The notion of forcing sets for perfect matchings was introduced by Harary, Klein, and Živković. The application of this problem in chemistry, as well as its interesting theoretical aspects, made this subject very active. In this work, we introduce the notion of forcing function of fractional perfect matchings, which is continuous analogous to forcing sets defined over the perfect matching polytope of graphs. We show that this object is a continuous and concave function extension of the integral forcing set. Then, we use our results in the continuous world to conclude new bounds and results in the discrete case of forcing sets, for the family of regular edge-transitive graphs. In particular, we derive new upper bounds for the maximum forcing number of hypercube graphs.
An $r$-fold analogue of the positive semidefinite zero forcing process that is carried out on the $r$-blowup of a graph is introduced and used to define the fractional positive semidefinite forcing number. Properties of the graph blowup when colored with a fractional positive semidefinite forcing set are examined and used to define a three-color forcing game that directly computes the fractional positive semidefinite forcing number of a graph. We develop a fractional parameter based on the standard zero forcing process and it is shown that this parameter is exactly the skew zero forcing number…
Forts, (fractional) zero forcing, and Cartesian products of graphs
Penn State Behrend（宾州州立大学贝伦德分校）；American Institute of Mathematics（美国数学研究所）；Iowa State University（爱荷华州立大学）；Purdue University（普渡大学）；United States Naval Academy（美国海军学院）；University of Regina（里贾纳大学）；The University of Texas Permian Basin（德克萨斯大学永川盆地分校）
The forcing number of a perfect matching $M$ in a graph $G$ is the smallest number of edges inside $M$ that can not be contained in other perfect matchings. The anti-forcing number of $M$ is the smallest number of edges outside $M$ whose removal results in a subgraph with a single perfect matching, that is $M$. Recently, in order to investigate the distributions of forcing numbers and anti-forcing numbers, the forcing polynomial and anti-forcing polynomial were proposed, respectively. In this work, the forcing and anti-forcing polynomials of a polyomino graph are obtained. As consequences, the…
In this paper we compare the brushing number of a graph with the zero-forcing number of its line graph. We prove that the zero-forcing number of the line graph is an upper bound for the brushing number by constructing a brush configuration based on a zero-forcing set for the line graph. Using a similar construction, we also prove the conjecture that the zero-forcing number of a graph is no more than the zero-forcing number of its line graph; moreover we prove that the brushing number of a graph is no more than the brushing number of its line graph. All three bounds are shown to be tight.
A subset $S$ of initially infected vertices of a graph $G$ is called forcing if we can infect the entire graph by iteratively applying the following process. At each step, any infected vertex which has a unique uninfected neighbour, infects this neighbour. The forcing number of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a forcing set in $G$. In the present paper, we study the forcing number of various classes of graphs, including graphs of large girth, $H$-free graphs for a fixed bipartite graph $H$, random and pseudorandom graphs.
The zero forcing number and the positive zero forcing number of a graph are two graph parameters that arise from two types of graph colourings. The zero forcing number is an upper bound on the minimum number of induced paths in the graph, while the positive zero forcing number is an upper bound on the minimum number of induced trees in the graph. We show that for a block-cycle graph the zero forcing number equals the path cover number. We also give a purely graph theoretical proof that the positive zero forcing number of any outerplanar graphs equals the tree cover number of the graph. These i…
The anti-forcing number of a perfect matching $M$ of a graph $G$ is the minimal number of edges not in $M$ whose removal to make $M$ as a unique perfect matching of the resulting graph. The set of anti-forcing numbers of all perfect matchings of $G$ is the anti-forcing spectrum of $G$. In this paper, we characterize the plane elementary bipartite graph whose minimum anti-forcing number is one. We show that the maximum anti-forcing number of a graph is at most its cyclomatic number. In particular, we characterize the graphs with the maximum anti-forcing number achieving the upper bound, such ex…
In this paper, we study (zero) forcing sets which induce connected subgraphs of a graph. The minimum cardinality of such a set is called the connected forcing number of the graph. We provide sharp upper and lower bounds on the connected forcing number in terms of the minimum degree, maximum degree, girth, and order of the graph.
