs is well-quasi-ordered., Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures. An extended abstract of this paper appeared in the proceedings of WG 2017

A graph $G$ is primarily orientable if it is possible to orient its edges in such a way that the resulting oriented graph is prime, i.e., indecomposable under modular decomposition. We characterize primarily orientable graphs.

Let $G$ be a finite group. The bipartite divisor graph for the set of irreducible complex character degrees is the undirected graph with vertex set consisting of the prime numbers dividing some character degree and of the non-identity character degrees, where a prime number $p$ is declared to be adjacent to a character degree $m$ if and only if $p$ divides $m$. This graph is bipartite and it encodes two of the most widely studied graphs associated to the character degrees of a finite group: the prime graph and the divisor graph on the set of irreducible character degrees. The scope of this paper is two-fold. We draw some attention to the bipartite divisor graph for the set of irreducible complex character degrees by outlining the main results that have been proved so far. In this process we improve some of these results and we leave some open problems., Comment: 22 pages, overview on bipartite divisor graph on the character degrees, open problems

For a hereditary class C of graphs, let s_C(n) be the minimum function such that each n-vertex graph in C has a balanced separator of order at most s_C(n), and let nabla_C(r) be the minimum function bounding the expansion of C, in the sense of bounded expansion theory of Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il and Ossona de Mendez. The results of Plotkin, Rao, and Smith (1994) and Esperet and Raymond (2018) imply that if s_C(n)=Theta(n^{1-epsilon}) for some epsilon>0, then nabla_C(r)=Omega(r^{1/(2.epsilon)-1}/polylog r) and nabla_C(r)=O(r^{1/epsilon-1}polylog r). Answering a question of Esperet and Raymond, we show that neither of the exponents can be substantially improved., Comment: 10 pages, no figures; updated according to the reviewer remarks

Let k be a positive integer and let G be a graph with vertex set V(G). A subset D subset of V(G) is a k-dominating set if every vertex outside D is adjacent to at least k vertices in D. the k-domination number gamma(k)(G) is the minimum cardinality of a k-dominating set in G. For any graph G, we know that gamma(k)(G) >= gamma(G) + k - 2 where Delta(G) >= k >= 2 and this bound is sharp for every k >= 2. in this paper, we characterize bipartite graphs satisfying the equality for k >= 3 and present a necessary and sufficient condition for a bipartite graph to satisfy the equality hereditarily when k = 3. We also prove that the problem of deciding whether a graph satisfies the given equality is NP-hard in general., TUBITAK under the grant BIDEB 2221Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [1059B211800686]; Slovenian Research AgencySlovenian Research Agency - Slovenia [N1-0108], This research was started when Csilla Bujtas visited the Ege University in Izmir, Turkey; the authors thank the financial support of TUBITAK under the grant BIDEB 2221 (1059B211800686). Csilla Bujtas also acknowledges the financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency under the project N1-0108.

Daisy graphs of a rooted graph $G$ with the root $r$ were recently introduced as a generalization of daisy cubes, a class of isometric subgraphs of hypercubes. In this paper we first solve the problem posed in \cite{Taranenko2020} and characterize rooted graphs $G$ with the root $r$ for which all daisy graphs of $G$ with respect to $r$ are isometric in $G$. We continue the investigation of daisy graphs $G$ (generated by $X$) of a Hamming graph $H$ and characterize those daisy graphs generated by $X$ of cardinality 2 that are isometric in $H$. Finally, we give a characterization of isometric daisy graphs of a Hamming graph $K_{k_1}\Box \ldots \Box K_{k_n}$ with respect to $0^n$ in terms of an expansion procedure.

Clique-width is an important graph parameter due to its algorithmic and structural properties. A graph class is hereditary if it can be characterized by a (not necessarily finite) set ${\cal H}$ of forbidden induced subgraphs. We initiate a systematic study into the boundedness of clique-width of hereditary graph classes closed under complementation. First, we extend the known classification for the $|{\cal H}|=1$ case by classifying the boundedness of clique-width for every set ${\cal H}$ of self-complementary graphs. We then completely settle the $|{\cal H}|=2$ case. In particular, we determine one new class of $(H,\overline{H})$-free graphs of bounded clique-width (as a side effect, this leaves only six classes of $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs, for which it is not known whether their clique-width is bounded). Once we have obtained the classification of the $|{\cal H}|=2$ case, we research the effect of forbidding self-complementary graphs on the boundedness of clique-width. Surprisingly, we show that for a set ${\cal F}$ of self-complementary graphs on at least five vertices, the classification of the boundedness of clique-width for $(\{H,\overline{H}\}\cup {\cal F})$-free graphs coincides with the one for the $|{\cal H}|=2$ case if and only if ${\cal F}$ does not include the bull (the only non-empty self-complementary graphs on fewer than five vertices are $P_1$ and $P_4$, and $P_4$-free graphs have clique-width at most $2$). Finally, we discuss the consequences of our results for the Colouring problem., Comment: 39 pages, 7 figures

Many NP-complete graph problems are polynomial-time solvable on graph classes of bounded clique-width. Several of these problems are polynomial-time solvable on a hereditary graph class ${\cal G}$ if they are so on the atoms (graphs with no clique cut-set) of ${\cal G}$. Hence, we initiate a systematic study into boundedness of clique-width of atoms of hereditary graph classes. A graph $G$ is $H$-free if $H$ is not an induced subgraph of $G$, and it is $(H_1,H_2)$-free if it is both $H_1$-free and $H_2$-free. A class of $H$-free graphs has bounded clique-width if and only if its atoms have this property. This is no longer true for $(H_1,H_2)$-free graphs, as evidenced by one known example. We prove the existence of another such pair $(H_1,H_2)$ and classify the boundedness of clique-width on $(H_1,H_2)$-free atoms for all but 18 cases., Comment: 37 pages, 32 figures, an extended abstract of this paper appeared in the proceedings of WG 2020

The generalized coloring numbers col_r(G) (also denoted by scol_r(G)) and wcol_r(G) of a graph G were introduced by Kierstead and Yang as a generalization of the usual coloring number, and have found important theoretical and algorithmic applications. For each distance r, these numbers are determined by an "optimal" ordering of the vertices of G. We study the question of whether it is possible to find a single "uniform" ordering that is "good" for all distances r. We show that the answer to this question is essentially "yes". Our results give new characterizations of graph classes with bounded expansion and nowhere dense graph classes., 17 pages

We propose bipartite analogues of comparability and cocomparability graphs. Surprizingly, the two classes coincide. We call these bipartite graphs cocomparability bigraphs. We characterize cocomparability bigraphs in terms of vertex orderings, forbidden substructures, and orientations of their complements. In particular, we prove that cocomparability bigraphs are precisely those bipartite graphs that do not have edge-asteroids; this is analogous to Gallai's structural characterization of cocomparability graphs by the absence of (vertex-) asteroids. Our characterizations imply a robust polynomial-time recognition algorithm for the class of cocomparability bigraphs. Finally, we also discuss a natural relation of cocomparability bigraphs to interval containment bigraphs, resembling a well-known relation of cocomparability graphs to interval graphs., 18 pages, 4 figures

DeVos and Malekian gave a structural description of graphs avoiding an immersion of K_{3,3}, showing that all such graphs are composed over small edge-cuts from graphs with at most 8 vertices and from 3-regular planar graphs. We provide another proof of this fact, simpler in some aspects., Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure

We present a concept called the branch-depth of a connectivity function, that generalizes the tree-depth of graphs. Then we prove two theorems showing that this concept aligns closely with the notions of tree-depth and shrub-depth of graphs as follows. For a graph $G = (V,E)$ and a subset $A $ of $E$ we let $\lambda_G (A)$ be the number of vertices incident with an edge in $A$ and an edge in $E \setminus A$. For a subset $X$ of $V$, let $\rho_G(X)$ be the rank of the adjacency matrix between $X$ and $V \setminus X$ over the binary field. We prove that a class of graphs has bounded tree-depth if and only if the corresponding class of functions $\lambda_G$ has bounded branch-depth and similarly a class of graphs has bounded shrub-depth if and only if the corresponding class of functions $\rho_G$ has bounded branch-depth, which we call the rank-depth of graphs. Furthermore we investigate various potential generalizations of tree-depth to matroids and prove that matroids representable over a fixed finite field having no large circuits are well-quasi-ordered by the restriction., Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures. Final version

