Perfect Divisibility and Coloring of Some Bull-Free Graphs

A graph $G$ is {\em perfectly divisible} if, for each induced subgraph $H$ of $G$, $V(H)$ can be partitioned into $A$ and $B$ such that $H[A]$ is perfect and $\omega (H[B])<\omega (H)$. A {\em bull} is a graph consisting of a triangle with two disjoint pendant edges, a {\em fork } is a graph obtained from $K_{1,3}$ by subdividing an edge once, and an {\em odd torch} is a graph obtained from an odd hole by adding an edge $xy$ such that $x$ is non-adjacent to any vertex on the odd hole and the set of neighbors of $y$ on the odd hole is a stable set. Chudnovsky and Sivaraman [J. Graph Theory 90 (2019) 54-60] proved that every (odd hole, bull)-free graph and every ($P_5$, bull)-free graph are perfectly divisible. Karthick {\em et al.} [The Electron. J. of Combin. 29 (2022) P3.19.] proved that every (fork, bull)-free graph is perfectly divisible. Chen and Xu [Discrete Appl. Math. 372 (2025) 298-307.] proved that every ($P_7,C_5$, bull)-free graph is perfectly divisible. Let $H\in${{odd~torch}, $\{P_8,C_5\}\}$. In this paper, we prove that every ($H$, bull)-free graph is perfectly divisible. We also prove that a ($P_6$, bull)-free graph is perfectly divisible if and only if it contains no Mycielski-Grötzsch graph as an induced subgraph. As corollaries, these graphs are $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0px}{}{\omega +1}{2}\right)$-colorable. Notice that every odd torch contains an odd hole, an induced $P_5$, and an induced fork. Therefore, our results generalize their findings. Moreover, we prove that every ($P_6$, bull)-free graph $G$ satisfies $\chi (G)\le \omega (G{)}^7$.