Locating-dominating sets in twin-free graphs

A locating-dominating set of a graph $G$ is a dominating set $D$ of $G$ with the additional property that every two distinct vertices outside $D$ have distinct neighbors in $D$; that is, for distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ outside $D$, $N(u) \cap D \ne N(v) \cap D$ where $N(u)$ denotes the open neighborhood of $u$. A graph is twin-free if every two distinct vertices have distinct open and closed neighborhoods. The location-domination number of $G$, denoted $\gamma_L(G)$, is the minimum cardinality of a locating-dominating set in $G$. It is conjectured [D. Garijo, A. Gonz\'alez and A. M\'arquez. The difference between the metric dimension and the determining number of a graph. Applied Mathematics and Computation 249 (2014), 487--501] that if $G$ is a twin-free graph of order $n$ without isolated vertices, then $\gamma_L(G)\le \frac{n}{2}$. We prove the general bound $\gamma_L(G)\le \frac{2n}{3}$, slightly improving over the $\lfloor\frac{2n}{3}\rfloor+1$ bound of Garijo et al. We then provide constructions of graphs reaching the $\frac{n}{2}$ bound, showing that if the conjecture is true, the family of extremal graphs is a very rich one. Moreover, we characterize the trees $G$ that are extremal for this bound. We finally prove the conjecture for split graphs and co-bipartite graphs.Comment: 11 pages; 4 figure

On the extremal properties of the average eccentricity

The eccentricity of a vertex is the maximum distance from it to another vertex and the average eccentricity $ecc (G)$ of a graph $G$ is the mean value of eccentricities of all vertices of $G$. The average eccentricity is deeply connected with a topological descriptor called the eccentric connectivity index, defined as a sum of products of vertex degrees and eccentricities. In this paper we analyze extremal properties of the average eccentricity, introducing two graph transformations that increase or decrease $ecc (G)$. Furthermore, we resolve four conjectures, obtained by the system AutoGraphiX, about the average eccentricity and other graph parameters (the clique number, the Randi\' c index and the independence number), refute one AutoGraphiX conjecture about the average eccentricity and the minimum vertex degree and correct one AutoGraphiX conjecture about the domination number.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Dominating 2-broadcast in graphs: complexity, bounds and extremal graphs

Limited dominating broadcasts were proposed as a variant of dominating broadcasts, where the broadcast function is upper bounded. As a natural extension of domination, we consider dominating 2-broadcasts along with the associated parameter, the dominating 2-broadcast number. We prove that computing the dominating 2-broadcast number is a NP-complete problem, but can be achieved in linear time for trees. We also give an upper bound for this parameter, that is tight for graphs as large as desired.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft