Paired coalition in graphs

Abstract

A paired coalition in a graph G = ( V , E ) consists of two disjoint sets of vertices V 1 and V 2 , neither of which is a paired dominating set but whose union V 1 ∪ V 2 is a paired dominating set. A paired coalition partition (abbreviated pc-partition) in a graph G is a vertex partition π = { V 1 , V 2 , … , V k } such that each set V i of π is not a paired dominating set but forms a paired coalition with another set V j ∈ π . The paired coalition graph PCG ( G , π ) of the graph G with the pc-partition π of G, is the graph whose vertices correspond to the sets of π , and two vertices V i and V j are adjacent in PCG ( G , π ) if and only if their corresponding sets V i and V j form a paired coalition in G. In this paper, we initiate the study of paired coalition partitions and paired coalition graphs. In particular, we determine the paired coalition number of paths and cycles, obtain some results on paired coalition partitions in trees and characterize pair coalition graphs of paths, cycles and trees. We also characterize triangle-free graphs G of order n with PC ( G ) = n and unicyclic graphs G of order n with PC ( G ) = n − 2 .