In this research, we determine the structure of (claw, bull)-free graphs. We show that every connected (claw, bull)-free graph is either an expansion of a path, an expansion of a cycle, or the complement of a triangle-free graph; where an expansion of a graph $G$ is obtained by replacing its vertices with disjoint cliques and adding all edges between cliques corresponding to adjacent vertices of $G$. This result also reveals facts about the structure of triangle-free graphs, which might be of independent interest., Comment: keywords: graph classes, (claw, bull)-free, triangle-free

In this paper, we discuss various connections between the smallest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of a graph and its structure. There are several techniques for obtaining upper bounds on the smallest eigenvalue, and some of them are based on Rayleigh quotients, Cauchy interlacing using induced subgraphs, and Haemers interlacing with vertex partitions and quotient matrices. In this paper, we are interested in obtaining lower bounds for the smallest eigenvalue. Motivated by results on line graphs and generalized line graphs, we show how graph decompositions can be used to obtain such lower bounds., Comment: 24 pages, Discussiones Mathematicae Graph Theory, Special Issue in honor of Slobodan K. Simi\'c, accepted for publication

International audience; A \emph{wheel} is a graph formed by a chordless cycle $C$ and a vertex $u$ not in $C$ that has at least three neighbors in $C$. We prove that every 3-connected planar graph that does not contain a wheel as an induced subgraph is either a line graph or has a clique cutset. We prove that every planar graph that does not contain a wheel as an induced subgraph is 3-colorable.

For a class $\mathcal C$ of graphs $G$ equipped with functions $f_G$ defined on subsets of $E(G)$ or $V(G)$, we say that $\mathcal{C}$ is $k$-scattered with respect to $f_G$ if there exists a constant $\ell$ such that for every graph $G\in \mathcal C$, the domain of $f_G$ can be partitioned into subsets of size at most $k$ so that the union of every collection of the subsets has $f_G$ value at most $\ell$. We present structural characterizations of graph classes that are $k$-scattered with respect to several graph connectivity functions. In particular, our theorem for cut-rank functions provides a rough structural characterization of graphs having no $mK_{1,n}$ vertex-minor, which allows us to prove that such graphs have bounded linear rank-width., Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures. Final version.(Fixing minor typos in 7.4)

Let $H$ be a planar graph. By a classical result of Robertson and Seymour, there is a function $f:\mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{R}$ such that for all $k \in \mathbb{N}$ and all graphs $G$, either $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint subgraphs each containing $H$ as a minor, or there is a subset $X$ of at most $f(k)$ vertices such that $G-X$ has no $H$-minor. We prove that this remains true with $f(k) = c k \log k$ for some constant $c=c(H)$. This bound is best possible, up to the value of $c$, and improves upon a recent result of Chekuri and Chuzhoy [STOC 2013], who established this with $f(k) = c k \log^d k$ for some universal constant $d$. The proof is constructive and yields a polynomial-time $O(\log \mathsf{OPT})$-approximation algorithm for packing subgraphs containing an $H$-minor.

A permutation graph is a graph that can be derived from a permutation, where the vertices correspond to letters of the permutation, and the edges represent inversions. We provide a construction to show that there are infinitely many connected $r$-regular permutation graphs for $r \geq 3$. We prove that all $3$-regular permutation graphs arise from a similar construction. Finally, we enumerate all $3$-regular permutation graphs on $n$ vertices., 11 pages, 11 figures

We prove that for every graph H and for every integer s, the class of graphs that do not contain K_s, K_{s,s}, or any subdivision of H as an induced subgraph has bounded expansion; this strengthens a result of Kuhn and Osthus. The argument also gives another characterization of graph classes with bounded expansion and of nowhere-dense graph classes., 8 pages, no figures

We investigate extremal graphs related to the game of Cops and Robbers. We focus on graphs where a single cop can catch the robber; such graphs are called cop-win. The capture time of a cop-win graph is the minimum number of moves the cop needs to capture the robber. We consider graphs that are extremal with respect to capture time, i.e. their capture time is as large as possible given their order. We give a new characterization of the set of extremal graphs. For our alternative approach we assign a rank to each vertex of a graph, and then study which configurations of ranks are possible. We partially determine which configurations are possible, enough to prove some further extremal results. We leave a full classification as an open question., After the paper, an auxiliary document, "Graphical examples of cop-win graphs" is included

