• 1 Department of Mathematics (Beijing)
• 2 Department of Applied Mathematics
• 3 Department of Mathematics and Statistics

As a common generalization of bipartite and split graphs, monopolar graphs are defined in terms of the existence of certain vertex partitions. It has been shown that to determine whether a graph has such a partition is NP-complete for general graphs and polynomial for several classes of graphs. In this paper, we investigate graphs that admit a unique such partition and call them uniquely monopolar-partitionable graphs. By employing a tree trimming technique, we obtain a characterization of uniquely monopolar-partitionable block graphs. Our characterization implies a polynomial time algorithm for recognizing them.