Certified domination

Imagine that we are given a set $D$ of officials and a set $W$ of civils. For each civil $x \in W$, there must be an official $v \in D$ that can serve $x$, and whenever any such $v$ is serving $x$, there must also be another civil $w \in W$ that observes $v$, that is, $w$ may act as a kind of witness, to avoid any abuse from $v$. What is the minimum number of officials to guarantee such a service, assuming a given social network? In this paper, we introduce the concept of certified domination that perfectly models the aforementioned problem. Specifically, a dominating set $D$ of a graph $G=(V_G,E_G)$ is said to be certified if every vertex in $D$ has either zero or at least two neighbours in $V_G\setminus D$. The cardinality of a minimum certified dominating set in $G$ is called the certified domination number of $G$. Herein, we present the exact values of the certified domination number for some classes of graphs as well as provide some upper bounds on this parameter for arbitrary graphs. We then characterise a wide class of graphs with equal domination and certified domination numbers and characterise graphs with large values of certified domination numbers. Next, we examine the effects on the certified domination number when the graph is modified by deleting/adding an edge or a vertex. We also provide Nordhaus-Gaddum type inequalities for the certified domination number. Finally, we show that the (decision) certified domination problem is NP-complete

Total Dominating Sequences in Graphs

A vertex in a graph totally dominates another vertex if they are adjacent. A sequence of vertices in a graph $G$ is called a total dominating sequence if every vertex $v$ in the sequence totally dominates at least one vertex that was not totally dominated by any vertex that precedes $v$ in the sequence, and at the end all vertices of $G$ are totally dominated. While the length of a shortest such sequence is the total domination number of $G$, in this paper we investigate total dominating sequences of maximum length, which we call the Grundy total domination number, $\gamma_{\rm gr}^t(G)$, of $G$. We provide a characterization of the graphs $G$ for which $\gamma_{\rm gr}^t(G)=|V(G)|$ and of those for which $\gamma_{\rm gr}^t(G)=2$. We show that if $T$ is a nontrivial tree of order~$n$ with no vertex with two or more leaf-neighbors, then $\gamma_{\rm gr}^t(T) \ge \frac{2}{3}(n+1)$, and characterize the extremal trees. We also prove that for $k \ge 3$, if $G$ is a connected $k$-regular graph of order~$n$ different from $K_{k,k}$, then $\gamma_{\rm gr}^t(G) \ge (n + \lceil \frac{k}{2} \rceil - 2)/(k-1)$ if $G$ is not bipartite and $\gamma_{\rm gr}^t(G) \ge (n + 2\lceil \frac{k}{2} \rceil - 4)/(k-1)$ if $G$ is bipartite. The Grundy total domination number is proven to be bounded from above by two times the Grundy domination number, while the former invariant can be arbitrarily smaller than the latter. Finally, a natural connection with edge covering sequences in hypergraphs is established, which in particular yields the NP-completeness of the decision version of the Grundy total domination number.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Kernelization and Sparseness: the case of Dominating Set

We prove that for every positive integer $r$ and for every graph class $\mathcal G$ of bounded expansion, the $r$-Dominating Set problem admits a linear kernel on graphs from $\mathcal G$. Moreover, when $\mathcal G$ is only assumed to be nowhere dense, then we give an almost linear kernel on $\mathcal G$ for the classic Dominating Set problem, i.e., for the case $r=1$. These results generalize a line of previous research on finding linear kernels for Dominating Set and $r$-Dominating Set. However, the approach taken in this work, which is based on the theory of sparse graphs, is radically different and conceptually much simpler than the previous approaches. We complement our findings by showing that for the closely related Connected Dominating Set problem, the existence of such kernelization algorithms is unlikely, even though the problem is known to admit a linear kernel on $H$-topological-minor-free graphs. Also, we prove that for any somewhere dense class $\mathcal G$, there is some $r$ for which $r$-Dominating Set is W[$2$]-hard on $\mathcal G$. Thus, our results fall short of proving a sharp dichotomy for the parameterized complexity of $r$-Dominating Set on subgraph-monotone graph classes: we conjecture that the border of tractability lies exactly between nowhere dense and somewhere dense graph classes.Comment: v2: new author, added results for r-Dominating Sets in bounded expansion graph

Semitotal Domination: New hardness results and a polynomial-time algorithm for graphs of bounded mim-width

