Transitive orientations in bull-reducible Berge graphs

Abstract

A bull is a graph with five vertices $r,y,x,z,s$ and five edges $ry$, $yx$, $yz$, $xz$, $zs$. A graph $G$ is bull-reducible if no vertex of $G$ lies in two bulls. We prove that every bull-reducible Berge graph $G$ that contains no antihole is weakly chordal, or has a homogeneous set, or is transitively orientable. This yields a fast polynomial time algorithm to color exactly the vertices of such a graph.