On H-Topological Intersection Graphs

Biro et al. (Discrete. Math 100(1-3):267-279, 1992) introduced the concept of H-graphs, intersection graphs of connected subgraphs of a subdivision of a graph H. They are related to and generalize many important classes of geometric intersection graphs, e.g., interval graphs, circular-arc graphs, split graphs, and chordal graphs. Our paper starts a new line of research in the area of geometric intersection graphs by studying several classical computational problems on H-graphs: recognition, graph isomorphism, dominating set, clique, and colorability. We negatively answer the 25-year-old question of Biro, Hujter, and Tuza which asks whether H-graphs can be recognized in polynomial time, for a fixed graph H. We prove that it is NP-complete if H contains the diamond graph as a minor. On the positive side, we provide a polynomial-time algorithm recognizing T-graphs, for each fixed tree T. For the special case when T is a star S-d of degree d, we have an O(n(3.5))-time algorithm. We give FPT- and XP-time algorithms solving the minimum dominating set problem on S-d-graphs and H-graphs, parametrized by d and the size of H, respectively. The algorithm for H-graphs adapts to an T-time algorithm for the independent set and the independent dominating set problems on H-graphs. If H contains the double-triangle as a minor, we prove that the graph isomorphism problem is G(I)-complete and that the clique problem is APX-hard. On the positive side, we show that the clique problem can be solved in polynomial time if H is a cactus graph. Also, when a graph has a Helly H-representation, the clique problem is polynomial-time solvable. Further, we show that both the k-clique and the list k-coloring problems are solvable in FPT-time on H-graphs, parameterized by k and the treewidth of H. In fact, these results apply to classes of graphs with treewidth bounded by a function of the clique number. We observe that H-graphs have at most n(O(parallel to H parallel to)) minimal separators which allows us to apply the meta-algorithmic framework of Fomin, Todinca, and Villanger (2015) to show that for each fixed t, finding a maximum induced sub-graph of treewidth t can be done in polynomial time. In the case when H is a cactus, we improve the bound to O(parallel to H parallel to n(2))