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Lettericity is a graph parameter responsible for many attractive structural properties. In particular, graphs of bounded lettericity have bounded linear clique-width and they are well-quasi-ordered by induced subgraphs. The latter property implies that any hereditary class of graphs of bounded lettericity can be described by finitely many forbidden induced subgraphs. This, in turn, implies, in a non-constructive way, polynomial-time recognition of such classes. However, no constructive algorithms and no specific bounds on the size of forbidden graphs are available up to date. In the present paper, we develop an algorithm that recognizes $n$-vertex graphs of lettericity at most $k$ in time $f(k)n^3$ and show that any minimal graph of lettericity more than $k$ has at most $2^{O(k^2\log k)}$ vertices., Comment: 16pages + 3pages appendix. Submitted to a journal

How to efficiently represent a graph in computer memory is a fundamental data structuring question. In the present paper, we address this question from a combinatorial point of view. A representation of an $n$-vertex graph $G$ is called implicit if it assigns to each vertex of $G$ a binary code of length $O(\log n)$ so that the adjacency of two vertices is a function of their codes. A necessary condition for a hereditary class $X$ of graphs to admit an implicit representation is that $X$ has at most factorial speed of growth. This condition, however, is not sufficient, as was recently shown in [Hatami & Hatami, FOCS 2022]. Several sufficient conditions for the existence of implicit representations deal with boundedness of some parameters, such as degeneracy or clique-width. In the present paper, we analyze more graph parameters and prove a number of new results related to implicit representation and factorial properties.

Functionality is a graph complexity measure that extends a variety of parameters, such as vertex degree, degeneracy, clique-width, or twin-width. In the present paper, we show that functionality is bounded for box intersection graphs in $\mathbb{R}^1$, i.e. for interval graphs, and unbounded for box intersection graphs in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We also study a parameter known as symmetric difference, which is intermediate between twin-width and functionality, and show that this parameter is unbounded both for interval graphs and for unit box intersection graphs in $\mathbb{R}^2$., Comment: 11 pages

For a fixed set ${\cal H}$ of graphs, a graph $G$ is ${\cal H}$-subgraph-free if $G$ does not contain any $H \in {\cal H}$ as a (not necessarily induced) subgraph. A recently proposed framework gives a complete classification on ${\cal H}$-subgraph-free graphs (for finite sets ${\cal H}$) for problems that are solvable in polynomial time on graph classes of bounded treewidth, NP-complete on subcubic graphs, and whose NP-hardness is preserved under edge subdivision. While a lot of problems satisfy these conditions, there are also many problems that do not satisfy all three conditions and for which the complexity in ${\cal H}$-subgraph-free graphs is unknown. We study problems for which only the first two conditions of the framework hold (they are solvable in polynomial time on classes of bounded treewidth and NP-complete on subcubic graphs, but NP-hardness is not preserved under edge subdivision). In particular, we make inroads into the classification of the complexity of four such problems: Hamilton Cycle, $k$-Induced Disjoint Paths, $C_5$-Colouring and Star $3$-Colouring. Although we do not complete the classifications, we show that the boundary between polynomial time and NP-complete differs among our problems and also from problems that do satisfy all three conditions of the framework, in particular when we forbid certain subdivisions of the ``H''-graph (the graph that looks like the letter ``H''). Hence, we exhibit a rich complexity landscape among problems for ${\cal H}$-subgraph-free graph classes.

We prove that the degeneracy of graphs in a hereditary class defined by a finite set S of forbidden induced subgraphs is bounded if and only if S includes a complete graph, a complete bipartite graph and a forest.

Given two $n$-vertex graphs $G_1$ and $G_2$ of bounded treewidth, is there an $n$-vertex graph $G$ of bounded treewidth having subgraphs isomorphic to $G_1$ and $G_2$? Our main result is a negative answer to this question, in a strong sense: we show that the answer is no even if $G_1$ is a binary tree and $G_2$ is a ternary tree. We also provide an extensive study of cases where such `gluing' is possible. In particular, we prove that if $G_1$ has treewidth $k$ and $G_2$ has pathwidth $\ell$, then there is an $n$-vertex graph of treewidth at most $k + 3 \ell + 1$ containing both $G_1$ and $G_2$ as subgraphs.

We uncover a connection between two seemingly unrelated notions: lettericity, from structural graph theory, and geometric griddability, from the world of permutation patterns. Both of these notions capture important structural properties of their respective classes of objects. We prove that these notions are equivalent in the sense that a permutation class is geometrically griddable if and only if the corresponding class of inversion graphs has bounded lettericity.

Lettericity is a graph parameter introduced by Petkov\v{s}ek in 2002 in order to study well-quasi-orderability under the induced subgraph relation. In the world of permutations, geometric griddability was independently introduced in 2013 by Albert, Atkinson, Bouvel, Ru\v{s}kuc and Vatter, partly as an enumerative tool. Despite their independent origins, those two notions share a connection: they highlight very similar structural features in their respective objects. The fact that those structural features arose separately on two different occasions makes them very interesting to study in their own right. In the present paper, we explore the notion of lettericity through the lens of "minimal obstructions", i.e., minimal classes of graphs of unbounded lettericity, and identify an infinite collection of such classes. We also discover an intriguing structural hierarchy that arises in the study of lettericity and that of griddability.

