A Helly circular-arc model M = (C,A) is a circle C together with a Helly
family \A of arcs of C. If no arc is contained in any other, then M is a proper
Helly circular-arc model, if every arc has the same length, then M is a unit
Helly circular-arc model, and if there are no two arcs covering the circle,
then M is a normal Helly circular-arc model. A Helly (resp. proper Helly, unit
Helly, normal Helly) circular-arc graph is the intersection graph of the arcs
of a Helly (resp. proper Helly, unit Helly, normal Helly) circular-arc model.
In this article we study these subclasses of Helly circular-arc graphs. We show
natural generalizations of several properties of (proper) interval graphs that
hold for some of these Helly circular-arc subclasses. Next, we describe
characterizations for the subclasses of Helly circular-arc graphs, including
forbidden induced subgraphs characterizations. These characterizations lead to
efficient algorithms for recognizing graphs within these classes. Finally, we
show how do these classes of graphs relate with straight and round digraphs.Comment: 39 pages, 13 figures. A previous version of the paper (entitled
Proper Helly Circular-Arc Graphs) appeared at WG'0
