
Halfway to induced saturation for even cycles
For graphs $G$ and $H$, we say that $G$ is $H$-free if no induced subgraph of $G$ is isomorphic to $H$, and that $G$ is $H$-induced saturated if $G$ is $H$-free but removing or adding any edge in $G$ creates an induced copy of $H$. A full characterization of graphs $H$ for which $H$-induced saturated graphs exist remains elusive. Even the case where $H$ is a path -- now settled by the collective results of Martin and Smith, Bonamy et al., and Dvoŕǎk -- was already quite challenging.
What if…