An efficient representation of chordal graphs

In this paper, a representation for chordal graphs called the compact representation, based on the running intersection property, is presented. It provides the means to immediately deduce several structural properties of a chordal graph such as a perfect elimination ordering, the minimal vertex separators and a clique-tree. These properties support an efficient algorithm for the construction of the compact representation. Simple characterizations of some subclasses of chordal graphs can be obtained using this representation.