Maximal Independent Sets in Generalised Caterpillar Graphs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a linear-time algorithm for finding maximal independent sets in generalized caterpillar graphs, extending previous work on standard caterpillar graphs by allowing more complex hair structures.

Contribution

It presents a novel linear-time algorithm for maximal independent sets in generalized caterpillar graphs with complex hair configurations.

Findings

Algorithm runs in linear time relative to output size

Successfully generalizes previous caterpillar graph algorithms

Efficiently handles multiple hairs of length one and at most one hair of length two per backbone vertex

Abstract

A caterpillar graph is a tree which on removal of all its pendant vertices leaves a chordless path. The chordless path is called the backbone of the graph. The edges from the backbone to the pendant vertices are called the hairs of the caterpillar graph. Ortiz and Villanueva (C.Ortiz and M.Villanueva, Discrete Applied Mathematics, 160(3): 259-266, 2012) describe an algorithm, linear in the size of the output, for finding a family of maximal independent sets in a caterpillar graph. In this paper, we propose an algorithm, again linear in the output size, for a generalised caterpillar graph, where at each vertex of the backbone, there can be any number of hairs of length one and at most one hair of length two.