We study how the relationship between non-equivalent width parameters changes
once we restrict to some special graph class. As width parameters, we consider
treewidth, clique-width, twin-width, mim-width, sim-width and tree-independence
number, whereas as graph classes we consider Kt,t-subgraph-free graphs,
line graphs and their common superclass, for t≥3, of Kt,t-free
graphs.
We first provide a complete comparison when restricted to
Kt,t-subgraph-free graphs, showing in particular that treewidth,
clique-width, mim-width, sim-width and tree-independence number are all
equivalent. This extends a result of Gurski and Wanke (2000) stating that
treewidth and clique-width are equivalent for the class of
Kt,t-subgraph-free graphs.
Next, we provide a complete comparison when restricted to line graphs,
showing in particular that, on any class of line graphs, clique-width,
mim-width, sim-width and tree-independence number are all equivalent, and
bounded if and only if the class of root graphs has bounded treewidth. This
extends a result of Gurski and Wanke (2007) stating that a class of graphs
G has bounded treewidth if and only if the class of line graphs of
graphs in G has bounded clique-width.
We then provide an almost-complete comparison for Kt,t-free graphs,
leaving one missing case. Our main result is that Kt,t-free graphs of
bounded mim-width have bounded tree-independence number. This result has
structural and algorithmic consequences. In particular, it proves a special
case of a conjecture of Dallard, Milani\v{c} and \v{S}torgel.
Finally, we consider the question of whether boundedness of a certain width
parameter is preserved under graph powers. We show that the question has a
positive answer for sim-width precisely in the case of odd powers.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, abstract shortened due to arXiv requirement