Global offensive kk-alliances in digraphs

In this paper, we initiate the study of global offensive $k$-alliances in digraphs. Given a digraph $D=(V(D),A(D))$, a global offensive $k$-alliance in a digraph $D$ is a subset $S\subseteq V(D)$ such that every vertex outside of $S$ has at least one in-neighbor from $S$ and also at least $k$ more in-neighbors from $S$ than from outside of $S$, by assuming $k$ is an integer lying between two minus the maximum in-degree of $D$ and the maximum in-degree of $D$. The global offensive $k$-alliance number $\gamma_{k}^{o}(D)$ is the minimum cardinality among all global offensive $k$-alliances in $D$. In this article we begin the study of the global offensive $k$-alliance number of digraphs. For instance, we prove that finding the global offensive $k$-alliance number of digraphs $D$ is an NP-hard problem for any value $k\in \{2-\Delta^-(D),\dots,\Delta^-(D)\}$ and that it remains NP-complete even when restricted to bipartite digraphs when we consider the non-negative values of $k$ given in the interval above. Based on these facts, lower bounds on $\gamma_{k}^{o}(D)$ with characterizations of all digraphs attaining the bounds are given in this work. We also bound this parameter for bipartite digraphs from above. For the particular case $k=1$, an immediate result from the definition shows that $\gamma(D)\leq \gamma_{1}^{o}(D)$ for all digraphs $D$, in which $\gamma(D)$ stands for the domination number of $D$. We show that these two digraph parameters are the same for some infinite families of digraphs like rooted trees and contrafunctional digraphs. Moreover, we show that the difference between $\gamma_{1}^{o}(D)$ and $\gamma(D)$ can be arbitrary large for directed trees and connected functional digraphs

Alliance free sets in Cartesian product graphs

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph. For a non-empty subset of vertices $S\subseteq V$, and vertex $v\in V$, let $\delta_S(v)=|\{u\in S:uv\in E\}|$ denote the cardinality of the set of neighbors of $v$ in $S$, and let $\bar{S}=V-S$. Consider the following condition: {equation}\label{alliancecondition} \delta_S(v)\ge \delta_{\bar{S}}(v)+k, \{equation} which states that a vertex $v$ has at least $k$ more neighbors in $S$ than it has in $\bar{S}$. A set $S\subseteq V$ that satisfies Condition (\ref{alliancecondition}) for every vertex $v \in S$ is called a \emph{defensive} $k$-\emph{alliance}; for every vertex $v$ in the neighborhood of $S$ is called an \emph{offensive} $k$-\emph{alliance}. A subset of vertices $S\subseteq V$, is a \emph{powerful} $k$-\emph{alliance} if it is both a defensive $k$-alliance and an offensive $(k +2)$-alliance. Moreover, a subset $X\subset V$ is a defensive (an offensive or a powerful) $k$-alliance free set if $X$ does not contain any defensive (offensive or powerful, respectively) $k$-alliance. In this article we study the relationships between defensive (offensive, powerful) $k$-alliance free sets in Cartesian product graphs and defensive (offensive, powerful) $k$-alliance free sets in the factor graphs

On global offensive k-alliances in graphs

We investigate the relationship between global offensive k-alliances and some characteristic sets of a graph including r-dependent sets, τ-dominating sets and standard dominating sets. In addition, we discuss the close relationship that exist among the (global) offensive ki-alliance number of Γi, i ∈ {1,2} and the (global) offensive k-alliance number of Γ1×Γ2, for some specific values of k. As a consequence of the study, we obtain bounds on the global offensive k-alliance number in terms of several parameters of the graph. e-mail:[email protected]. Partially supported by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, ref. BFM2003-00034 and Junta de Andalucía, ref. FQM-260 and ref. P06-FQM-02225