Operations of graphs and unimodality of independence polynomials

Given two graphs $G$ and $H$, assume that $\mathscr{C}=\{C_1,C_2,\ldots, C_q\}$ is a clique cover of $G$ and $U$ is a subset of $V(H)$. We introduce a new graph operation called the clique cover product, denoted by $G^{\mathscr{C}}\star H^U$, as follows: for each clique $C_i\in \mathscr{C}$, add a copy of the graph $H$ and join every vertex of $C_i$ to every vertex of $U$. We prove that the independence polynomial of $G^{\mathscr{C}}\star H^U$ $$I(G^{\mathscr{C}}\star H^U;x)=I^q(H;x)I(G;\frac{xI(H-U;x)}{I(H;x)}),$$ which generalizes some known results on independence polynomials of corona and rooted products of graphs obtained by Gutman and Rosenfeld, respectively. Based on this formula, we show that the clique cover product of some special graphs preserves symmetry, unimodality, log-concavity or reality of zeros of independence polynomials. As applications we derive several known facts in a unified manner and solve some unimodality conjectures and problems

Domination polynomial of clique cover product of graphs

Let $G$ be a simple graph of order $n$. The domination polynomial of $G$ is the polynomial $D(G, x)=\sum_{i=1}^n d(G,i) x^i$, where $d(G,i)$ is the number of dominating sets of $G$ of size $i$. For two graphs $G$ and $H$, let $\mathcal{C} = \{C_1,C_2, \cdots, C_k\}$ be a clique cover of $G$ and $U\subseteq V(H)$. We consider clique cover product which denoted by $G^\mathcal{C} \star H^U$ and obtained from $G$ as follows: for each clique $C_i \in \mathcal{C}$, add a copy of the graph $H$ and join every vertex of $C_i$ to every vertex of $U$. We prove that the domination polynomial of clique cover product $G^\mathcal{C} \star H^{V(H)}$ or simply $G^\mathcal{C} \star H$ is $$D(G^\mathcal{C} \star H,x)=\prod_{i=1}^k\Big [\big((1+x)^{n_i}-1\big)(1+x)^{|V(H)|}+D(H,x)\Big],$$ where each clique $C_i \in \mathcal{C}$ has $n_i$ vertices. As results, we study the $\mathcal{D}$-equivalence classes of some families of graphs. Also we completely describe the $\mathcal{D}$-equivalence classes of friendship graphs constructed by coalescence $n$ copies of the cycle graph of length three with a common vertex.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

On the Domination Polynomials of Friendship Graphs

Let $G$ be a simple graph of order $n$. The {\em domination polynomial} of $G$ is the polynomial ${D(G, x)=\sum_{i=0}^{n} d(G,i) x^{i}}$, where $d(G,i)$ is the number of dominating sets of $G$ of size $i$. Let $n$ be any positive integer and $F_n$ be the Friendship graph with $2n + 1$ vertices and $3n$ edges, formed by the join of $K_{1}$ with $nK_{2}$. We study the domination polynomials of this family of graphs, and in particular examine the domination roots of the family, and find the limiting curve for the roots. We also show that for every $n\geq 2$, $F_n$ is not $\mathcal{D}$-unique, that is, there is another non-isomorphic graph with the same domination polynomial. Also we construct some families of graphs whose real domination roots are only $-2$ and $0$. Finally, we conclude by discussing the domination polynomials of a related family of graphs, the $n$-book graphs $B_n$, formed by joining $n$ copies of the cycle graph $C_4$ with a common edge.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. New version of paper entitled "On $\mathcal{D}$-equivalence class of friendship graphs

On the independent domination polynomial of a graph

An independent dominating set of the simple graph $G=(V,E)$ is a vertex subset that is both dominating and independent in $G$. The independent domination polynomial of a graph $G$ is the polynomial $D_i(G,x)=\sum_{A} x^{|A|}$, summed over all independent dominating subsets $A\subseteq V$. A root of $D_i(G,x)$ is called an independence domination root. We investigate the independent domination polynomials of some generalized compound graphs. As consequences, we construct graphs whose independence domination roots are real. Also, we consider some certain graphs and study the number of their independent dominating sets.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1309.7673 by other author

