Induced subgraphs and tree decompositions VI. Graphs with 2-cutsets

This paper continues a series of papers investigating the following question: which hereditary graph classes have bounded treewidth? We call a graph $t$-clean if it does not contain as an induced subgraph the complete graph $K_t$, the complete bipartite graph $K_{t, t}$, subdivisions of a $(t \times t)$-wall, and line graphs of subdivisions of a $(t \times t)$-wall. It is known that graphs with bounded treewidth must be $t$-clean for some $t$; however, it is not true that every $t$-clean graph has bounded treewidth. In this paper, we show that three types of cutsets, namely clique cutsets, 2-cutsets, and 1-joins, interact well with treewidth and with each other, so graphs that are decomposable by these cutsets into basic classes of bounded treewidth have bounded treewidth. We apply this result to two hereditary graph classes, the class of ($ISK_4$, wheel)-free graphs and the class of graphs with no cycle with a unique chord. These classes were previously studied and decomposition theorems were obtained for both classes. Our main results are that $t$-clean ($ISK_4$, wheel)-free graphs have bounded treewidth and that $t$-clean graphs with no cycle with a unique chord have bounded treewidth

Induced Subgraphs and Tree Decompositions III. Three-Path-Configurations and Logarithmic Treewidth.

A theta is a graph consisting of two non-adjacent vertices and three internally disjoint paths between them, each of length at least two. For a family H of graphs, we say a graph G is H-free if no induced subgraph of G is isomorphic to a member of H. We prove a conjecture of Sintiari and Trotignon, that there exists an absolute constant c for which every (theta, triangle)-free graph G has treewidth at most c log(jV(G)j). A construction by Sintiari and Trotignon shows that this bound is asymptotically best possible, and (theta, triangle)-free graphs comprise the first known hereditary class of graphs with arbitrarily large yet logarithmic treewidth. Our main result is in fact a generalization of the above conjecture, that treewidth is at most logarithmic in jV(G)j for every graph G excluding the so-called three-path-configurations as well as a fixed complete graph. It follows that several NP-hard problems such as STABLE SET, VERTEX COVER, DOMINATING SET and COLORING admit polynomial time algorithms in graphs excluding the three-path-configurations and a fixed complete graph.Supported by NSF Grant DMS-1763817 and NSF-EPSRC Grant DMS-2120644. The authors acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), [funding reference number RGPIN-2020-03912]