The longest cycle problem is polynomial on interval graphs

Abstract

The longest cycle problem is the problem of finding a cycle with maximal vertices in a graph. Although it is solvable in polynomial time on few trivial graph classes, the longest cycle problem is well known as NP-complete. A lot of efforts have been devoted to the longest cycle problem. To the best of our knowledge however, there are no polynomial algorithms that can solve any of the non-trivial graph classes. Interval graphs, the intersection of chordal graphs and asteroidal triple-free graphs, are known to be the non-trial graph classes that have polynomial algorithm of the longest cycle problem. In 2009, K. Ioannidou, G.B. Mertzios and S.D. Nikolopoulos presented a polynomial algorithm for the longest path problem on interval graphs in Ioannidou et al. (2009) [19]. Inspired by their work, we investigate the longest cycle problem of interval graphs. In this paper, we present the first polynomial algorithm for the longest cycle problem on interval graphs. A dynamic programming approach is proposed in the polynomial algorithm that runs in O(n8) time, where n is the number of vertices of the input graph. Using a similar approach, we design a polynomial algorithm to solve the longest k-thick subgraph problem on interval graphs which will be presented in another separate work. According to the interesting properties of k-thick interval graphs that we discovered (e.g., an interval graph G is traceable if and only if G is 1-thick, G is hamiltonian if and only if G is 2-thick, G is hamiltonian connected if and only if G is 3-thick and so on), the algorithm presented in this paper can be important in studying the spanning connectivity on interval graphs.