Hereditary modular graphs (Q1112068)

A property of graphs is said to be hereditary if it is inherited by all subgraphs. An isometric subgraph of a graph G is an induced subgraph in which the distance between any two vertices is the same as in G. In a hereditary modular graph G, for any three vertices u, v, w of an isometric subgraph of G, there exists a vertex of this subgraph that is simultaneously on some shortest u-v path, v-w path and w-u path. It is shown that the hereditary modular graphs are precisely those bipartite graphs that do not contain an isometric cycle of length greater than four. Chordal bipartite graphs are also characterized by forbidden isometric subgraphs.