  Disk contact representations realize graphs by mapping vertices bijectively
to interior-disjoint disks in the plane such that two disks touch each other if
and only if the corresponding vertices are adjacent in the graph. Deciding
whether a vertex-weighted planar graph can be realized such that the disks'
radii coincide with the vertex weights is known to be NP-hard. In this work, we
reduce the gap between hardness and tractability by analyzing the problem for
special graph classes. We show that it remains NP-hard for outerplanar graphs
with unit weights and for stars with arbitrary weights, strengthening the
previous hardness results. On the positive side, we present constructive
linear-time recognition algorithms for caterpillars with unit weights and for
embedded stars with arbitrary weights.
