Linear rank-width and linear clique-width of trees

We show that for every forest T the linear rank-width of T is equal to the path-width of T, and the linear clique-width of T equals the path-width of T plus two, provided that T contains a path of length three. It follows that both linear rank-width and linear clique-width of forests can be computed in linear time. Using our characterization of linear rank-width of forests, we determine the set of minimal excluded acyclic vertex-minors for the class of graphs of linear rank-width at most k

A Note on Graphs of Linear Rank-Width 1

We prove that a connected graph has linear rank-width 1 if and only if it is a distance-hereditary graph and its split decomposition tree is a path. An immediate consequence is that one can decide in linear time whether a graph has linear rank-width at most 1, and give an obstruction if not. Other immediate consequences are several characterisations of graphs of linear rank-width 1. In particular a connected graph has linear rank-width 1 if and only if it is locally equivalent to a caterpillar if and only if it is a vertex-minor of a path [O-joung Kwon and Sang-il Oum, Graphs of small rank-width are pivot-minors of graphs of small tree-width, arxiv:1203.3606] if and only if it does not contain the co-K_2 graph, the Net graph and the 5-cycle graph as vertex-minors [Isolde Adler, Arthur M. Farley and Andrzej Proskurowski, Obstructions for linear rank-width at most 1, arxiv:1106.2533].Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. Not to be publishe

Finiteness conditions for graph algebras over tropical semirings

Connection matrices for graph parameters with values in a field have been introduced by M. Freedman, L. Lov{\'a}sz and A. Schrijver (2007). Graph parameters with connection matrices of finite rank can be computed in polynomial time on graph classes of bounded tree-width. We introduce join matrices, a generalization of connection matrices, and allow graph parameters to take values in the tropical rings (max-plus algebras) over the real numbers. We show that rank-finiteness of join matrices implies that these graph parameters can be computed in polynomial time on graph classes of bounded clique-width. In the case of graph parameters with values in arbitrary commutative semirings, this remains true for graph classes of bounded linear clique-width. B. Godlin, T. Kotek and J.A. Makowsky (2008) showed that definability of a graph parameter in Monadic Second Order Logic implies rank finiteness. We also show that there are uncountably many integer valued graph parameters with connection matrices or join matrices of fixed finite rank. This shows that rank finiteness is a much weaker assumption than any definability assumption.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for presentation at FPSAC 2014 (Chicago, June 29 -July 3, 2014), to appear in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Scienc

Oriented coloring on recursively defined digraphs

Coloring is one of the most famous problems in graph theory. The coloring problem on undirected graphs has been well studied, whereas there are very few results for coloring problems on directed graphs. An oriented k-coloring of an oriented graph G=(V,A) is a partition of the vertex set V into k independent sets such that all the arcs linking two of these subsets have the same direction. The oriented chromatic number of an oriented graph G is the smallest k such that G allows an oriented k-coloring. Deciding whether an acyclic digraph allows an oriented 4-coloring is NP-hard. It follows, that finding the chromatic number of an oriented graph is an NP-hard problem. This motivates to consider the problem on oriented co-graphs. After giving several characterizations for this graph class, we show a linear time algorithm which computes an optimal oriented coloring for an oriented co-graph. We further prove how the oriented chromatic number can be computed for the disjoint union and order composition from the oriented chromatic number of the involved oriented co-graphs. It turns out that within oriented co-graphs the oriented chromatic number is equal to the length of a longest oriented path plus one. We also show that the graph isomorphism problem on oriented co-graphs can be solved in linear time.Comment: 14 page

Definable decompositions for graphs of bounded linear cliquewidth

We prove that for every positive integer $k$, there exists an $\text{MSO}_1$-transduction that given a graph of linear cliquewidth at most $k$ outputs, nondeterministically, some cliquewidth decomposition of the graph of width bounded by a function of $k$. A direct corollary of this result is the equivalence of the notions of $\text{CMSO}_1$-definability and recognizability on graphs of bounded linear cliquewidth.Comment: 39 pages, 5 figures. The conference version of the manuscript appeared in the proceedings of LICS 201