A vertex of a graph is bisimplicial if the set of it and its neighbours is the union of two cliques, and is k-simplicial if the set is the union of k cliques. A vertex is co-simplicial if its non-neighbours form an independent set.[2]
Addario-Berry et al.[3] demonstrated that every even-hole-free graph (or more specifically, even-cycle-free graph, as 4-cycles are also excluded here) contains a bisimplicial vertex, which settled a conjecture by Reed. The proof was later shown to be flawed by Chudnovsky & Seymour,[4] who gave a correct proof. Due to this property, the family of all even-cycle-free graphs is -bounded.
^Hoàng, Chính T.; Hougardy, Stefan; Maffray, Frédéric; Mahadev, N. V. R. (29 March 2004). "On simplicial and co-simplicial vertices in graphs". Discrete Applied Mathematics. 138 (1–2): 117–132. doi:10.1016/S0166-218X(03)00275-0.