Domination polynomials of k-tree related graphs

Let $G$ be a simple graph of order $n$. The domination polynomial of $G$ is the polynomial $D(G, x)=\sum_{i=\gamma(G)}^{n} d(G,i) x^{i}$, where $d(G,i)$ is the number of dominating sets of $G$ of size $i$ and $\gamma(G)$ is the domination number of $G$. In this paper we study the domination polynomials of several classes of $k$-tree related graphs. Also, we present families of these kind of graphs, whose domination polynomial have no nonzero real roots

On some conjectures concerning critical independent sets of a graph

Let $G$ be a simple graph with vertex set $V(G)$. A set $S\subseteq V(G)$ is independent if no two vertices from $S$ are adjacent. For $X\subseteq V(G)$, the difference of $X$ is $d(X) = |X|-|N(X)|$ and an independent set $A$ is critical if $d(A) = \max \{d(X): X\subseteq V(G) \text{ is an independent set}\}$ (possibly $A=\emptyset$). Let $\text{nucleus}(G)$ and $\text{diadem}(G)$ be the intersection and union, respectively, of all maximum size critical independent sets in $G$. In this paper, we will give two new characterizations of K\"{o}nig-Egerv\'{a}ry graphs involving $\text{nucleus}(G)$ and $\text{diadem}(G)$. We also prove a related lower bound for the independence number of a graph. This work answers several conjectures posed by Jarden, Levit, and Mandrescu.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Some families of graphs with no nonzero real domination roots

Let G be a simple graph of order n. The domination polynomial is the generating polynomial for the number of dominating sets of G of each cardinality. A root of this polynomial is called a domination root of G. Obviously 0 is a domination root of every graph G. In the study of the domination roots of graphs, this naturally raises the question: which graphs have no nonzero real domination roots? In this paper we present some families of graphs whose have this property.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1401.209

Critical Independent Sets of a Graph

Let $G$ be a simple graph with vertex set $V\left( G\right)$. A set $S\subseteq V\left( G\right)$ is independent if no two vertices from $S$ are adjacent, and by $\mathrm{Ind}(G)$ we mean the family of all independent sets of $G$. The number $d\left( X\right) =$ $\left\vert X\right\vert -\left\vert N(X)\right\vert$ is the difference of $X\subseteq V\left( G\right)$, and a set $A\in\mathrm{Ind}(G)$ is critical if $d(A)=\max \{d\left( I\right) :I\in\mathrm{Ind}(G)\}$ (Zhang, 1990). Let us recall the following definitions: $\mathrm{core}\left( G\right)$ = $\bigcap$ {S : S is a maximum independent set}. $\mathrm{corona}\left( G\right)$ = $\bigcup$ {S :S is a maximum independent set}. $\mathrm{\ker}(G)$ = $\bigcap$ {S : S is a critical independent set}. $\mathrm{diadem}(G)$ = $\bigcup$ {S : S is a critical independent set}. In this paper we present various structural properties of $\mathrm{\ker}(G)$, in relation with $\mathrm{core}\left( G\right)$, $\mathrm{corona}\left( G\right)$, and $\mathrm{diadem}(G)$.Comment: 15 pages; 12 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1102.113

Critical and Maximum Independent Sets of a Graph

Let G be a simple graph with vertex set V(G). A subset S of V(G) is independent if no two vertices from S are adjacent. By Ind(G) we mean the family of all independent sets of G while core(G) and corona(G) denote the intersection and the union of all maximum independent sets, respectively. The number d(X)= |X|-|N(X)| is the difference of the set of vertices X, and an independent set A is critical if d(A)=max{d(I):I belongs to Ind(G)} (Zhang, 1990). Let ker(G) and diadem(G) be the intersection and union, respectively, of all critical independent sets of G (Levit and Mandrescu, 2012). In this paper, we present various connections between critical unions and intersections of maximum independent sets of a graph. These relations give birth to new characterizations of Koenig-Egervary graphs, some of them involving ker(G), core(G), corona(G), and diadem(G).Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1407.736

The Independent Domination Polynomial

A vertex subset $W\subseteq V$ of the graph $G=(V,E)$ is an independent dominating set if every vertex in $V\backslash W$ is adjacent to at least one vertex in $W$ and the vertices of $W$ are pairwise non-adjacent. The independent domination polynomial is the ordinary generating function for the number of independent dominating sets in the graph. We investigate in this paper properties of the independent domination polynomial and some interesting connections to well known counting problems