Algorithmic Aspects of Secure Connected Domination in Graphs

Let $G = (V,E)$ be a simple, undirected and connected graph. A connected dominating set $S \subseteq V$ is a secure connected dominating set of $G$, if for each $u \in V\setminus S$, there exists $v\in S$ such that $(u,v) \in E$ and the set $(S \setminus \{ v \}) \cup \{ u \}$ is a connected dominating set of $G$. The minimum size of a secure connected dominating set of $G$ denoted by $\gamma_{sc} (G)$, is called the secure connected domination number of $G$. Given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k,$ the Secure Connected Domination (SCDM) problem is to check whether $G$ has a secure connected dominating set of size at most $k.$ In this paper, we prove that the SCDM problem is NP-complete for doubly chordal graphs, a subclass of chordal graphs. We investigate the complexity of this problem for some subclasses of bipartite graphs namely, star convex bipartite, comb convex bipartite, chordal bipartite and chain graphs. The Minimum Secure Connected Dominating Set (MSCDS) problem is to find a secure connected dominating set of minimum size in the input graph. We propose a $(\Delta(G)+1)$ - approximation algorithm for MSCDS, where $\Delta(G)$ is the maximum degree of the input graph $G$ and prove that MSCDS cannot be approximated within $(1 -\epsilon) ln(| V |)$ for any $\epsilon > 0$ unless $NP \subseteq DTIME(| V |^{O(log log | V |)})$ even for bipartite graphs. Finally, we show that the MSCDS is APX-complete for graphs with $\Delta(G)=4$

The VC-Dimension of Graphs with Respect to k-Connected Subgraphs

We study the VC-dimension of the set system on the vertex set of some graph which is induced by the family of its $k$-connected subgraphs. In particular, we give tight upper and lower bounds for the VC-dimension. Moreover, we show that computing the VC-dimension is $\mathsf{NP}$-complete and that it remains $\mathsf{NP}$-complete for split graphs and for some subclasses of planar bipartite graphs in the cases $k = 1$ and $k = 2$. On the positive side, we observe it can be decided in linear time for graphs of bounded clique-width

On Minimum Maximal Distance-k Matchings

We study the computational complexity of several problems connected with finding a maximal distance-$k$ matching of minimum cardinality or minimum weight in a given graph. We introduce the class of $k$-equimatchable graphs which is an edge analogue of $k$-equipackable graphs. We prove that the recognition of $k$-equimatchable graphs is co-NP-complete for any fixed $k \ge 2$. We provide a simple characterization for the class of strongly chordal graphs with equal $k$-packing and $k$-domination numbers. We also prove that for any fixed integer $\ell \ge 1$ the problem of finding a minimum weight maximal distance-$2\ell$ matching and the problem of finding a minimum weight $(2 \ell - 1)$-independent dominating set cannot be approximated in polynomial time in chordal graphs within a factor of $\delta \ln |V(G)|$ unless $\mathrm{P} = \mathrm{NP}$, where $\delta$ is a fixed constant (thereby improving the NP-hardness result of Chang for the independent domination case). Finally, we show the NP-hardness of the minimum maximal induced matching and independent dominating set problems in large-girth planar graphs.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure