The geodesic-transversal problem

Abstract

A maximal geodesic in a graph is a geodesic (alias shortest path) which is not a subpath of a longer geodesic. The geodesic-transversal problem in a graph $G$ is introduced as the task to find a smallest set $S$ of vertices of $G$ such that each maximal geodesic has at least one vertex in $S$. The minimum cardinality of such a set is the geodesic-transversal number ${\rm gt}(G)$ of $G$. It is proved that ${\rm gt}(G) = 1$ if and only if $G$ is a subdivided star and that the geodesic-transversal problem is NP-complete. Fast algorithms to determine the geodesic-transversal number of trees and of spread cactus graphs are designed, respectively.