Isometric path partition: a new upper bound and a characterization of some extremal graphs

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Hauptverfasser: Penev, Irena, Sandeep, R. B., Supraja, D. K., Taruni, S.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Penev, Irena
Sandeep, R. B.
Supraja, D. K.
Taruni, S.
author_facet Penev, Irena
Sandeep, R. B.
Supraja, D. K.
Taruni, S.
contents An $\textit{isometric path}$ is a shortest path between two vertices. An $\textit{isometric path partition}$ (IPP) of a graph $G$ is a set $I$ of vertex-disjoint isometric paths in $G$ that partition the vertices of $G$. The \textit{isometric path partition number} of $G$, denoted by $\text{ipp}(G)$, is the minimum cardinality of an IPP of $G$. In this article, we prove that every graph $G$ satisfies $\text{ipp}(G) \leq |V(G)| - ν(G)$, where $ν(G)$ is matching number of $G$. We further prove that a connected graph $G$ is extremal with respect to this upper bound, i.e.\ satisfies $\text{ipp}(G) = |V(G)| - ν(G)$, if and only if either (i) all blocks of $G$ are odd complete graphs, or (ii) all blocks of $G$ except one are odd complete graphs, and the unique block $B$ of $G$ that is not an odd complete graph is even and satisfy $\text{ipp}(B) = |V(B)| - ν(B)$. As corollaries of this result, we obtain a full structural characterization of all connected odd graphs that are extremal with respect to our upper bound, as well as of all extremal block graphs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_19913
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Isometric path partition: a new upper bound and a characterization of some extremal graphs
Penev, Irena
Sandeep, R. B.
Supraja, D. K.
Taruni, S.
Combinatorics
An $\textit{isometric path}$ is a shortest path between two vertices. An $\textit{isometric path partition}$ (IPP) of a graph $G$ is a set $I$ of vertex-disjoint isometric paths in $G$ that partition the vertices of $G$. The \textit{isometric path partition number} of $G$, denoted by $\text{ipp}(G)$, is the minimum cardinality of an IPP of $G$. In this article, we prove that every graph $G$ satisfies $\text{ipp}(G) \leq |V(G)| - ν(G)$, where $ν(G)$ is matching number of $G$. We further prove that a connected graph $G$ is extremal with respect to this upper bound, i.e.\ satisfies $\text{ipp}(G) = |V(G)| - ν(G)$, if and only if either (i) all blocks of $G$ are odd complete graphs, or (ii) all blocks of $G$ except one are odd complete graphs, and the unique block $B$ of $G$ that is not an odd complete graph is even and satisfy $\text{ipp}(B) = |V(B)| - ν(B)$. As corollaries of this result, we obtain a full structural characterization of all connected odd graphs that are extremal with respect to our upper bound, as well as of all extremal block graphs.
title Isometric path partition: a new upper bound and a characterization of some extremal graphs
topic Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.19913