The zero forcing process is an iterative graph colouring process in which at each time step a coloured vertex with a single uncoloured neighbour can force this neighbour to become coloured. A zero forcing set of a graph is an initial set of coloured vertices that can eventually force the entire graph to be coloured. The zero forcing number is the size of the smallest zero forcing set. We explore the zero forcing number for random regular graphs, improving on bounds given by Kalinowski, Kamucev and Sudakov. We also propose and analyze a degree-greedy algorithm for finding small zero forcing set…
Harary et al. and Klein and Randic proposed the forcing number of a perfect matching in mathematics and chemistry, respectively. In detail, the forcing number of a perfect matching M of a graph G is the smallest cardinality of subsets of M that are contained in no other perfect matchings of G. The author and cooperators defined the forcing polynomial of G as the count polynomial for perfect matchings with the same forcing number of G, from which the average forcing number, forcing spectrum, and the maximum and minimum forcing numbers of G can be obtained. Up to now, a few papers have been cons…
A leak is a vertex that is not allowed to perform a force during the zero forcing process. Leaky forcing was recently introduced as a new variation of zero forcing in order to analyze how leaks in a network disrupt the zero forcing process. The $\ell$-leaky forcing number of a graph is the size of the smallest zero forcing set that can force a graph despite $\ell$ leaks. A graph $G$ is $\ell$-resilient if its zero forcing number is the same as its $\ell$-leaky forcing number. In this paper, we analyze $\ell$-leaky forcing and show that if an $(\ell-1)$-leaky forcing set $B$ is robust enough, t…
This article studies the \emph{$k$-forcing number} for oriented graphs, generalizing both the \emph{zero forcing number} for directed graphs and the $k$-forcing number for simple graphs. In particular, given a simple graph $G$, we introduce the maximum (minimum) oriented $k$-forcing number, denoted $\MOF_k(G)$ ($\mof_k(G)$), which is the largest (smallest) $k$-forcing number among all possible orientations of $G$. These new ideas are compared to known graph invariants and it is shown that, among other things, $\mof(G)$ equals the path covering number of $G$ while $\MOF_k(G)$ is greater than or…
It is well-known that the zero forcing number of a graph provides a lower bound on the minimum rank of a graph. In this paper we bound and characterize the zero forcing number of certain circulant graphs, including some bipartite circulants, cubic circulants, and circulants which are torus products, to obtain bounds on the minimum rank and the maximum nullity. We also evaluate when the zero forcing number will give equality.
A dynamic coloring of the vertices of a graph $G$ starts with an initial subset $S$ of colored vertices, with all remaining vertices being non-colored. At each discrete time interval, a colored vertex with exactly one non-colored neighbor forces this non-colored neighbor to be colored. The initial set $S$ is called a forcing set (zero forcing set) of $G$ if, by iteratively applying the forcing process, every vertex in $G$ becomes colored. If the initial set $S$ has the added property that it induces a subgraph of $G$ without isolated vertices, then $S$ is called a total forcing set in $G$. The…
Let $G=(V,E)$ be a finite connected graph along with a coloring of the vertices of $G$ using the colors in a given set $X$. In this paper, we introduce multi-color forcing, a generalization of zero-forcing on graphs, and give conditions in which the multi-color forcing process terminates regardless of the number of colors used. We give an upper bound on the number of steps required to terminate a forcing procedure in terms of the number of vertices in the graph on which the procedure is being applied. We then focus on multi-color forcing with three colors and analyze the end states of certain …
The zero forcing numbers and propagation times of gear graphs and helm graphs
University of North Texas（北德克萨斯大学）；Rice University（莱斯大学）；Trinity College（三一学院）；University of Denver（丹佛大学）；Southeast Missouri State University（密苏里东南州立大学）
The positive zero forcing number of a graph is a graph parameter that arises from a non-traditional type of graph colouring, and is related to a more conventional version of zero forcing. We establish a relation between the zero forcing and the fast-mixed searching, which implies some NP-completeness results for the zero forcing problem. For chordal graphs much is understood regarding the relationships between positive zero forcing and clique coverings. Building upon constructions associated with optimal tree covers and forest covers, we present a linear time algorithm for computing the positi…
