Interval graphs admit elegant ordering and structural characterizations. A natural digraph analogue of interval graphs, called chronological interval digraphs, has recently been identified and studied. We introduce the class of chronological rectangle digraphs, and show that they are a higher dimensional analogue of chronological interval digraphs. A main goal of this thesis is to establish a foundation of knowledge about this class, including basic properties and an ordering characterization. Our most significant result is a forbidden induced subdigraph characterization for the series-parallel digraphs which are chronological rectangle. We also discuss obtaining chronological rectangle digraphs from orientations of graphs. In addition we introduce the related concept of the chronological interval dimension of a digraph, and determine the digraphs for which it is defined. Unit and proper chronological rectangle digraphs, defined analogously to unit and proper interval graphs, are also introduced and studied. / Graduate

In this dissertation, we are interested in studying several parameters of graphs and understanding their extreme values. We begin in Chapter~$2$ with a question on edge colouring. When can a partial proper edge colouring of a graph of maximum degree $\Delta$ be extended to a proper colouring of the entire graph using an `optimal' set of colours? Albertson and Moore conjectured this is always possible provided no two precoloured edges are within distance $2$. The main result of Chapter~$2$ comes close to proving this conjecture. Moreover, in Chapter~$3$, we completely answer the previous question for the class of planar graphs. Next, in Chapter~$4$, we investigate some Ramsey theoretical problems. We determine exactly what minimum degree a graph $G$ must have to guarantee that, for any two-colouring of $E(G)$, we can partition $V(G)$ into two parts where each part induces a connected monochromatic subgraph. This completely resolves a conjecture of Bal and Debiasio. We also prove a `covering' version of this result. Finally, we study another variant of these problems which deals with coverings of a graph by monochromatic components of distinct colours. The following saturation problem proposed by Barrus, Ferrara, Vandenbussche, and Wenger is considered in Chapter~$5$. Given a graph $H$ and a set of colours $\{1,2,\ldots,t\}$ (for some integer $t\geq |E(H)|$), we define $sat_{t}(n, R(H))$ to be the minimum number of $t$-coloured edges in a graph on $n$ vertices which does not contain a rainbow copy of $H$ but the addition of any non-edge in any colour from $\{1,2,\ldots,t\}$ creates such a copy. We prove several results concerning these extremal numbers. In particular, we determine the correct order of $sat_{t}(n, R(H))$, as a function of $n$, for every connected graph $H$ of minimum degree greater than $1$ and for every integer $t\geq e(H)$. In Chapter~$6$, we consider the following question: under what conditions does a Hamiltonian graph on $n$ vertices possess a second cycle of length at least $n-o(n)$? We prove that the `weak' assumption of a minimum degree greater or equal to $3$ guarantees the existence of such a long cycle. We solve two problems related to majority colouring in Chapter~$7$. This topic was recently studied by Kreutzer, Oum, Seymour, van der Zypen and Wood. They raised the problem of determining, for a natural number $k$, the smallest positive integer $m = m(k)$ such that every digraph can be coloured with $m$ colours, where each vertex has the same colour as at most a proportion of $\frac{1}{k}$ of its out-neighbours. Our main theorem states that $m(k) \in \{2k-1, 2k\}$. We study the following problem, raised by Caro and Yuster, in Chapter~$8$. Does every graph $G$ contain a `large' induced subgraph $H$ which has $k$ vertices of degree exactly $\Delta(H)$? We answer in the affirmative an approximate version of this question. Indeed, we prove that, for every $k$, there exists $g(k)$ such that any $n$ vertex graph $G$ with maximum degree $\Delta$ contains an induced subgraph $H$ with at least $n-g(k)\sqrt{\Delta}$ vertices such that $V(H)$ contains at least $k$ vertices of the same degree $d \ge \Delta(H)-g(k)$. This result is sharp up to the order of $g(k)$. %Subsequently, we investigate a concept called $\textit{path-pairability}$. A graph is said to be path-pairable if for any pairing of its vertices there exist a collection of edge-disjoint paths routing the the vertices of each pair. A question we are concerned here asks whether every planar path pairable graph on $n$ vertices must possess a vertex of degree linear in $n$. Indeed, we answer this question in the affirmative. We also sketch a proof resolving an analogous question for graphs embeddable on surfaces of bounded genus. Finally, in Chapter~$9$, we move on to examine $k$-linked tournaments. A tournament $T$ is said to be $k$-linked if for any two disjoint sets of vertices $\{x_1,\ldots ,x_k\}$ and $\{y_1,\dots,y_k\}$ there are directed vertex disjoint paths $P_1,\dots, P_k$ such that $P_i$ joins $x_i$ to $y_i$ for $i = 1,\ldots, k$. We prove that any $4k$ strongly-connected tournament with sufficiently large minimum out-degree is $k$-linked. This result comes close to proving a conjecture of Pokrovskiy.

