The Simultaneous Strong Resolving Graph and the Simultaneous Strong Metric Dimension of Graph Families

We consider in this work a new approach to study the simultaneous strong metric dimension of graphs families, while introducing the simultaneous version of the strong resolving graph. In concordance, we consider here connected graphs G whose vertex sets are represented as V(G), and the following terminology. Two vertices u,v is an element of V(G) are strongly resolved by a vertex w is an element of V(G), if there is a shortest w-v path containing u or a shortest w-u containing v. A set A of vertices of the graph G is said to be a strong metric generator for G if every two vertices of G are strongly resolved by some vertex of A. The smallest possible cardinality of any strong metric generator (SSMG) for the graph G is taken as the strong metric dimension of the graph G. Given a family F of graphs defined over a common vertex set V, a set S subset of V is an SSMG for F, if such set S is a strong metric generator for every graph G is an element of F. The simultaneous strong metric dimension of F is the minimum cardinality of any strong metric generator for F, and is denoted by Sds(F). The notion of simultaneous strong resolving graph of a graph family F is introduced in this work, and its usefulness in the study of Sds(F) is described. That is, it is proved that computing Sds(F) is equivalent to computing the vertex cover number of the simultaneous strong resolving graph of F. Several consequences (computational and combinatorial) of such relationship are then deduced. Among them, we remark for instance that we have proved the NP-hardness of computing the simultaneous strong metric dimension of families of paths, which is an improvement (with respect to the increasing difficulty of the problem) on the results known from the literature

Combinatorics and geometry of finite and infinite squaregraphs

Squaregraphs were originally defined as finite plane graphs in which all inner faces are quadrilaterals (i.e., 4-cycles) and all inner vertices (i.e., the vertices not incident with the outer face) have degrees larger than three. The planar dual of a finite squaregraph is determined by a triangle-free chord diagram of the unit disk, which could alternatively be viewed as a triangle-free line arrangement in the hyperbolic plane. This representation carries over to infinite plane graphs with finite vertex degrees in which the balls are finite squaregraphs. Algebraically, finite squaregraphs are median graphs for which the duals are finite circular split systems. Hence squaregraphs are at the crosspoint of two dualities, an algebraic and a geometric one, and thus lend themselves to several combinatorial interpretations and structural characterizations. With these and the 5-colorability theorem for circle graphs at hand, we prove that every squaregraph can be isometrically embedded into the Cartesian product of five trees. This embedding result can also be extended to the infinite case without reference to an embedding in the plane and without any cardinality restriction when formulated for median graphs free of cubes and further finite obstructions. Further, we exhibit a class of squaregraphs that can be embedded into the product of three trees and we characterize those squaregraphs that are embeddable into the product of just two trees. Finally, finite squaregraphs enjoy a number of algorithmic features that do not extend to arbitrary median graphs. For instance, we show that median-generating sets of finite squaregraphs can be computed in polynomial time, whereas, not unexpectedly, the corresponding problem for median graphs turns out to be NP-hard.Comment: 46 pages, 14 figure