A nut graph is a singular graph with one-dimensional kernel and corresponding eigenverctor with no zero elements. The problem of determining the orders $n$ for which $d$-regular nut graphs exist was recently posed by Gauci, Pisanski and Sciriha. These orders are known for $d \leq 4$. Here we solve the problem for all remaining cases $d\leq 11$ and determine the complete lists of all $d$-regular nut graphs of order $n$ for small values of $d$ and $n$. The existence or non-existence of small regular nut graphs is determined by a computer search. The main tool is a construction that produces, for any $d$-regular nut graph of order $n$, another $d$-regular nut graph of order $n + 2d$. If we are given a sufficient number of $d$-regular nut graphs of consecutive orders, called seed graphs, this construction may be applied in such a way that the existence of all $d$-regular nut graphs of higher orders is established. For even $d$ the orders $n$ are indeed consecutive, while for odd $d$ the orders $n$ are consecutive even numbers. Furthermore, necessary conditions for combinations of order and degree for vertex-transitive nut graphs are derived., Comment: 17 pages; submitted for publication

Let $W_t$ denote the wheel on $t+1$ vertices. We prove that for every integer $t \geq 3$ there is a constant $c=c(t)$ such that for every integer $k\geq 1$ and every graph $G$, either $G$ has $k$ vertex-disjoint subgraphs each containing $W_t$ as minor, or there is a subset $X$ of at most $c k \log k$ vertices such that $G-X$ has no $W_t$ minor. This is best possible, up to the value of $c$. We conjecture that the result remains true more generally if we replace $W_t$ with any fixed planar graph $H$., 15 pages, 1 figure

By identifying a local property which structurally classifies any edge, we show that the family of generalized Petersen graphs can be recognized in linear time.

The maximum matching width is a width-parameter that is defined on a branch-decomposition over the vertex set of a graph. The size of a maximum matching in the bipartite graph is used as a cut-function. In this paper, we characterize the graphs of maximum matching width at most 2 using the minor obstruction set. Also, we compute the exact value of the maximum matching width of a grid.

Given two graphs G and H, we ask under which conditions there is a relation R that generates the edges of H given the structure of graph G. This construction can be seen as a form of multihomomorphism. It generalizes surjective homomorphisms of graphs and naturally leads to notions of R-retractions, R-cores, and R-cocores of graphs. Both R-cores and R-cocores of graphs are unique up to isomorphism and can be computed in polynomial time., Comment: accepted by Ars Mathematica Contemporanea

We say a graph has property $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$ when it is an induced subgraph of the curve graph of a surface of genus $g$ with $p$ punctures. Two well-known graph invariants, the chromatic and clique numbers, can provide obstructions to $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$. We introduce a new invariant of a graph, the 'nested complexity length', which provides a novel obstruction to $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$. For the curve graph this invariant captures the topological complexity of the surface in graph-theoretic terms; indeed we show that its value is $6g-6+2p$, i.e. twice the size of a maximal multicurve on the surface. As a consequence we show that large half-graphs do not have $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$, and we deduce quantitatively that almost all finite graphs which pass the chromatic and clique tests do not have $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$. We also reinterpret our obstruction in terms of the first-order theory of the curve graph, and in terms of RAAG subgroups of the mapping class group (following Kim and Koberda). Finally, we show that large multipartite subgraphs cannot have $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$. This allows us to compute the upper density of the curve graph, and to conclude that clique size, chromatic number, and nested complexity length are not sufficient to determine $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$., 15 pages, 2 figures

We find the structure of graphs that have no $C_4$, $\overline{C}_4$, $C_5$, chair and co-chair as induced subgraphs., 6 pages, 1 figure. Submitted to Journal of Graph Theory

A graph $H$ is an immersion of a graph $G$ if $H$ can be obtained by some sugraph $G$ after lifting incident edges. We prove that there is a polynomial function $f:\Bbb{N}\times\Bbb{N}\rightarrow\Bbb{N}$, such that if $H$ is a connected planar subcubic graph on $h>0$ edges, $G$ is a graph, and $k$ is a non-negative integer, then either $G$ contains $k$ vertex/edge-disjoint subgraphs, each containing $H$ as an immersion, or $G$ contains a set $F$ of $f(k,h)$ vertices/edges such that $G\setminus F$ does not contain $H$ as an immersion.