Characterizing 2-distance graphs

Abstract

Let [Formula: see text] be a finite simple graph. The [Formula: see text]-distance graph [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] is the graph with the same vertex set as [Formula: see text] and two vertices are adjacent if and only if their distance in [Formula: see text] is exactly [Formula: see text]. A graph [Formula: see text] is a [Formula: see text]-distance graph if there exists a graph [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we give three characterizations of [Formula: see text]-distance graphs, and find all graphs [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is an integer, [Formula: see text] is the path of order [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] is the complete graph of order [Formula: see text].