English

Graph theory general position problem

Combinatorics 2017-08-31 v1

Abstract

The classical no-three-in-line problem is to find the maximum number of points that can be placed in the n×nn \times n grid so that no three points lie on a line. Given a set SS of points in an Euclidean plane, the General Position Subset Selection Problem is to find a maximum subset SS' of SS such that no three points of SS' are collinear. Motivated by these problems, the following graph theory variation is introduced: Given a graph GG, determine a largest set SS of vertices of GG such that no three vertices of SS lie on a common geodesic. Such a set is a gp-set of GG and its size is the gp-number gp(G){\rm gp}(G) of GG. Upper bounds on gp(G){\rm gp}(G) in terms of different isometric covers are given and used to determine the gp-number of several classes of graphs. Connections between general position sets and packings are investigated and used to give lower bounds on the gp-number. It is also proved that the general position problem is NP-complete.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1708.09130,
  title  = {Graph theory general position problem},
  author = {Paul Manuel and Sandi Klavžar},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.09130},
  year   = {2017}
}