K4-free Graphs as a Free Algebra

International audience; Graphs of treewidth at most two are the ones excluding the clique with four vertices (K4) as a minor, or equivalently, the graphs whose biconnected components are series-parallel. We turn those graphs into a finitely presented free algebra, answering positively a question by Courcelle and Engelfriet, in the case of treewidth two. First we propose a syntax for denoting these graphs: in addition to parallel composition and series composition, it suffices to consider the neutral elements of those operations and a unary transpose operation. Then we give a finite equational presentation and we prove it complete: two terms from the syntax are congruent if and only if they …