Immersion is a notion of graph inclusion related to the notion of graph minors. While the structural theory of graph minors is extensive, there are still numerous open problems in the structural theory of graph immersions. Kuratowski's theorem claims that the class of graphs that do not contain a subdivision of the graphs K3,3 and K5 is exactly the class of planar graphs. The main goal of this thesis is to describe the structure of the graphs that do not contain an immersion of K3,3. Such graphs can be separated by small edge cuts into small graphs or planar 3-regular graphs. 1

Le thème central à cette thèse est l'étude des propriétés des classes de graphes définies par sous-structures interdites et leurs applications.La première direction que nous suivons a trait aux beaux ordres. À l'aide de théorèmes de décomposition dans les classes de graphes interdisant une sous-structure, nous identifions celles qui sont bellement-ordonnées. Les ordres et sous-structures considérés sont ceux associés aux notions de contraction et mineur induit. Ensuite, toujours en considérant des classes de graphes définies par sous-structures interdites, nous obtenons des bornes sur des invariants comme le degré, la largeur arborescente, la tree-cut width et un nouvel invariant généralisant la maille.La troisième direction est l'étude des relations entre les invariants combinatoires liés aux problèmes de packing et de couverture de graphes. Dans cette direction, nous établissons de nouvelles relations entre ces invariants pour certaines classes de graphes. Nous présentons également des applications algorithmiques de ces résultats. / The central theme of this thesis is the study of the properties of the classes of graphs defined by forbidden substructures and their applications.The first direction that we follow concerns well-quasi-orders. Using decomposition theorems on graph classes forbidding one substructure, we identify those that are well-quasi-ordered. The orders and substructures that we consider are those related to the notions of contraction and induced minor.Then, still considering classes of graphs defined by forbidden substructures, we obtain bounds on invariants such as degree, treewidth, tree-cut width, and a new invariant generalizing the girth.The third direction is the study of the links between the combinatorial invariants related to problems of packing and covering of graphs. In this direction, we establish new connections between these invariants for some classes of graphs. We also present algorithmic applications of the results.

Cette thèse traite de la coloration de graphe, de la coloration par liste,d'ensembles indépendants de poids maximum et de la théorie structurelle des graphes.Dans un premier temps, nous fournissons un algorithme s'exécutant en temps polynomial pour le problème de la 4-coloration dans des sous-classes de graphe sans $P_6$. Ces algorithmes se basent sur une compréhension précise de la structure de ces classes de graphes, pour laquelle nous donnons une description complète.Deuxièmement, nous étudions une conjecture portant sur la coloration par liste et prouvons que pour tout graphe parfait sans griffe dont la taille de la plus grande clique est bornée par 4, le nombre chromatique est égal au nombre chromatique par liste. Ce résultat est obtenu en utilisant un théorème de décomposition des graphes parfaits sans griffe, une description structurelle des graphes de base de cette décomposition et le célèbre théorème de Galvin.Ensuite, en utilisant la description structurelle élaborée dans le premier chapitre et en renforçant certains aspects de celle-ci, nous fournissons un algorithme s'exécutant en temps polynomial pour le problème d'indépendant de poids maximum dans des sous-classes de graphe sans $P_6$ et sans $P_7$. Dans le dernier chapitre de ce manuscrit, nous infirmons une conjecture datant de 1999 de De Simone et K"orner sur les graphes normaux. Notre preuve est probabiliste et est obtenue en utilisant les graphes aléatoires. / This thesis deals with graph coloring, list-coloring, maximum weightstable set (shortened as MWSS) and structural graph theory.First, we provide polynomial-time algorithms for the 4-coloring problem insubclasses of $P_6$-free graphs. These algorithms rely on a preciseunderstanding of the structure of these classes of graphs for which we give afull description.Secondly, we study the list-coloring conjecture and prove that for anyclaw-free perfect graph with clique number bounded by 4, the chromatic numberand the choice number are equal. This result is obtained by using adecomposition theorem for claw-free perfect graphs, a structural description ofthe basic graphs of this decomposition and by using Galvin's famous theorem.Next by using the structural description given in the first chapter andstrengthening other aspects of this structure, we provide polynomial-timealgorithms for the MWSS problem in subclasses of $P_6$-free and $P_7$-freegraphs.In the last chapter of the manuscript, we disprove a conjecture of De Simoneand K"orner made in 1999 related to normal graphs. Our proof is probabilisticand is obtained by the use of random graphs.