Complete forcing numbers of rectangular polynominoes

Abstract

Let G be a graph with edge set E(G) that admits a perfect matching M. A forcing set of M is a subset of M contained in no other perfect matchings of G. A complete forcing set of G, recently introduced by Xu et al. [Complete forcing numbers of catacondensed hexagonal systems, J. Combin. Optim. 29(4) (2015) 803-814], is a subset of E(G) on which the restriction of any perfect matching M is a forcing set of M. The minimum possible cardinality of complete forcing sets of G is the complete forcing number of G. In this article, we discuss the complete forcing number of rectangular polyominoes (or grids), i.e., the Cartesian product of two paths of various lengths, and show explicit formulae for the complete forcing numbers of rectangular polyominoes in terms of the lengths.