The 1/3-conjectures for domination in cubic graphs

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a dominating set of G if every vertex not in S is adjacent to a vertex in S . The domination number of G, denoted by $\gamma$(G), is the minimum cardinality of a dominating set in G. In a breakthrough paper in 2008, L{\"o}wenstein and Rautenbach proved that if G is a cubic graph of order n and girth at least 83, then $\gamma$(G) $\le$ n/3. A natural question is if this girth condition can be lowered. The question gave birth to two 1/3-conjectures for domination in cubic graphs. The first conjecture, posed by Verstraete in 2010, states that if G is a cubic graph on n vertices with girth at least 6, then $\gamma$(G) $\le$ n/3. The second conjecture, first posed as a question by Kostochka in 2009, states that if G is a cubic, bipartite graph of order n, then $\gamma$(G) $\le$n/3. In this paper, we prove Verstraete's conjecture when there is no 7-cycle and no 8-cycle, and we prove the Kostochka's related conjecture for bipartite graphs when there is no 4-cycle and no 8-cycle.