Computing directed path-width and directed tree-width of recursively defined digraphs

Abstract: In this paper we consider the directed path-width and directed tree-width of recursively defined digraphs. As an important combinatorial tool, we show how the directed path-width and the directed tree-width can be computed for the disjoint union, order composition, directed union, and series composition of two directed graphs. These results imply the equality of directed path-width and directed tree-width for all digraphs which can be defined by these four operations. This allows us to show a linear-time solution for computing the directed path-width and directed tree-width of all these digraphs. Since directed co-graphs are precisely those digraphs which can be defined by the disjoint union, order composition, and series composition our results imply the equality of directed path-width and directed tree-width for directed co-graphs and also a linear-time solution for computing the directed path-width and directed tree-width of directed co-graphs, which generalizes the known results for undirected co-graphs of Bodlaender and Moehring.