On properties of a graph that depend on its distance function

summary:If $G$ is a connected graph with distance function $d$, then by a step in $G$ is meant an ordered triple $(u, x, v)$ of vertices of $G$ such that $d(u, x) = 1$ and $d(u, v) = d(x, v) + 1$. A characterization of the set of all steps in a connected graph was published by the present author in 1997. In Section 1 of this paper, a new and shorter proof of that characterization is presented. A stronger result for a certain type of connected graphs is proved in Section 2

Absolute reflexive retracts and absolute bipartite retracts

AbstractIt is a well-known phenomenon in the study of graph retractions that most results about absolute retracts in the class of bipartite (irreflexive) graphs have analogues about absolute retracts in the class of reflexive graphs, and vice versa. In this paper we make some observations that make the connection explicit. We develop four natural transformations between reflexive graphs and bipartite graphs which preserve the property of being an absolute retract, and allow us to derive results about absolute reflexive retracts from similar results about absolute bipartite retracts and conversely. Then we introduce generic notions that specialize to the appropriate concepts in both cases. This paves the way to a unified view of both theories, leading to absolute retracts of general (i.e., partially reflexive) graphs

Axiomatic characterization of the interval function of a graph

A fundamental notion in metric graph theory is that of the interval function I : V × V → 2V – {∅} of a (finite) connected graph G = (V,E), where I(u,v) = { w | d(u,w) + d(w,v) = d(u,v) } is the interval between u and v. An obvious question is whether I can be characterized in a nice way amongst all functions F : V × V -> 2V – {∅}. This was done in [13, 14, 16] by axioms in terms of properties of the functions F. The authors of the present paper, in the conviction that characterizing the interval function belongs to the central questions of metric graph theory, return here to this result again. In this characterization the set of axioms consists of five simple, and obviously necessary, axioms, already presented in [9], plus two more complicated axioms. The question arises whether the last two axioms are really necessary in the form given or whether simpler axioms would do the trick. This question turns out to be non-trivial. The aim of this paper is to show that these two supplementary axioms are optimal in the following sense. The functions satisfying only the five simple axioms are studied extensively. Then the obstructions are pinpointed why such functions may not be the interval function of some connected graph. It turns out that these obstructions occur precisely when either one of the supplementary axioms is not satisfied. It is also shown that each of these supplementary axioms is independent of the other six axioms. The presented way of proving the characterizing theorem (Theorem 3 here) allows us to find two new separate ``intermediate'' results (Theorems 1 and 2). In addition some new characterizations of modular and median graphs are presented. As shown in the last section the results of this paper could provide a new perspective on finite connected graphs

Weak geodesic topology and fixed finite subgraph theorems in infinite partial cubes I. Topologies and the geodesic convexity

AbstractThe weak geodesic topology on the vertex set of a partial cube G is the finest weak topology on V(G) endowed with the geodesic convexity. We prove the equivalence of the following properties: (i) the space V(G) is compact; (ii) V(G) is weakly countably compact; (iii) the vertex set of any ray of G has a limit point; (iv) any concentrated subset of V(G) (i.e. a set A such that any two infinite subsets of A cannot be separated by deleting finitely many vertices) has a finite positive number of limit points. Moreover, if V(G) is compact, then it is scattered. We characterize the partial cubes for which the weak geodesic topology and the geodesic topology (see [N. Polat, Graphs without isometric rays and invariant subgraph properties I. J. Graph Theory27 (1998), 99–109]) coincide, and we show that the class of these particular partial cubes is closed under Cartesian products, retracts and gated amalgams

Helly groups

Helly graphs are graphs in which every family of pairwise intersecting balls has a non-empty intersection. This is a classical and widely studied class of graphs. In this article we focus on groups acting geometrically on Helly graphs -- Helly groups. We provide numerous examples of such groups: all (Gromov) hyperbolic, CAT(0) cubical, finitely presented graphical C(4)$-$T(4) small cancellation groups, and type-preserving uniform lattices in Euclidean buildings of type $C_n$ are Helly; free products of Helly groups with amalgamation over finite subgroups, graph products of Helly groups, some diagram products of Helly groups, some right-angled graphs of Helly groups, and quotients of Helly groups by finite normal subgroups are Helly. We show many properties of Helly groups: biautomaticity, existence of finite dimensional models for classifying spaces for proper actions, contractibility of asymptotic cones, existence of EZ-boundaries, satisfiability of the Farrell-Jones conjecture and of the coarse Baum-Connes conjecture. This leads to new results for some classical families of groups (e.g. for FC-type Artin groups) and to a unified approach to results obtained earlier