The structure of $\Delta(1, 2, 2)$-free tournaments

Abstract

We extend the list of tournaments $S$ for which the complete structural description for tournaments excluding $S$ as a subtournament is known. Specifically, let $\Delta(1, 2, 2)$ be a tournament on five vertices obtained from a cyclic triangle by substituting a two-vertex tournament for two of its vertices. In this paper, we show that tournaments excluding $\Delta(1, 2, 2)$ as a subtournament are either isomorphic to one of three small tournaments, obtained from a transitive tournament by reversing edges in vertex-disjoint directed paths, or obtained from a smaller tournament with the same property by applying one of two operations. In particular, one of these operations creates a homogeneous set that induces a subtournament isomorphic to one of three fixed tournaments, and the other creates a homogeneous pair such that their union induces a subtournament isomorphic to a fixed tournament. As an application of this result, we present an upper bound for the chromatic number, a lower bound for the size of a largest transitive subtournament, and a lower bound for the number of vertex-disjoint cyclic triangles for such tournaments. The bounds that we present are all best possible.