On (1,2)-step competition graphs of bipartite tournaments

In this paper, we study (1, 2)-step competition graphs of bipartite tournaments. A bipartite tournament is an orientation of a complete bipartite graph. We show that the (1, 2)-step competition graph of a bipartite tournament has at most one non-trivial component or consists of exactly two complete components of size at least three and, especially in the former, the diameter of the nontrivial component is at most three if it exists. Based on this result, we show that, among the connected non-complete graphs which are triangle-free or the cycles of which are edge-disjoint, K-1,K-4 is the only graph that can be represented as the (1, 2)-step competition graph of a bipartite tournament. We also completely characterize the complete graphs and the disjoint unions of complete graphs which can be represented as the (1, 2)-step competition graph of a bipartite tournament. Finally we present the maximum number of edges and the minimum number of edges which the (1, 2)-step competition graph of a bipartite tournament might have. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.