Zero forcing parameters, associated with graphs, have been studied for over a decade, and have gained popularity as the number of related applications grows. In particular, it is well-known that such parameters are related to certain vertex coverings. Continuing along these lines, we investigate positive zero forcing within the context of certain clique coverings. A key object considered here is the compressed cliques graph. We study a number of properties associated with the compressed cliques graph, including: uniqueness, forbidden subgraphs, connections to Johnson graphs, and positive zero …
The forcing number of a perfect matching of a graph was introduced by Harary et al., which originated from Klein and Randić's ideal of innate degree of freedom of Kekulé structure in molecular graph. On the opposite side in some sense, Vukičević and Trinajstié proposed the anti-forcing number of a graph, afterwards Lei et al. generalized this idea to single perfect matching. Recently the forcing and anti-forcing polynomials of perfect matchings of a graph were proposed as counting polynomials for perfect matchings with the same forcing number and anti-forcing number respectively. In this paper…
Several researchers have recently explored various graph parameters that can or cannot be characterized by the spectrum of a matrix associated with a graph. In this paper we show that several NP-hard zero forcing numbers are not characterized by the spectra of several types of associated matrices with a graph. In particular, we consider standard zero forcing, positive semidefinite zero forcing, and skew zero forcing, and provide constructions of infinite families of pairs of cospectral graphs which have different values for these numbers. We explore several methods for obtaining these cospectr…
The anti-forcing number of a connected graph $G$ is the smallest number of edges such that the remaining graph obtained by deleting these edges has a unique perfect matching. In this paper, we show that the anti-forcing number of every fullerene has at least four. We give a procedure to construct all fullerenes whose anti-forcing numbers achieve the lower bound four. Furthermore, we show that, for every even $n\geq20$ ($n\neq22,26$), there exists a fullerene with $n$ vertices that has the anti-forcing number four, and the fullerene with 26 vertices has the anti-forcing number five.
Let $G$ be a simple, finite, and undirected graph with vertices each given an initial coloring of either blue or white. Zero forcing on graph $G$ is an iterative process of forcing its white vertices to become blue after a finite application of a specified color-change rule. We say that an initial set $S$ of blue vertices of $G$ is a zero forcing set for $G$ under the specified color-change rule if a finite number of iterations of zero forcing results to an updated coloring where all vertices of $G$ are blue. Otherwise, we say that $S$ is a failed zero forcing set for $G$ under the specified c…
Motivated in part by an observation that the zero forcing number for the complement of a tree on $n$ vertices is either $n-3$ or $n-1$ in one exceptional case, we consider the zero forcing number for the complement of more general graphs under some conditions, particularly those that do not contain complete bipartite subgraphs. We also move well beyond trees and completely study all of the possible zero forcing numbers for the complements of unicyclic graphs and cactus graphs.
The minimum forcing number of a graph $G$ is the smallest number of edges simultaneously contained in a unique perfect matching of $G$. Zhang, Ye and Shiu \cite{HDW} showed that the minimum forcing number of any fullerene graph was bounded below by $3$. However, we find that there exists exactly one excepted fullerene $F_{24}$ with the minimum forcing number $2$. In this paper, we characterize all fullerenes with the minimum forcing number $3$ by a construction approach. This also solves an open problem proposed by Zhang et al. We also find that except for $F_{24}$, all fullerenes with anti-fo…
Zero forcing is an iterative coloring process on a graph that has been widely used in such different areas as the modelling of propagation phenomena in networks and the study of minimum rank problems in matrices and graphs. This paper deals with zero forcing on hypergraphs. (Representing a network by a hypergraph allows us to account for its community structure and for more general interactions between different subsets of nodes.) We consider two natural generalizations to hypergraphs of zero forcing on graphs (one of them already known) and, for each one of these generalizations we look into …
