The elimination procedure for the competition number is not optimal

Stephen G. Hartke
2006 Discrete Applied Mathematics  
Given an acyclic digraph D, the competition graph C(D) is defined to be the undirected graph with V (D) as its vertex set and where vertices x and y are adjacent if there exists another vertex z such that the arcs (x, z) and (y, z) are both present in D. The competition number k(G) for an undirected graph G is the least number r such that there exists an acyclic digraph F on |V (G)| + r vertices where C(F ) is G along with r isolated vertices. Kim and Roberts [The Elimination Procedure for the
more » ... ompetition Number, Ars Combin. 50 (1998) 97-113] introduced an elimination procedure for the competition number, and asked whether the procedure calculated the competition number for all graphs. We answer this question in the negative by demonstrating a graph where the elimination procedure does not calculate the competition number. This graph also provides a negative answer to a similar question about the related elimination procedure for the phylogeny number introduced by the current author in [S.G. Hartke, The Elimination Procedure for the Phylogeny Number, Ars Combin. 75 (2005) 297-311].
doi:10.1016/j.dam.2005.11.009 fatcat:z4dpj7eac5gcreghdq6iolhrea