On the $P$-vertex problem in Bipartite Graphs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the property $(P)$ in bipartite graphs, providing characterizations for various graph families, necessary conditions, and introducing a new graph operation that preserves property $(P)$.

Contribution

It offers new characterizations of property $(P)$ in bipartite graphs, including necessary conditions and a novel graph operation that maintains this property.

Findings

Connected bipartite graphs with property $(P)$ are balanced.

For graphs up to 8 vertices, property $(P)$ is equivalent to having a perfect matching.

The threaded union operation over certain graph classes preserves property $(P)$.

Abstract

Property $(P)$, introduced in recent work and rooted in the classical theory of Parter vertices, concerns the existence of a nonsingular matrix $A\in S(G)$ for which every vertex of $G$ is a $P$-vertex. Previous investigations have fully characterized the property for trees, established it for cycles, extended it to unicyclic graphs, and shown that bipartite graphs with a perfect matching always satisfy property $(P)$. However, whether the converse holds for connected bipartite graphs remains open in general. In this paper, we make progress toward answering this question on multiple fronts. We first prove that every connected bipartite graph satisfying property $(P)$ must be balanced, providing a fundamental necessary condition. We further establish complete characterizations for several significant families of bipartite graphs. Specially, we show that every connected bipartite graph of order at most $8$ has property $(P)$ if and only if it has a perfect matching, and more generally, that a connected bipartite graph of order $8+2k$ with at least $k$ pendant edges satisfies property $(P)$ exactly when it has a perfect matching. We further prove that within the class of triangular bipartite graphs, property $(P)$ is equivalent to the existence of a perfect matching, providing a full characterization for this broad structural subclass. In addition, we introduce the threaded union over a graph, a general operation for assembling larger graphs from smaller components, and show that threaded union over a tree--cycle block graph preserves property $(P)$. This significantly generalizes earlier result about joining two graphs with property $(P)$ by a single edge preserves property $(P)$.