English

On Zero Forcing Number of Graphs and Their Complements

Combinatorics 2015-02-19 v2

Abstract

The \emph{zero forcing number}, Z(G)Z(G), of a graph GG is the minimum cardinality of a set SS of black vertices (whereas vertices in V(G)SV(G) \setminus S are colored white) such that V(G)V(G) is turned black after finitely many applications of "the color-change rule": a white vertex is converted to a black vertex if it is the only white neighbor of a black vertex. Zero forcing number was introduced and used to bound the minimum rank of graphs by the "AIM Minimum Rank -- Special Graphs Work Group". It's known that Z(G)δ(G)Z(G)\geq \delta(G), where δ(G)\delta(G) is the minimum degree of GG. We show that Z(G)n3Z(G)\leq n-3 if a connected graph GG of order nn has a connected complement graph G\overline{G}. Further, we characterize a tree or a unicyclic graph GG which satisfies either Z(G)+Z(G)=δ(G)+δ(G)Z(G)+Z(\overline{G})=\delta(G)+\delta(\overline{G}) or Z(G)+Z(G)=2(n3)Z(G)+Z(\overline{G})=2(n-3).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1402.1962,
  title  = {On Zero Forcing Number of Graphs and Their Complements},
  author = {Linda Eroh and Cong X. Kang and Eunjeong Yi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.1962},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

9 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1204.2238