On Secure Domination in Graphs

Abstract

A set D⊂V of a graph G=(V,E) is a dominating set of G if every vertex not in D is adjacent to at least one vertex in D. A secure dominating set S of a graph G is a dominating set with the property that each vertex u∈V∖S is adjacent to a vertex v∈S such that (S∖{v})∪{u} is a dominating set. The secure domination number γs(G) equals the minimum cardinality of a secure dominating set of G. We first show that the problem of computing the secure domination number is NP-complete for bipartite and split graphs. Then we present bounds relating the secure domination number to the domination number γ(G), the independence number β0(G) and the independent domination number i(G). In particular, we prove that γs(G)≤γ(G)+β0(G)−1 if G is an arbitrary graph, γs(G)≤32β0(G) if G is triangle-free, and γs(G)≤β0(G) if G has girth at least six. Finally, we show for the class of trees T that γs(T)≥i(T) and γs(T)>β0(T)/2. The last result answers the question posed by Mynhardt at the 22nd Clemson mini-Conference, 2007