The stack number of a directed acyclic graph G is the minimum k for which
there is a topological ordering of G and a k-coloring of the edges such
that no two edges of the same color cross, i.e., have alternating endpoints
along the topological ordering. We prove that the stack number of directed
acyclic outerplanar graphs is bounded by a constant, which gives a positive
answer to a conjecture by Heath, Pemmaraju and Trenk [SIAM J. Computing, 1999].
As an immediate consequence, this shows that all upward outerplanar graphs have
constant stack number, answering a question by Bhore et al. [GD 2021] and
thereby making significant progress towards the problem for general upward
planar graphs originating from Nowakowski and Parker [Order, 1989]. As our main
tool we develop the novel technique of directed H-partitions, which might be
of independent interest. We complement the bounded stack number for directed
acyclic outerplanar graphs by constructing a family of directed acyclic 2-trees
that have unbounded stack number, thereby refuting a conjecture by N\"ollenburg
and Pupyrev [arXiv:2107.13658, 2021]