On $(1,2)$-step competition graphs of multipartite tournaments II

Abstract

A multipartite tournament is an orientation of a complete $k$-partite graph for some positive integer $k\ge 3$. We say that a multipartite tournament $D$ is tight if every partite set forms a clique in the $(1,2)$-step competition graph, denoted by $C_{1,2}(D)$, of $D$. In the previous paper titled "On $(1,2)$-step competition graphs of multipartite tournaments" \cite{choi202412step} we completely characterize $C_{1,2}(D)$ for a tight multipartite tournament $D$. As an extension, in this paper, we study $(1,2)$-step competition graphs of multipartite tournaments that are not tight, which will be called loose. For a loose multipartite tournament $D$, various meaningful results are obtained in terms of $C_{1,2}(D)$ being interval and $C_{1,2}(D)$ being connected.