Centers of triangulated graphs

Abstract

CENTERS OF TRIANGULATED GRAPHS V. D. Chepoi Let G = (X, U) be an ordinary graph with arbitrarily (not necessarily finitely) many vertexes, any two of which are joined by some finite chain. We endow G with a standard metric d(x, y) equal to the number of edges in the chain of shortest length joining vertexes x, y. The eccentricity e(z) of a vertex z is defined as {d(z, v): v e X}. The radius r(G) is the least eccentricity of the vertexes, and the diameter d(G) is the largest eccentricity. The center C(G) of G is the subgraph generated by the set of vertexes with minimal eccentricity. It is well known [I, 2] that any graph G, even if it is not connected, is the center of some graph G', i.e., G = C(G'). At the same time, if one confines attention to special classes of graphs, their centers may have rather specific features. Thus, a well-known re- sult of Jordan [3] states that the center of any finite tree consists of one vertex or two adjacent vertexes; that is to say, the only two possibilities are the graphs K l and K 2 (where K n denotes the complete subgraph on n vertexes). The centers of maximal outerplanar graphs and 2-trees were described in [4, 5]. In this paper we characterize the centers of triangu- lated graphs. In this connection, we note that metric properties, including in particular properties of the centers, of triangulated graphs have been studied by various authors [6-9]. Our Theorems 1 and 2 were proved in [8], but they are established here in a more general form and the proofs are simpler. Recall [i0] that a graph G is said to be triangulated if, in any simple cycle F of length more than 3, there are two vertexes not adjacent in r but joined by an edge in G. Recall moreover that a clique of a graph G is any maximal complete subgraph (with re- spect to inclusion). The density of a graph G is the cardinality of the largest clique in G (if such a clique exists). Throughout this paper, the term triangulated graph will mean a triangulated graph of finite diameter without infinite complete subgraphs. Let CT denote the family of graphs which are centers of triangulated graphs. We shall need a number of additional concepts and definitions. Given sets M c X in a graph G and any number r ~ 0, we put where