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In graph theory, an area of mathematics, a claw-free graph is a graph that does not have a claw as an induced subgraph. A claw is another name for the complete bipartite graph K1,3 (that is, a star graph comprising three edges, three leaves, and a central vertex). A claw-free graph is a graph in which no induced subgraph is a claw; i.e., any subset of four vertices has other than only three edges connecting them in this pattern. Equivalently, a claw-free graph is a graph in which the neighborhood of any vertex is the complement of a triangle-free graph. Claw-free graphs were initially studied as a generalization of line graphs, and gained additional motivation through three key discoveries about them: the fact that all claw-free connected graphs of even order have perfect matchings, the discovery of polynomial time algorithms for finding maximum independent sets in claw-free graphs, and the characterization of claw-free perfect graphs. They are the subject of hundreds of mathematical research papers and several surveys. The line graph L(G) of any graph G is claw-free; L(G) has a vertex for every edge of G, and vertices are adjacent in L(G) whenever the corresponding edges share an endpoint in G. A line graph L(G) cannot contain a claw, because if three edges e1, e2, and e3 in G all share endpoints with another edge e4 then by the pigeonhole principle at least two of e1, e2, and e3 must share one of those endpoints with each other. Line graphs may be characterized in terms of nine forbidden subgraphs; the claw is the simplest of these nine graphs. This characterization provided the initial motivation for studying claw-free graphs. The de Bruijn graphs (graphs whose vertices represent n-bit binary strings for some n, and whose edges represent (n − 1)-bit overlaps between two strings) are claw-free. One way to show this is via the construction of the de Bruijn graph for n-bit strings as the line graph of the de Bruijn graph for (n − 1)-bit strings. The complement of any triangle-free graph is claw-free.

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