A note on the threshold numbers of cycles

Abstract

A graph $G=(V,E)$ is said to be a \textit{$k$-threshold graph} with \textit{thresholds} $\theta_1<\theta_2<...<\theta_k$ if there is a map $r: V \longrightarrow \mathbb{R}$ such that $uv\in E$ if and only if $\theta_i\le r(u)+r(v)$ holds for an odd number of $i\in [k]$. The \textit{threshold number} of $G$, denoted by $\Theta(G)$, is the smallest positive integer $k$ such that $G$ is a $k$-threshold graph. In this paper, we determine the exact threshold numbers of cycles by proving \[ \Theta(C_n)=\begin{cases} 1 & if\ n=3, 2 & if\ n=4, 4 & if\ n\ge 5, \end{cases} \] where $C_n$ is the cycle with $n$ vertices.