Zero Forcing Number of Some Families of Graphs

The work is devoted to the study of the zero forcing number of some families of graphs. The concept of zero forcing is a relatively new research topic in discrete mathematics, which already has some practical applications, in particular, is used in studies of the minimum rank of the matrices of adjacent graphs. The zero forcing process is an example of the spreading process on graphs. Such processes are interesting not only in terms of mathematical and computer research, but also interesting and are used to model technical or social processes in other areas: statistical mechanics, physics, analysis of social networks, and so on. Let the vertices of the graph G be considered white, except for a certain set of S black vertices. We will repaint the vertices of the graph from white to black, using a certain rule.Colour change rule: A white vertex turns black if it is the only white vertex adjacent to the black vertex.[5] The zero forcing number Z(G) of the graph G is the minimum cardinality of the set of black vertices S required to convert all vertices of the graph G to black in a finite number of steps using the ”colour change rule”.It is known [10] that for any graph G, its zero forcing number cannot be less than the minimum degree of its vertices. Such and other already known facts became the basis for finding the zero forcing number for two given below families of graphs:A gear graph, denoted W2,n is a graph obtained by inserting an extra vertex between each pair of adjacent vertices on the perimeter of a wheel graph Wn. Thus, W2,n has 2n + 1 vertices and 3n edges.A prism graph, denoted Yn, or in general case Ym,n, and sometimes also called a circular ladder graph, is a graph corresponding to the skeleton of an n-prism.A wheel graph, denoted Wn is a graph formed by connecting a single universal vertex to all vertices of a cycle of length n.In this article some known results are reviewed, there is also a definition, proof and some examples of the zero forcing number and the zero forcing process of gear graphs and prism graphs.

Zero forcing number of degree splitting graphs and complete degree splitting graphs

A subset ℤ ⊆ V(G) of initially colored black vertices of a graph G is known as a zero forcing set if we can alter the color of all vertices in G as black by iteratively applying the subsequent color change condition. At each step, any black colored vertex has exactly one white neighbor, then change the color of this white vertex as black. The zero forcing number ℤ (G), is the minimum number of vertices in a zero forcing set ℤ of G (see [11]). In this paper, we compute the zero forcing number of the degree splitting graph (𝒟𝒮-Graph) and the complete degree splitting graph (𝒞𝒟𝒮-Graph) of a graph. We prove that for any simple graph, ℤ [𝒟𝒮(G)] k + t, where ℤ (G) = k and t is the number of newly introduced vertices in 𝒟𝒮(G) to construct it.

Top Degree Part in $b$-Conjecture for Unicellular Bipartite Maps

Goulden and Jackson (1996) introduced, using Jack symmetric functions, some multivariate generating series $\psi(\boldsymbol{x}, \boldsymbol{y},\boldsymbol{z}; 1, 1+\beta)$ with an additional parameter $\beta$ that might be interpreted as a continuous deformation of the rooted bipartite maps generating series. Indeed, it has a property that for $\beta \in \{0,1\}$, it specializes to the rooted, orientable (general, i.e. orientable or not, respectively) bipartite maps generating series. They made the following conjecture: coefficients of $\psi$ are polynomials in $\beta$ with positive integer coefficients that can be written as a multivariate generating series of rooted, general bipartite maps, where the exponent of $\beta$ is an integer-valued statistics that in some sense "measures the non-orientability" of the corresponding bipartite map.We show that except two special values of $\beta = 0,1$ for which the combinatorial interpretation of the coefficients of $\psi$ is known, there exists a third special value $\beta = -1$ for which the coefficients of $\psi$ indexed by two partitions $\mu,\nu$, and one partition with only one part are given by rooted, orientable bipartite maps with arbitrary face degrees and black/white vertex degrees given by $\mu$/$\nu$, respectively. We show that this evaluation corresponds, up to a sign, to a top-degree part of the coefficients of $\psi$. As a consequence, we introduce a collection of integer-valued statistics of maps $(\eta)$ such that the top-degree of the multivariate generating series of rooted, bipartite maps with only one face (called unicellular) with respect to $\eta$ gives the top degree of the appropriate coefficients of $\psi$. Finally, we show that $b$ conjecture holds true for all rooted, unicellular bipartite maps of genus at most $2$.

On zero forcing number of graphs and their complements

The zero forcing number, Z(G), of a graph G is the minimum cardinality of a set S of black vertices (whereas vertices in V(G)\S are colored white) such that V(G) is turned black after finitely many applications of "the color-change rule": a white vertex is converted to a black vertex if it is the only white neighbor of a black vertex. Zero forcing number was introduced and used to bound the minimum rank of graphs by the "AIM Minimum Rank-Special Graphs Work Group". It is known that Z(G) ≥ δ(G), where δ(G) is the minimum degree of G. We show that Z(G) ≤ n - 3 if a connected graph G of order n has a connected complement graph [Formula: see text]. Further, we characterize a tree or a unicyclic graph G which satisfies either [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text].