English

Total isolation game in graphs

Combinatorics 2026-01-08 v1

Abstract

The total isolation game is played on a graph GG by two players who take turns playing a vertex such that if SS is the set of already played vertices, then a vertex can be selected only if it is adjacent to a vertex that belongs to a (nontrivial) component of the graph GNG(S)G - N_G(S) of order at least 22 or a vertex that is isolated in GNG(S)G - N_G(S) and belongs to the set SS, where NG(S)N_G(S) is the set of vertices adjacent to a vertex in SS. Dominator wishes to finish the game with the minimum number of played vertices, while Staller has the opposite goal. The game total isolation number ιgt(G)\iota_{\rm gt}(G) is the number of moves in the Dominator-start game where both players play optimally. We prove that if GG is a connected graph of order n3n \ge 3, then ιgt(G)<56n\iota_{\rm gt}(G) < \frac{5}{6}n. Furthermore if GG has minimum degree at least 22, then we prove that ιgt(G)34n\iota_{\rm gt}(G) \le \frac{3}{4}n. More generally, if GG is a connected graph of order n3n \ge 3 with minimum degree δ\delta where δ2\delta \ge 2, then we prove that ιgt(G)(2δ13δ2)n\iota_{\rm gt}(G) \le \left( \frac{2\delta-1}{3\delta-2} \right) n. Among other results it is proved that if GG is a graph of order nn with diameter 22, then ιgt(G)23n\iota_{\rm gt}(G) \le \frac{2}{3}n.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.03363,
  title  = {Total isolation game in graphs},
  author = {Michael A. Henning and Douglas F. Rall},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.03363},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

18 pages, 19 references

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:53:18.316Z