Characterizing planarity by the splittable deque

Abstract

A graph layout describes the processing of a graph G by a data structure, and the graph is called a -graph. The vertices of G are totally ordered in a linear layout and the edges are stored and organized in. At each vertex, all edges to predecessors in the linear layout are removed and all edges to successors are inserted. There are intriguing relationships between well-known data structures and classes of planar graphs: The stack graphs are the outerplanar graphs [4], the queue graphs are the arched leveled-planar graphs [12], the 2-stack graphs are the subgraphs of planar graphs with a Hamilton cycle [4], and the deque graphs are the subgraphs of planar graphs with a Hamilton path [2]. All of these are proper subclasses of the planar graphs, even for maximal planar graphs. We introduce splittable deques as a data structure to capture planarity. A splittable deque is a deque which can be split into sub-deques. The splittable deque provides a new insight into planarity testing by a game on switching trains. Here, we use it for a linear-time planarity test of a given rotation system. © 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.