$1$-perfectly orientable $K_4$-minor-free and outerplanar graphs

TL;DR

This paper characterizes $1$-perfectly orientable graphs that are $K_4$-minor-free and outerplanar, providing structural insights and forbidden minor characterizations for these classes.

Contribution

It offers the first structural characterizations of $1$-perfectly orientable $K_4$-minor-free and outerplanar graphs via forbidden minors and composition theorems.

Findings

Characterization of $1$-perfectly orientable $K_4$-minor-free graphs

Characterization of $1$-perfectly orientable outerplanar graphs

Introduction of a new graph class related to $2$-trees

Abstract

A graph $G$ is said to be $1$-perfectly orientable if it has an orientation such that for every vertex $v\in V(G)$, the out-neighborhood of $v$ in $D$ is a clique in $G$. In $1982$, Skrien posed the problem of characterizing the class of $1$-perfectly orientable graphs. This graph class forms a common generalization of the classes of chordal and circular arc graphs; however, while polynomially recognizable via a reduction to $2$-SAT, no structural characterization of this intriguing class of graphs is known. Based on a reduction of the study of $1$-perfectly orientable graphs to the biconnected case, we characterize, both in terms of forbidden induced minors and in terms of composition theorems, the classes of $1$-perfectly orientable $K_4$-minor-free graphs and of $1$-perfectly orientable outerplanar graphs. As part of our approach, we introduce a class of graphs defined similarly as the class of $2$-trees and relate the classes of graphs under consideration to two other graph classes closed under induced minors studied in the literature: cyclically orientable graphs and graphs of separability at most~$2$.