A semitotal dominating set of a graph $G$ with no isolated vertex is a dominating set $D$ of $G$ such that every vertex in $D$ is within distance two of another vertex in $D$. The minimum size $\gamma_{t2}(G)$ of a semitotal dominating set of $G$ is squeezed between the domination number $\gamma(G)$ and the total domination number $\gamma_{t}(G)$. \textsc{Semitotal Dominating Set} is the problem of finding, given a graph $G$, a semitotal dominating set of $G$ of size $\gamma_{t2}(G)$. In this paper, we continue the systematic study on the computational complexity of this problem when restricted to special graph classes. In particular, we show that it is solvable in polynomial time for the class of graphs with bounded mim-width by a reduction to \textsc{Total Dominating Set} and we provide several approximation lower bounds for subclasses of subcubic graphs. Moreover, we obtain complexity dichotomies in monogenic classes for the decision versions of \textsc{Semitotal Dominating Set} and \textsc{Total Dominating Set}. Finally, we show that it is $\mathsf{NP}$-complete to recognise the graphs such that $\gamma_{t2}(G) = \gamma_{t}(G)$ and those such that $\gamma(G) = \gamma_{t2}(G)$, even if restricted to be planar and with maximum degree at most $4$, and we provide forbidden induced subgraph characterisations for the graphs heriditarily satisfying either of these two equalities

Total dominator chromatic number of some operations on a graph

Let $G$ be a simple graph. A total dominator coloring of $G$ is a proper coloring of the vertices of $G$ in which each vertex of the graph is adjacent to every vertex of some color class. The total dominator chromatic number $\chi_d^t(G)$ of $G$ is the minimum number of colors among all total dominator coloring of $G$. In this paper, we examine the effects on $\chi_d^t(G)$ when $G$ is modified by operations on vertex and edge of $G$.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1511.0165

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

A characterization of trees having a minimum vertex cover which is also a minimum total dominating set

A vertex cover of a graph $G = (V, E)$ is a set $X \subseteq V$ such that each edge of $G$ is incident to at least one vertex of $X$. A dominating set $D \subseteq V$ is a total dominating set of $G$ if the subgraph induced by $D$ has no isolated vertices. A $(\gamma_t-\tau)$-set of $G$ is a minimum vertex cover which is also a minimum total dominating set. In this article we give a constructive characterization of trees having a $(\gamma_t-\tau)$-set.Comment: 15 pages, 2, figure

On the roots of total domination polynomial of graphs

Let $G = (V, E)$ be a simple graph of order $n$. The total dominating set of $G$ is a subset $D$ of $V$ that every vertex of $V$ is adjacent to some vertices of $D$. The total domination number of $G$ is equal to minimum cardinality of total dominating set in $G$ and denoted by $\gamma_t(G)$. The total domination polynomial of $G$ is the polynomial $D_t(G,x)=\sum_{i=\gamma_t(G)}^n d_t(G,i)$, where $d_t(G,i)$ is the number of total dominating sets of $G$ of size $i$. In this paper, we study roots of total domination polynomial of some graphs. We show that all roots of $D_t(G, x)$ lie in the circle with center $(-1, 0)$ and the radius $\sqrt[\delta]{2^n-1}$, where $\delta$ is the minimum degree of $G$. As a consequence we prove that if $\delta\geq \frac{2n}{3}$, then every integer root of $D_t(G, x)$ lies in the set $\{-3,-2,-1,0\}$.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Maker-Breaker domination number

The Maker-Breaker domination game is played on a graph $G$ by Dominator and Staller. The players alternatively select a vertex of $G$ that was not yet chosen in the course of the game. Dominator wins if at some point the vertices he has chosen form a dominating set. Staller wins if Dominator cannot form a dominating set. In this paper we introduce the Maker-Breaker domination number $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}(G)$ of $G$ as the minimum number of moves of Dominator to win the game provided that he has a winning strategy and is the first to play. If Staller plays first, then the corresponding invariant is denoted $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}'(G)$. Comparing the two invariants it turns out that they behave much differently than the related game domination numbers. The invariant $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}(G)$ is also compared with the domination number. Using the Erd\H{o}s-Selfridge Criterion a large class of graphs $G$ is found for which $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}(G) > \gamma(G)$ holds. Residual graphs are introduced and used to bound/determine $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}(G)$ and $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}'(G)$. Using residual graphs, $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}(T)$ and $\gamma_{{\rm MB}}'(T)$ are determined for an arbitrary tree. The invariants are also obtained for cycles and bounded for union of graphs. A list of open problems and directions for further investigations is given.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Complexity of the Game Domination Problem

The game domination number is a graph invariant that arises from a game, which is related to graph domination in a similar way as the game chromatic number is related to graph coloring. In this paper we show that verifying whether the game domination number of a graph is bounded by a given integer is PSPACE-complete. This contrasts the situation of the game coloring problem whose complexity is still unknown.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure