A New Graph Parameter To Measure Linearity

Consider a sequence of LexBFS vertex orderings σ1, σ2, . . . where each ordering σi is used to break ties for σi+1. Since the total number of vertex orderings of a finite graph is finite, this sequence must end in a cycle of vertex orderings. The possible length of this cycle is the main subject of this work. Intuitively, we prove for graphs with a known notion of linearity (e.g., interval graphs with their interval representation on the real line), this cycle cannot be too big, no matter which vertex ordering we start with. More precisely, it was conjectured in [9] that for cocomparability graphs, the size of this cycle is always 2, independent of the starting order. Furthermore [27] asked whether for arbitrary graphs, the size of such a cycle is always bounded by the asteroidal number of the graph. In this work, while we answer this latter question negatively, we provide support for the conjecture on cocomparability graphs by proving it for the subclass of domino-free cocomparability graphs. This subclass contains cographs, proper interval, interval, and cobipartite graphs. We also provide simpler independent proofs for each of these cases which lead to stronger results on this subclasses.