Characterising AT-free Graphs with BFS

Abstract

An asteroidal triple free graph is a graph such that for every independent triple of vertices no path between any two avoids the third. In a recent result from Corneil and Stacho, these graphs were characterised through a linear vertex ordering called an AT-free order. Here, we use techniques from abstract convex geometry to improve on this result by giving a vertex order characterisation with stronger structural properties and thus resolve an open question by Corneil and Stacho. These orderings are generated by a modification of BFS which runs in polynomial time. Furthermore, we give a linear time algorithm which employs multiple applications of (L)BFS to compute AT-free orders in claw-free AT-free graphs and a generalisation of these.