Structural results on circular-arc graphs and circle graphs: A survey and the main open problems

Abstract

Circular-arc graphs are the intersection graphs of open arcs on a circle. Circle graphs are the intersection graphs of chords on a circle. These graph classes have been the subject of much study for many years and numerous interesting results have been reported. Many subclasses of both circular-arc graphs and circle graphs have been defined and different characterizations formulated. In this survey, we summarize the most important structural results related to circular-arc graphs and circle graphs and present the main open problems.