Geodeticity of the contour of chordal bipartite
graphs
D. Artigas
a,1,2
R. Sritharan
b,2
a
Instituto de Ciˆ encia e Tecnologia, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio das
Ostras, Brazil
b
Computer Science Department, The University of Dayton, Dayton OH 45469,
USA
Abstract
A vertex of a connected graph is a contour vertex provided the eccentricity of the
vertex is at least as large as that of each of its neighbors. We consider the question of
whether the set S of contour vertices of a connected graph is geodetic, i.e., whether
every vertex of the graph lies on a shortest path (geodesic) between some pair of
vertices in S . In general, it is known that when long induced cycles are forbidden
(for chordal graphs) the answer is in the affirmative, but otherwise (even for weakly
chordal graphs) the answer is in the negative. For bipartite graphs, it is known that
when long induced cycles are allowed, the answer is in the negative. In contrast,
we show that when long induced cycles are forbidden in bipartite graphs, namely
for chordal bipartite graphs, the answer is in the affirmative. Our result also shows
that while the answer is in the negative for bipartite graphs and weakly chordal
graphs, for a graph that is both bipartite and weakly chordal, the answer is in the
affirmative.
Keywords: bipartite graphs, contour, geodetic set, convexity.
1
Partially supported by FAPERJ.
2
Email: daniloartigas@puro.uff.br,rsritharan1@udayton.edu
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics 50 (2015) 237–242
1571-0653/© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
www.elsevier.com/locate/endm
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.endm.2015.07.040