A characterization of line graphs of directed graphs

We present a theorem which characterizes the class of line graphs of directed graphs. The characterization is an analogue of both the characterization of line graphs by Krausz (1943) and of directed line graphs of directed graphs by Harary and Norman (1960). Our characterization simplifies greatly in the case that the graph is bipartite. This and another result which we present draws attention to the special case of bipartite line graphs of directed graphs. As a result we explore the problem of finding the complete list of forbidden subgraphs for the class of bipartite line graphs of directed graphs. It appears, however, that this problem is extremely difficult. We do find two infinite families of forbidden subgraphs as well as several other illustrative examples.