Cographs and 1-sums

Abstract

A graph that can be generated from $K_1$ using joins and 0-sums is called a cograph. We define a sesquicograph to be a graph that can be generated from $K_1$ using joins, 0-sums, and 1-sums. We show that, like cographs, sesquicographs are closed under induced minors. Cographs are precisely the graphs that do not have the 4-vertex path as an induced subgraph. We obtain an analogue of this result for sesquicographs, that is, we find those non-sesquicographs for which every proper induced subgraph is a sesquicograph.