On geodesic structures of weakly median graphs I. Decomposition and octahedral graphs

Abstract

We prove that the non-trivial (finite or infinite) weakly median graphs which are undecomposable with respect to gated amalgamation and Cartesian multiplication are the 5-wheels, the subhyperoctahedra different from K 1 , the path K 1 , 2 and the 4-cycle K 2 , 2 , and the two-connected K 4 - and K 1 , 1 , 3 -free bridged graphs. These prime graphs are exactly the weakly median graphs which do not have any proper gated subgraphs other than singletons. For finite graphs, these results were already proved in [H.-J. Bandelt, V.C. Chepoi, The algebra of metric betweenness I: subdirect representation, retracts, and axiomatics of weakly median graphs, preprint, 2002]. A graph G is said to have the half-space copoint property ( HSCP) if every non-trivial half-space of the geodesic convexity of G is a copoint at each of its neighbors. It turns out that any median graph has the HSCP. We characterize the weakly median graphs having the HSCP. We prove that the class of these graphs is closed under gated amalgamation and Cartesian multiplication, and we describe the prime and the finite regular elements of this class.