Relating broadcast independence and independence

An independent broadcast on a connected graph $G$ is a function $f:V(G)\to \mathbb{N}_0$ such that, for every vertex $x$ of $G$, the value $f(x)$ is at most the eccentricity of $x$ in $G$, and $f(x)>0$ implies that $f(y)=0$ for every vertex $y$ of $G$ within distance at most $f(x)$ from $x$. The broadcast independence number $\alpha_b(G)$ of $G$ is the largest weight $\sum\limits_{x\in V(G)}f(x)$ of an independent broadcast $f$ on $G$. Clearly, $\alpha_b(G)$ is at least the independence number $\alpha(G)$ for every connected graph $G$. Our main result implies $\alpha_b(G)\leq 4\alpha(G)$. We prove a tight inequality and characterize all extremal graphs

Broadcasts on Paths and Cycles

A broadcast on a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a function $f: V\longrightarrow \{0,\ldots,\operatorname{diam}(G)\}$ such that $f(v)\leq e_G(v)$ for every vertex $v\in V$, where$\operatorname{diam}(G)$ denotes the diameter of $G$ and $e_G(v)$ the eccentricity of $v$ in $G$. The cost of such a broadcast is then the value $\sum_{v\in V}f(v)$.Various types of broadcast functions on graphs have been considered in the literature, in relation with domination, irredundence, independenceor packing, leading to the introduction of several broadcast numbers on graphs.In this paper, we determine these broadcast numbers for all paths and cycles, thus answering a questionraised in [D.~Ahmadi, G.H.~Fricke, C.~Schroeder, S.T.~Hedetniemi and R.C.~Laskar, Broadcast irredundance in graphs. {\it Congr. Numer.} 224 (2015), 17--31]