  It has been known since 1991 that the problem of recognizing grid
intersection graphs is NP-complete. Here we use a modified argument of the
above result to show that even if we restrict to the class of unit grid
intersection graphs (UGIGs), the recognition remains hard, as well as for all
graph classes contained inbetween. The result holds even when considering only
graphs with arbitrarily large girth. Furthermore, we ask the question of
representing UGIGs on grids of minimal size. We show that the UGIGs that can be
represented in a square of side length 1+epsilon, for a positive epsilon no
greater than 1, are exactly the orthogonal ray graphs, and that there exist
families of trees that need an arbitrarily large grid.