Let $G$ be a simple and finite graph without isolated vertices. In this paper we study forcing sets (zero forcing sets) which induce a subgraph of $G$ without isolated vertices. Such a set is called a total forcing set, introduced and first studied by Davila \cite{Davila}. The minimum cardinality of a total forcing set in $G$ is the total forcing number of $G$, denoted $F_t(G)$. We study basic properties of $F_t(G)$, relate $F_t(G)$ to various domination parameters, and establish $NP$-completeness of the associated decision problem for $F_t(G)$. We also prove that if $G$ is a connected graph o…
For any simple graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, the (positive semi-definite) minimum rank of $G$ is defined to be the smallest possible rank among all (positive semi-definite) real symmetric $n\times n$ matrices whose entry in position $(i,j)$, for $i\neq j$, is non-zero if $ij$ is an edge in $G$ and zero otherwise. Also, the (positive semi-definite) maximum nullity of $G$ is defined to be the largest possible nullity of a (positive semi-definite) matrix in the above set of matrices. In this thesis we study two graph parameters, namely the zero forcing number of $G$, $Z(G)$, and the positive zero fo…
Zero forcing is an iterative graph coloring process, where given a set of initially colored vertices, a colored vertex with a single uncolored neighbor causes that neighbor to become colored. A zero forcing set is a set of initially colored vertices which causes the entire graph to eventually become colored. In this paper, we study the counting problem associated with zero forcing. We introduce the zero forcing polynomial of a graph $G$ of order $n$ as the polynomial $\mathcal{Z}(G;x)=\sum_{i=1}^n z(G;i) x^i$, where $z(G;i)$ is the number of zero forcing sets of $G$ of size $i$. We characteriz…
It is known that the zero forcing number of a graph is an upper bound for the maximum nullity of the graph. In this paper, we search for characteristics of a graph that guarantee the maximum nullity of the graph and the zero forcing number of the graph are the same by studying a variety of graph parameters which bound the maximum nullity of a graph below. In particular, we introduce a new graph parameter which acts as a lower bound for the maximum nullity of the graph. As a result, we show that the Aztec Diamond graph's maximum nullity and zero forcing number are the same. Other graph paramete…
Given a graph $G$, the zero forcing number of $G$, $Z(G)$, is the smallest cardinality of any set $S$ of vertices on which repeated applications of the forcing rule results in all vertices being in $S$. The forcing rule is: if a vertex $v$ is in $S$, and exactly one neighbor $u$ of $v$ is not in $S$, then $u$ is added to $S$ in the next iteration. Hence the failed zero forcing number of a graph was defined to be the size of the largest set of vertices which fails to force all vertices in the graph. A similar property called skew zero forcing was defined so that if there is exactly one neighbor…
Zero forcing number has recently become an interesting graph parameter studied in its own right since its introduction by the "AIM Minimum Rank -- Special Graphs Work Group", whereas metric dimension is a well-known graph parameter. We investigate the metric dimension and the zero forcing number of some line graphs by first determining the metric dimension and the zero forcing number of the line graphs of wheel graphs and the bouquet of circles. We prove that $Z(G) \le 2Z(L(G))$ for a simple and connected graph $G$. Further, we show that $Z(G) \le Z(L(G))$ when $G$ is a tree or when $G$ contai…
Let $G$ be a graph, and $Z$ a subset of its vertices, which we color black, while the remaining are colored white. We define the skew color change rule as follows: if $u$ is a vertex of $G$, and exactly one of its neighbors $v$, is white, then change the color of $v$ to black. A set $Z$ is a skew zero forcing set for $G$ if the application of the skew color change rule (as many times as necessary) will result in all the vertices in $G$ colored black. A set $Z$ is a minimum skew zero forcing set for $G$ if it is a skew zero forcing set for $G$ of least cardinality. The skew zero forcing number …
The zero forcing number $Z(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a set $S$ with colored (black) vertices which forces the set $V(G)$ to be colored (black) after some times. "color change rule": a white vertex is changed to a black vertex when it is the only white neighbor of a black vertex. In this case, we say that the black vertex forces the white vertex. We investigate here the concept of connected zero forcing set and connected zero forcing number. We discusses this subject for special graphs and some products of graphs. Also we introduce the connected propagation time. Graphs w…
It is proved that every graph embedded on a (non-spherical) surface with non-separating face-width at least $7$ contains a minor isomorphic to $K_6$. It is also shown that face-width four yields the same conclusion for graphs on the projective plane.
