{"title":"Exploring the influence of graph operations on zero forcing sets","authors":"Krishna Menon , Anurag Singh","doi":"10.1016/j.disc.2025.114516","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Zero forcing in graphs is a coloring process where a vertex colored blue can <em>force</em> its unique uncolored neighbor to be colored blue. A zero forcing set is a set of initially blue vertices capable of eventually coloring all vertices of the graph. In this paper, we focus on the numbers <span><math><mi>z</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>G</mi><mo>;</mo><mi>i</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span>, which is the number of zero forcing sets of size <em>i</em> of the graph <em>G</em>. These numbers were initially studied by Boyer et al. <span><span>[5]</span></span> where they conjectured that for any graph <em>G</em> on <em>n</em> vertices, <span><math><mi>z</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>G</mi><mo>;</mo><mi>i</mi><mo>)</mo><mo>≤</mo><mi>z</mi><mo>(</mo><msub><mrow><mi>P</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow></msub><mo>;</mo><mi>i</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span> for all <span><math><mi>i</mi><mo>≥</mo><mn>1</mn></math></span> where <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>P</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow></msub></math></span> is the path graph on <em>n</em> vertices. The main aim of this paper is to show that several classes of graphs, including outerplanar graphs and threshold graphs, satisfy this conjecture. We do this by studying various graph operations and examining how they affect the number of zero forcing sets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50572,"journal":{"name":"Discrete Mathematics","volume":"348 8","pages":"Article 114516"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Discrete Mathematics","FirstCategoryId":"100","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012365X25001244","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MATHEMATICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Zero forcing in graphs is a coloring process where a vertex colored blue can force its unique uncolored neighbor to be colored blue. A zero forcing set is a set of initially blue vertices capable of eventually coloring all vertices of the graph. In this paper, we focus on the numbers , which is the number of zero forcing sets of size i of the graph G. These numbers were initially studied by Boyer et al. [5] where they conjectured that for any graph G on n vertices, for all where is the path graph on n vertices. The main aim of this paper is to show that several classes of graphs, including outerplanar graphs and threshold graphs, satisfy this conjecture. We do this by studying various graph operations and examining how they affect the number of zero forcing sets.
期刊介绍:
Discrete Mathematics provides a common forum for significant research in many areas of discrete mathematics and combinatorics. Among the fields covered by Discrete Mathematics are graph and hypergraph theory, enumeration, coding theory, block designs, the combinatorics of partially ordered sets, extremal set theory, matroid theory, algebraic combinatorics, discrete geometry, matrices, and discrete probability theory.
Items in the journal include research articles (Contributions or Notes, depending on length) and survey/expository articles (Perspectives). Efforts are made to process the submission of Notes (short articles) quickly. The Perspectives section features expository articles accessible to a broad audience that cast new light or present unifying points of view on well-known or insufficiently-known topics.