Fast Recognition of Partial Star Products and Quasi Cartesian Products

This paper is concerned with the fast computation of a relation $\R$ on the edge set of connected graphs that plays a decisive role in the recognition of approximate Cartesian products, the weak reconstruction of Cartesian products, and the recognition of Cartesian graph bundles with a triangle free basis. A special case of $\R$ is the relation $\delta^\ast$, whose convex closure yields the product relation $\sigma$ that induces the prime factor decomposition of connected graphs with respect to the Cartesian product. For the construction of $\R$ so-called Partial Star Products are of particular interest. Several special data structures are used that allow to compute Partial Star Products in constant time. These computations are tuned to the recognition of approximate graph products, but also lead to a linear time algorithm for the computation of $\delta^\ast$ for graphs with maximum bounded degree. Furthermore, we define \emph{quasi Cartesian products} as graphs with non-trivial $\delta^\ast$. We provide several examples, and show that quasi Cartesian products can be recognized in linear time for graphs with bounded maximum degree. Finally, we note that quasi products can be recognized in sublinear time with a parallelized algorithm

Combinatorics and geometry of finite and infinite squaregraphs

Squaregraphs were originally defined as finite plane graphs in which all inner faces are quadrilaterals (i.e., 4-cycles) and all inner vertices (i.e., the vertices not incident with the outer face) have degrees larger than three. The planar dual of a finite squaregraph is determined by a triangle-free chord diagram of the unit disk, which could alternatively be viewed as a triangle-free line arrangement in the hyperbolic plane. This representation carries over to infinite plane graphs with finite vertex degrees in which the balls are finite squaregraphs. Algebraically, finite squaregraphs are median graphs for which the duals are finite circular split systems. Hence squaregraphs are at the crosspoint of two dualities, an algebraic and a geometric one, and thus lend themselves to several combinatorial interpretations and structural characterizations. With these and the 5-colorability theorem for circle graphs at hand, we prove that every squaregraph can be isometrically embedded into the Cartesian product of five trees. This embedding result can also be extended to the infinite case without reference to an embedding in the plane and without any cardinality restriction when formulated for median graphs free of cubes and further finite obstructions. Further, we exhibit a class of squaregraphs that can be embedded into the product of three trees and we characterize those squaregraphs that are embeddable into the product of just two trees. Finally, finite squaregraphs enjoy a number of algorithmic features that do not extend to arbitrary median graphs. For instance, we show that median-generating sets of finite squaregraphs can be computed in polynomial time, whereas, not unexpectedly, the corresponding problem for median graphs turns out to be NP-hard.Comment: 46 pages, 14 figure

The general position number and the iteration time in the P3 convexity

In this paper, we investigate two graph convexity parameters: the iteration time and the general position number. Harary and Nieminem introduced in 1981 the iteration time in the geodesic convexity, but its computational complexity was still open. Manuel and Klav\v{z}ar introduced in 2018 the general position number of the geodesic convexity and proved that it is NP-hard to compute. In this paper, we extend these parameters to the P3 convexity and prove that it is NP-hard to compute them. With this, we also prove that the iteration number is NP-hard on the geodesic convexity even in graphs with diameter two. These results are the last three missing NP-hardness results regarding the ten most studied graph convexity parameters in the geodesic and P3 convexities

Strong geodetic problem on Cartesian products of graphs

The strong geodetic problem is a recent variation of the geodetic problem. For a graph $G$, its strong geodetic number ${\rm sg}(G)$ is the cardinality of a smallest vertex subset $S$, such that each vertex of $G$ lies on a fixed shortest path between a pair of vertices from $S$. In this paper, the strong geodetic problem is studied on the Cartesian product of graphs. A general upper bound for ${\rm sg}(G \,\square\, H)$ is determined, as well as exact values for $K_m \,\square\, K_n$, $K_{1, k} \,\square\, P_l$, and certain prisms. Connections between the strong geodetic number of a graph and its subgraphs are also discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure