Complexity and Algorithms for ISOMETRIC PATH COVER on Chordal Graphs and Beyond

A path is isometric if it is a shortest path between its endpoints. In this article, we consider the graph covering problem Isometric Path Cover, where we want to cover all the vertices of the graph using a minimum-size set of isometric paths. Although this problem has been considered from a structural point of view (in particular, regarding applications to pursuit-evasion games), it is little studied from the algorithmic perspective. We consider Isometric Path Cover on chordal graphs, and show that the problem is NP-hard for this class. On the positive side, for chordal graphs, we design a 4-approximation algorithm and an FPT algorithm for the parameter solution size. The approximation algorithm is based on a reduction to the classic path covering problem on a suitable directed acyclic graph obtained from a breadth first search traversal of the graph. The approximation ratio of our algorithm is 3 for interval graphs and 2 for proper interval graphs. Moreover, we extend the analysis of our approximation algorithm to k-chordal graphs (graphs whose induced cycles have length at most k) by showing that it has an approximation ratio of k+7 for such graphs, and to graphs of treelength at most ?, where the approximation ratio is at most 6?+2

Vertex covers by monochromatic pieces - A survey of results and problems

This survey is devoted to problems and results concerning covering the vertices of edge colored graphs or hypergraphs with monochromatic paths, cycles and other objects. It is an expanded version of the talk with the same title at the Seventh Cracow Conference on Graph Theory, held in Rytro in September 14-19, 2014.Comment: Discrete Mathematics, 201