A note on hitting maximum and maximal cliques with a stable set

Abstract

It was recently proved that any graph satisfying $\omega > \frac 23(\Delta+1)$ contains a stable set hitting every maximum clique. In this note we prove that the same is true for graphs satisfying $\omega \geq \frac 23(\Delta+1)$ unless the graph is the strong product of $K_{\omega/2}$ and an odd hole. We also provide a counterexample to a recent conjecture on the existence of a stable set hitting every sufficiently large maximal clique.