Generalized chordality, vertex separators and hyperbolicity on graphs

Let $G$ be a graph with the usual shortest-path metric. A graph is $\delta$-hyperbolic if for every geodesic triangle $T$, any side of $T$ is contained in a $\delta$-neighborhood of the union of the other two sides. A graph is chordal if every induced cycle has at most three edges. A vertex separator set in a graph is a set of vertices that disconnects two vertices. In this paper we study the relation between vertex separator sets, some chordality properties which are natural generalizations of being chordal and the hyperbolicity of the graph. We also give a characterization of being quasi-isometric to a tree in terms of chordality and prove that this condition also characterizes being hyperbolic, when restricted to triangles, and having stable geodesics, when restricted to bigons.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Real valued functions and metric spaces quasi-isometric to trees

We prove that if X is a complete geodesic metric space with uniformly generated first homology group and $f: X\to R$ is metrically proper on the connected components and bornologous, then X is quasi-isometric to a tree. Using this and adapting the definition of hyperbolic approximation we obtain an intrinsic sufficent condition for a metric space to be PQ-symmetric to an ultrametric space.Comment: 12 page