The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph Transformations

Tree-width and path-width are well-known graph parameters. Many NP-hard graph problems admit polynomial-time solutions when restricted to graphs of bounded tree-width or bounded path-width. In this work, we study the behavior of tree-width and path-width under various unary and binary graph transfor...

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Main Authors: Frank Gurski, Robin Weishaupt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:Algorithms
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4893/18/7/386
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author Frank Gurski
Robin Weishaupt
author_facet Frank Gurski
Robin Weishaupt
author_sort Frank Gurski
collection DOAJ
description Tree-width and path-width are well-known graph parameters. Many NP-hard graph problems admit polynomial-time solutions when restricted to graphs of bounded tree-width or bounded path-width. In this work, we study the behavior of tree-width and path-width under various unary and binary graph transformations. For considered transformations, we provide upper and lower bounds for the tree-width and path-width of the resulting graph in terms of those of the initial graphs or argue why such bounds are impossible to specify. Among the studied unary transformations are vertex addition, vertex deletion, edge addition, edge deletion, subgraphs, vertex identification, edge contraction, edge subdivision, minors, powers of graphs, line graphs, edge complements, local complements, Seidel switching, and Seidel complementation. Among the studied binary transformations, we consider the disjoint union, join, union, substitution, graph product, 1-sum, and corona of two graphs.
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spelling doaj-art-e22ae4a7946a41b8824506c7620300422025-08-20T03:32:12ZengMDPI AGAlgorithms1999-48932025-06-0118738610.3390/a18070386The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph TransformationsFrank Gurski0Robin Weishaupt1Institute of Computer Science, Heinrich Heine University, 40225 Düsseldorf, GermanyInstitute of Computer Science, Heinrich Heine University, 40225 Düsseldorf, GermanyTree-width and path-width are well-known graph parameters. Many NP-hard graph problems admit polynomial-time solutions when restricted to graphs of bounded tree-width or bounded path-width. In this work, we study the behavior of tree-width and path-width under various unary and binary graph transformations. For considered transformations, we provide upper and lower bounds for the tree-width and path-width of the resulting graph in terms of those of the initial graphs or argue why such bounds are impossible to specify. Among the studied unary transformations are vertex addition, vertex deletion, edge addition, edge deletion, subgraphs, vertex identification, edge contraction, edge subdivision, minors, powers of graphs, line graphs, edge complements, local complements, Seidel switching, and Seidel complementation. Among the studied binary transformations, we consider the disjoint union, join, union, substitution, graph product, 1-sum, and corona of two graphs.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4893/18/7/386tree-widthpath-widthgraph operationsgraph transformations
spellingShingle Frank Gurski
Robin Weishaupt
The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph Transformations
Algorithms
tree-width
path-width
graph operations
graph transformations
title The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph Transformations
title_full The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph Transformations
title_fullStr The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph Transformations
title_full_unstemmed The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph Transformations
title_short The Behavior of Tree-Width and Path-Width Under Graph Operations and Graph Transformations
title_sort behavior of tree width and path width under graph operations and graph transformations
topic tree-width
path-width
graph operations
graph transformations
url https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4893/18/7/386
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