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Related papers: Zero forcing and maximum nullity for hypergraphs

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In a zero forcing process, vertices of a graph are colored black and white initially, and if there exists a black vertex adjacent to exactly one white vertex, then the white vertex is forced to be black. A zero blocking set is an initial…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-08-14 Hau-Yi Lin , Wu-Hsiung Lin , Gerard Jennhwa Chang

Probabilistic zero-forcing is a coloring process on a graph. In this process, an initial set of vertices is colored blue, and the remaining vertices are colored white. At each time step, blue vertices have a non-zero probability of forcing…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-10-26 David Hu , Alec Sun

In 2018, forts were defined as non-empty subsets of vertices in a graph where no vertex outside the set has exactly one neighbor in the set. Forts have since been used to characterize zero forcing sets, model zero forcing as an integer…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-07-16 Boris Brimkov , Thomas R. Cameron , Owen Grubbs

We give an algorithm that finds a zero forcing set which approximates the optimal size by a factor of $\text{pw}(G)+1$, where $\text{pw}(G)$ is the pathwidth of $G$. Starting from a path decomposition, the algorithm runs in $O(nm)$ time,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-02-15 Ben Cameron , Jeannette Janssen , Rogers Matthew , Zhiyuan Zhang

Let $G$ be a simple, finite, and undirected graph with vertices each given an initial coloring of either blue or white. Zero forcing on graph $G$ is an iterative process of forcing its white vertices to become blue after a finite…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-02-11 Ma. Nerissa M. Abara , Prince Allan B. Pelayo

Zero forcing is a dynamic coloring process on graphs. Initially, each vertex of a graph is assigned a color of either blue or white, and then a process begins by which blue vertices force white vertices to become blue. The zero forcing…

A zero forcing set is a set $S$ of vertices of a graph $G$, called forced vertices of $G$, which are able to force the entire graph by applying the following process iteratively: At any particular instance of time, if any forced vertex has…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-06-22 Jessy Sujana G. , T. M. Rajalaxmi , Indra Rajasingh , R. Sundara Rajan

Zero forcing is a one-player game played on a graph. The player chooses some set of vertices to color, then iteratively applies a color change rule: If all but one of a colored vertex's neighbors are colored, color (i.e. "force") the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-10-02 Shannon Dillman , Franklin Kenter

In this paper we introduce a class of regular bipartite graphs whose biadjacency matrices are circulant matrices and we describe some of their properties. Notably, we compute upper and lower bounds for the zero forcing number for such a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2010-11-29 Seth A. Meyer

This paper begins the study of reconfiguration of zero forcing sets, and more specifically, the zero forcing graph. Given a base graph $G$, its zero forcing graph, $\mathscr{Z}(G)$, is the graph whose vertices are the minimum zero forcing…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-09-02 Jesse Geneson , Ruth Haas , Leslie Hogben

Given a simple undirected graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, the $k$-forcing number of $G$, denoted $F_k(G)$, is the minimum number of vertices that need to be initially colored so that all vertices eventually become colored during the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-01-27 David Amos , Yair Caro , Randy Davila , Ryan Pepper

Zero forcing is a graph coloring process that is used to model spreading phenomena in real-world scenarios. It can also be viewed as a single-player combinatorial game on a graph, where the player's goal is to select a subset of vertices of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-09-05 Aida Abiad , Maryam Moghaddas

We determine upper and lower bounds on the zero forcing number of 2-connected outerplanar graphs in terms of the structure of the weak dual. We show that the upper bound is always at most half the number of vertices of the graph. This work…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-08-23 Nolan Ison , Mark Kempton , Franklin Kenter

Zero forcing in a graph refers to the evolution of vertex states under repeated application of a color change rule. Typically the states are chosen to be blue and white, and a forcing set is an initial set of blue vertices such that all of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-11-21 Daniela Ferrero , H. Tracy Hall , Leslie Hogben , Mark Hunnell , Ben Small

Given a graph $G$, the zero-forcing number of $G$, $Z(G)$, is the smallest cardinality of any set $S$ of vertices on which repeated applications of the forcing rule results in all vertices being in $S$. The forcing rule is: if a vertex $v$…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-10-19 Luis Gomez , Karla Rubi , Jorden Terrazas , Darren A. Narayan

Let $G$ be a simple graph whose vertices are partitioned into two subsets, called filled vertices and empty vertices. A vertex $v$ is said to be forced by a filled vertex $u$ if $v$ is a unique empty neighbor of $u$. If we can fill all the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-09-02 Yaroslav Shitov

A connected forcing set of a graph is a zero forcing set that induces a connected subgraph. In this paper, we introduce and study CF-dense graphs -- graphs in which every vertex belongs to some minimum connected forcing set. We identify…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-07-16 Boris Brimkov , Randy Davila , Houston Schuerger

Motivated by a conjecture from the automated conjecturing program TxGraffiti, in this paper the relationship between the zero forcing number, $Z(G)$, and the vertex independence number, $\alpha(G)$, of cubic and subcubic graphs is explored.…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-11-04 Houston Schuerger , Nathan Warnberg , Michael Young

We consider bounds on maximum nullity of a graph via transversal numbers of compatible collections of forts. Results include generalizations of theorems from symmetric to combinatorially symmetric matrices, special bases of matrix…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-07-08 Veronika Furst , John Hutchens , Lon Mitchell , Yaqi Zhang

Zero forcing parameters, associated with graphs, have been studied for over a decade, and have gained popularity as the number of related applications grows. In particular, it is well-known that such parameters are related to certain vertex…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2015-09-01 Shaun Fallat , Karen Meagher , Abolghasem Soltani , Boting Yang