Pathwidth vs cocircumference

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Briański, Marcin, Joret, Gwenaël, Seweryn, Michał T.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Briański, Marcin
Joret, Gwenaël
Seweryn, Michał T.
author_facet Briański, Marcin
Joret, Gwenaël
Seweryn, Michał T.
contents The {\em circumference} of a graph $G$ with at least one cycle is the length of a longest cycle in $G$. A classic result of Birmelé (2003) states that the treewidth of $G$ is at most its circumference minus $1$. In case $G$ is $2$-connected, this upper bound also holds for the pathwidth of $G$; in fact, even the treedepth of $G$ is upper bounded by its circumference (Briański, Joret, Majewski, Micek, Seweryn, Sharma; 2023). In this paper, we study whether similar bounds hold when replacing the circumference of $G$ by its {\em cocircumference}, defined as the largest size of a {\em bond} in $G$, an inclusion-wise minimal set of edges $F$ such that $G-F$ has more components than $G$. In matroidal terms, the cocircumference of $G$ is the circumference of the bond matroid of $G$. Our first result is the following `dual' version of Birmelé's theorem: The treewidth of a graph $G$ is at most its cocircumference. Our second and main result is an upper bound of $3k-2$ on the pathwidth of a $2$-connected graph $G$ with cocircumference $k$. Contrary to circumference, no such bound holds for the treedepth of $G$. Our two upper bounds are best possible up to a constant factor.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_03621
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Pathwidth vs cocircumference
Briański, Marcin
Joret, Gwenaël
Seweryn, Michał T.
Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
The {\em circumference} of a graph $G$ with at least one cycle is the length of a longest cycle in $G$. A classic result of Birmelé (2003) states that the treewidth of $G$ is at most its circumference minus $1$. In case $G$ is $2$-connected, this upper bound also holds for the pathwidth of $G$; in fact, even the treedepth of $G$ is upper bounded by its circumference (Briański, Joret, Majewski, Micek, Seweryn, Sharma; 2023). In this paper, we study whether similar bounds hold when replacing the circumference of $G$ by its {\em cocircumference}, defined as the largest size of a {\em bond} in $G$, an inclusion-wise minimal set of edges $F$ such that $G-F$ has more components than $G$. In matroidal terms, the cocircumference of $G$ is the circumference of the bond matroid of $G$. Our first result is the following `dual' version of Birmelé's theorem: The treewidth of a graph $G$ is at most its cocircumference. Our second and main result is an upper bound of $3k-2$ on the pathwidth of a $2$-connected graph $G$ with cocircumference $k$. Contrary to circumference, no such bound holds for the treedepth of $G$. Our two upper bounds are best possible up to a constant factor.
title Pathwidth vs cocircumference
topic Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.03621