A Note on the Feedback Arc Set Problem and Acyclic Subdigraphs in Bipartite Tournaments

Abstract

Given a digraph D a feedback arc set is a subset X of the arcs of D such that D − X is acyclic. Let β(D) denote de minimum cardinality of a feedback arc set of D. In this paper we prove that a bipartite tournament T with minimum out-degree at least r satisfies β(T) ≥ r2. A lower bound and an upper bound for β(T) are given in terms of the bipartite dichromatic number. We define the bipartite dichromatic number of a balanced bipartite tournament Tn,n and use this invariant to give an upper bound for the minimum cardinality of a feedback arc set of Tn,n. We also prove that for each positive integer k ≥ 3 there is an integer N(k) such that if n ≥ N(k), then each balanced bipartite tournament contains an acyclic bipartite tournament Tk,k.