Unique perfect phylogeny is NP-hard

We answer, in the affirmative, the following question proposed by Mike Steel as a $100 challenge: "Is the following problem NP-hard? Given a ternary phylogenetic X-tree T and a collection Q of quartet subtrees on X, is T the only tree that displays Q ?

Unique perfect phylogeny is N P -hard

Abstract. We answer, in the affirmative, the following question proposed by Mike Steel as a $100 challenge: "Is the following problem N Phard? Given a ternary † phylogenetic X-tree T and a collection Q of quartet subtrees on X, is T the only tree that displays Q?" [28, 29] As a particular consequence of this, we show that the unique chordal sandwich problem is also N P -hard