On clique‐inverse graphs of graphs with bounded clique number

Abstract

The clique graph K(G) of G is the intersection graph of the family of maximal cliques of G. For a family F of graphs, the family of clique-inverse graphs of F, denoted by K−1(F), is defined as K−1(F) = {H|K(H) ∈ F}. Let F p be the family of Kp-free graphs, that is, graphs with clique number at most p − 1, for an integer constant p ≥ 2. Deciding whether a graph H is a clique-inverse graph of F p can be done in polynomial time; in addition, for p ∈ {2, 3, 4}, K − 1 (Fp) can be characterized by a finite family of forbidden induced subgraphs. In Protti and Szwarcfiter, the authors propose to extend such characterizations to higher values of p. Then a natural question arises: Is there a characterization of K − 1 (Fp) by means of a finite family of forbidden induced subgraphs, for any p ≥ 2? In this note we give a positive answer to this question. We present upper bounds for the order, the clique number, and the stability number of every forbidden induced subgraph for K − 1 (Fp) in terms of p.