Improved algorithms for recognizing p-Helly and hereditary p-Helly hypergraphs

A hypergraph H is set of vertices V together with a collection of nonempty subsets of it, called the hyperedges of H. A partial hypergraph of H is a hypergraph whose hyperedges are all hyperedges of H, whereas for V^′⊆V the subhypergraph (induced by V^′) is a hypergraph with vertices V^′ and having as hyperedges the subsets obtained as nonempty intersections of V^′ and each of the hyperedges of H. For p?1 say that H is p-intersecting when every subset formed by p hyperedges of H contain a common vertex. Say that H is p-Helly when every p-intersecting partial hypergraph H^′ of H contains a vertex belonging to all the hyperedges of H^′. A hypergraph is hereditary p-Helly when every (induced) subhypergraph of it is p-Helly. In this paper we describe new characterizations for hereditary p-Helly hypergraphs and discuss the recognition problems for both p-Helly and hereditary p-Helly hypergraphs. The proposed algorithms improve the complexity of the existing recognition algorithms.