Clique tree generalization and new subclasses of chordal graphs (Q1348383)

The aim of this paper is to obtain a unique structure that reflects the interactions between the maximal cliques of a chordal graph. The authors introduce the notion of a reduced clique hypergraph of a chordal graph which generalizes the notion of a clique tree. A structure theorem which characterizes the hyperedges of the reduced clique hypergraph in terms of the minimal vertex separators is proved. Also the authors derive a formula for counting the number of clique trees of a chordal graph, and they introduce a few new subclasses of chordal graphs.