Metric Dimension: from Graphs to Oriented Graphs

Abstract

The metric dimension MD(G) of an undirected graph G is the cardinality of a smallest set of vertices that allows, through their distances to all vertices, to distinguish any two vertices of G. Many aspects of this notion have been investigated since its introduction in the 70's, including its generalization to digraphs. In this work, we study, for particular graph families, the maximum metric dimension over all strongly-connected orientations, by exhibiting lower and upper bounds on this value. We first exhibit general bounds for graphs with bounded maximum degree. In particular, we prove that, in the case of subcubic n-node graphs, all strongly-connected orientations asymptotically have metric dimension at most n2, and that there are such orientations having metric dimension 2n5. We then consider strongly-connected orientations of grids. For a torus with n rows and m columns, we show that the maximum value of the metric dimension of a strongly-connected Eulerian orientation is asymptotically nm2 (the equality holding when n, m are even, which is best possible). For a grid with n rows and m columns, we prove that all strongly-connected orientations asymptotically have metric dimension at most 2nm3, and that there are such orientations having metric dimension nm2.