Given a simple, finite graph with vertex set $V(G)$, we define a zero forcing set of $G$ as follows. Choose $S\subseteq V(G)$ and color all vertices of $S$ blue and all vertices in $V(G) - S$ white. The color change rule is if $w$ is the only white neighbor of blue vertex $v$, then we change the color of $w$ from white to blue. If after applying the color change rule as many times as possible eventually every vertex of $G$ is blue, we call $S$ a zero forcing set of $G$. $Z(G)$ denotes the minimum cardinality of a zero forcing set. Davila and Henning proved in \cite{zerocubic} that for any claw…
We define the anti-forcing number of a perfect matching $M$ of a graph $G$ as the minimal number of edges of $G$ whose deletion results in a subgraph with a unique perfect matching $M$, denoted by $af(G,M)$. The anti-forcing number of a graph proposed by Vukičević and Trinajstić in Kekulé structures of molecular graphs is in fact the minimum anti-forcing number of perfect matchings. For plane bipartite graph $G$ with a perfect matching $M$, we obtain a minimax result: $af(G,M)$ equals the maximal number of $M$-alternating cycles of $G$ where any two either are disjoint or intersect only at edg…
Developing further Stein's recent notion of relative end degrees in infinite graphs, we investigate which degree assumptions can force a locally finite graph to contain a given finite minor, or a finite subgraph of given minimum degree. This is part of a wider project which seeks to develop an extremal theory of sparse infinite graphs.
Zero forcing is a process on a graph that colors vertices blue by starting with some of the vertices blue and applying a color change rule. Throttling minimizes the sum of the size of the initial blue vertex set and the number of the time steps needed to color the graph. We study throttling for positive semidefinite zero forcing. We establish a tight lower bound on the positive semidefinite throttling number as a function of the order, maximum degree, and positive semidefinite zero forcing number of the graph, and determine the positive semidefinite throttling numbers of paths, cycles, and ful…
Zero forcing is a process on a graph in which the goal is to force all vertices to become blue by applying a color change rule. Throttling minimizes the sum of the number of vertices that are initially blue and the number of time steps needed to color every vertex. We introduce a new universal definition of throttling for variants of zero forcing and the study of throttling for the minor monotone floor of zero forcing. We introduce the technique of using a zero forcing process to extend a given graph. For standard zero forcing and its floor, we use these extensions to characterize graphs with …
Given a graph $G$, the zero-forcing number of $G$, $Z(G)$, is the smallest cardinality of any set $S$ of vertices on which repeated applications of the forcing rule results in all vertices being in $S$. The forcing rule is: if a vertex $v$ is in $S$, and exactly one neighbor $u$ of $v$ is not in $S$, then $u$ is added to $S$ in the next iteration. Zero-forcing numbers have attracted great interest over the past 15 years and have been well studied. In this paper we investigate the largest size of a set $S$ that does not force all of the vertices in a graph to be in $S$. This quantity is known a…
The forcing number of a perfect matching $M$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest cardinality of subsets of $M$ that are contained in no other perfect matchings of $G$. The forcing spectrum of $G$ is the collection of forcing numbers of all perfect matchings of $G$. In this paper, we classify the perfect matchings of a generalized Petersen graph $P(n,2)$ in two types, and show that the forcing spectrum is the union of two integer intervals. For $n\ge 34$, it is $\left[\lceil \frac { n }{ 12 } \rceil+1,\lceil \frac { n+3 }{ 7 } \rceil +δ(n)\right]\cup \left[\lceil \frac { n+2 }{ 6 } \rceil,\lceil \fr…
Zero forcing and power domination are iterative processes on graphs where an initial set of vertices are observed, and additional vertices become observed based on some rules. In both cases, the goal is to eventually observe the entire graph using the fewest number of initial vertices. Chang et al. introduced $k$-power domination in [Generalized power domination in graphs, {\it Discrete Applied Math.} 160 (2012) 1691-1698] as a generalization of power domination and standard graph domination. Independently, Amos et al. defined $k$-forcing in [Upper bounds on the $k$-forcing number of a graph, …
The zero forcing number of a simple graph, written $Z(G)$, is a NP-hard graph invariant which is the result of the zero forcing color change rule. This graph invariant has been heavily studied by linear algebraists, physicists, and graph theorist. It's broad applicability and interesting combinatorial properties have attracted the attention of many researchers. Of particular interest, is that of bounding the zero forcing number from above. In this paper we show a surprising relation between the zero forcing number of a graph and the independence number of a graph, denoted $α(G)$. Our main theo…
