On the isometric path partition problem

Abstract: The isometric path cover (partition) problem of a graph is to find a minimum set of isometric paths which cover (partition) the vertex set of the graph. The isometric path cover (partition) number of a graph is the cardinality a minimum isometric path cover (partition). We prove that the isometric path partition problem and the isometric $k$-path partition problem for $k\geq 3$ are NP-complete on general graphs. Fisher and Fitzpatrick \cite{FiFi01} have shown that the isometric path cover number of $(r\times r)$-dimensional grid is $\lceil 2r/3\rceil$. We show that the isometric path cover (partition) number of $(r\times s)$-dimensional grid is $s$ when $r \geq s(s-1)$. We establish that the isometric path cover (partition) number of $(r\times r)$-dimensional torus is $r$ when $r$ is even and is either $r$ or $r+1$ when $r$ is odd. Then, we demonstrate that the isometric path cover (partition) number of an $r$-dimensional Benes network is $2^r$. In addition, we provide partial solutions for the isometric path cover (partition) problems for cylinder and multi-dimensional grids.