Clique-width of graphs defined by one-vertex extensions

Let G be a graph and u be a vertex of G. We consider the following operation: add a new vertex V Such that v does not distinguish any two vertices which are not distinguished by u. We call this operation a one-vertex extension. Adding a true twin, a false twin or a pendant vertex are cases of one-vertex extensions. Here we are interested in graph classes defined by a subset Of allowed one-vertex extension. Examples are trees, cographs and distance-hereditary graphs, We give a complete classification of theses classes with respect to their clique-width. We also introduce a new graph parameter called the modular-width, and we give a relation with the clique-width, (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.