Dichotomies for Maximum Matching Cut: $H$-Freeness, Bounded Diameter, Bounded Radius

Abstract

The (Perfect) Matching Cut problem is to decide if a graph $G$ has a (perfect) matching cut, i.e., a (perfect) matching that is also an edge cut of $G$. Both Matching Cut and Perfect Matching Cut are known to be NP-complete. A perfect matching cut is also a matching cut with maximum number of edges. To increase our understanding of the relationship between the two problems, we perform a complexity study for the Maximum Matching Cut problem, which is to determine a largest matching cut in a graph. Our results yield full dichotomies of Maximum Matching Cut for graphs of bounded diameter, bounded radius and $H$-free graphs. A disconnected perfect matching of a graph $G$ is a perfect matching that contains a matching cut of $G$. We also show how our new techniques can be used for finding a disconnected perfect matching with a largest matching cut for special graph classes. In this way we can prove that the decision problem Disconnected Perfect Matching is polynomial-time solvable for $(P_6+sP_2)$-free graphs for every $s\geq 0$, extending a known result for $P_5$-free graphs (Bouquet and Picouleau, 2020).