Cops and robbers on $P_5$-free graphs

Maria Chudnovsky, Sergey Norin, Paul Seymour, Jérémie Turcotte

Published 2023-01-30Version 1

We prove that every connected $P_5$-free graph has cop number at most two, solving a conjecture of Sivaraman. In order to do so, we first prove that every connected $P_5$-free graph $G$ with independence number at least three contains a three-vertex induced path with vertices $a \hbox{-} b \hbox{-} c$ in order, such that every neighbour of $c$ is also adjacent to one of $a,b$.