Transitivity on subclasses of chordal graphs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transitivity measure in subclasses of chordal graphs, providing linear-time algorithms for certain subclasses, exploring theoretical bounds, and characterizing critical graphs.

Contribution

It proves that the maximum transitivity problem is solvable in linear time for split graphs and complements of bipartite chain graphs, and explores related theoretical properties.

Findings

Linear-time solution for split graphs

Linear-time solution for complements of bipartite chain graphs

Counterexamples for an open problem on transitivity

Abstract

Let $G=(V, E)$ be a graph, where $V$ and $E$ are the vertex and edge sets, respectively. For two disjoint subsets $A$ and $B$ of $V$, we say $A$ \textit{dominates} $B$ if every vertex of $B$ is adjacent to at least one vertex of $A$ in $G$. A vertex partition $\pi = \{V_1, V_2, \ldots, V_k\}$ of $G$ is called a \emph{transitive $k$-partition} if $V_i$ dominates $V_j$ for all $i,j$, where $1\leq i<j\leq k$. The maximum integer $k$ for which the above partition exists is called \emph{transitivity} of $G$ and it is denoted by $Tr(G)$. The \textsc{Maximum Transitivity Problem} is to find a transitive partition of a given graph with the maximum number of partitions. It was known that the decision version of \textsc{Maximum Transitivity Problem} is NP-complete for chordal graphs [Iterated colorings of graphs, \emph{Discrete Mathematics}, 278, 2004]. In this paper, we first prove that this problem can be solved in linear time for \emph{split graphs} and for the \emph{complement of bipartite chain graphs}, two subclasses of chordal graphs. We also discuss Nordhaus-Gaddum type relations for transitivity and provide counterexamples for an open problem posed by J. T. Hedetniemi and S. T. Hedetniemi [The transitivity of a graph, \emph{J. Combin. Math. Combin. Comput}, 104, 2018]. Finally, we characterize transitively critical graphs having fixed transitivity.