The class of quasi-chain graphs is an extension of the well-studied class of chain graphs. This latter class enjoys many nice and important properties, such as bounded clique-width, implicit representation, well-quasi-ordering by induced subgraphs, etc. The class of quasi-chain graphs is substantially more complex. In particular, this class is not well-quasi-ordered by induced subgraphs, and the clique-width is not bounded in it. In the present paper, we show that the universe of quasi-chain graphs is at least as complex as the universe of permutations by establishing a bijection between the class of all permutations and a subclass of quasi-chain graphs. This implies, in particular, that the induced subgraph isomorphism problem is NP-complete for quasi-chain graphs. On the other hand, we propose a decomposition theorem for quasi-chain graphs that implies an implicit representation for graphs in this class and efficient solutions for some algorithmic problems that are generally intractable., Comment: 23 pages

We prove that the tree-width of graphs in a hereditary class defined by a finite set $F$ of forbidden induced subgraphs is bounded if and only if $F$ includes a complete graph, a complete bipartite graph, a tripod (a forest in which every connected component has at most 3 leaves) and the line graph of a tripod.

The class of bipartite permutation graphs enjoys many nice and important properties. In particular, this class is critically important in the study of clique- and rank-width of graphs, because it is one of the minimal hereditary classes of graphs of unbounded clique- and rank-width. It also contains a number of important subclasses, which are critical with respect to other parameters, such as graph lettericity or shrub-depth, and with respect to other notions, such as well-quasi-ordering or complexity of algorithmic problems. In the present paper we identify critical subclasses of bipartite permutation graphs of various types.

The Ramsey number $R_X(p,q)$ for a class of graphs $X$ is the minimum $n$ such that every graph in $X$ with at least $n$ vertices has either a clique of size $p$ or an independent set of size $q$. We say that Ramsey numbers are linear in $X$ if there is a constant $k$ such that $R_{X}(p,q) \leq k(p+q)$ for all $p,q$. In the present paper we conjecture that if $X$ is a hereditary class defined by finitely many forbidden induced subgraphs, then Ramsey numbers are linear in $X$ if and only if $X$ excludes a forest, a disjoint union of cliques and their complements. We prove the "only if" part of this conjecture and verify the "if" part for a variety of classes. We also apply the notion of linearity to bipartite Ramsey numbers and reveal a number of similarities and differences between the bipartite and non-bipartite case., Comment: 24 pages

The maximum independent set problem is known to be NP-hard in the class of subcubic graphs, i.e. graphs of vertex degree at most 3. We present a polynomial-time solution in a subclass of subcubic graphs generalizing several previously known results.

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph and $A$ its adjacency matrix. We say that a vertex $y \in V$ is a function of vertices $x_1, \ldots, x_k \in V$ if there exists a Boolean function $f$ of $k$ variables such that for any vertex $z \in V - \{y, x_1, \ldots, x_k\}$, $A(y,z)=f(A(x_1,z),\ldots,A(x_k,z))$. The functionality $fun(y)$ of vertex $y$ is the minimum $k$ such that $y$ is a function of $k$ vertices. The functionality $fun(G)$ of the graph $G$ is $\max\limits_H\min\limits_{y\in V(H)}fun(y)$, where the maximum is taken over all induced subgraphs $H$ of $G$. In the present paper, we show that functionality generalizes simultaneously several other graph parameters, such as degeneracy or clique-width, by proving that bounded degeneracy or bounded clique-width imply bounded functionality. Moreover, we show that this generalization is proper by revealing classes of graphs of unbounded degeneracy and clique-width, where functionality is bounded by a constant. This includes permutation graphs, unit interval graphs and line graphs. We also observe that bounded functionality implies bounded VC-dimension, i.e. graphs of bounded VC-dimension extend graphs of bounded functionality, and this extension is also proper.

It is known that a positive Boolean function f depending on n variables has at least n + 1 extremal points, i.e. minimal ones and maximal zeros. We show that f has exactly n + 1 extremal points if and only if it is linear read-once. The class of linear read-once functions is known to be the intersection of the classes of read-once and threshold functions. Generalizing this result we show that the class of linear read-once functions is the intersection of read-once and Chow functions. We also find the set of minimal read-once functions which are not linear read-once and the set of minimal threshold functions which are not linear read-once. In other words, we characterize the class of linear read-once functions by means of minimal forbidden subfunctions within the universe of read-once and the universe of threshold functions. Within the universe of threshold functions the importance of linear read-once func- tions is due to the fact that they attain the minimum value of the specification number, which is n + 1 for functions depending on n variables. In 1995 Anthony et al. conjec- tured that for all other threshold functions the specification number is strictly greater than n + 1. We disprove this conjecture by exhibiting a threshold non-linear read-once function depending on n variables whose specification number is n + 1., Comment: Submitted to Discrete and Applied Mathematics. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1706.01747

In this paper, we reveal an intriguing relationship between two seemingly unrelated notions: letter graphs and geometric grid classes of permutations. An important property common for both of them is well-quasi-orderability, implying, in a non-constructive way, a polynomial-time recognition of geometric grid classes of permutations and $k$-letter graphs for a fixed $k$. However, constructive algorithms are available only for $k=2$. In this paper, we present the first constructive polynomial-time algorithm for the recognition of $3$-letter graphs. It is based on a structural characterization of graphs in this class., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1108.6319 by other 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