Further results on outer independent $2$-rainbow dominating functions of graphs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the outer-independent 2-rainbow domination number in graphs, establishing bounds, characterizations for specific graph classes, and formulas for graph products, advancing understanding of this graph parameter.

Contribution

It proves a lower bound for connected claw-free graphs, characterizes cases of equality, and derives formulas and bounds for various graph products.

Findings

Lower bound of n/2 for connected claw-free graphs

Characterization of graphs achieving equality in the bound

Formulas and bounds for graph products

Abstract

Let $G=(V(G),E(G))$ be a graph. A function $f:V(G)\rightarrow \mathbb{P}(\{1,2\})$ is a $2$-rainbow dominating function if for every vertex $v$ with $f(v)=\emptyset$, $f\big{(}N(v)\big{)}=\{1,2\}$. An outer-independent $2$-rainbow dominating function (OI$2$RD function) of $G$ is a $2$-rainbow dominating function $f$ for which the set of all $v\in V(G)$ with $f(v)=\emptyset$ is independent. The outer independent $2$-rainbow domination number (OI$2$RD number) $\gamma_{oir2}(G)$ is the minimum weight of an OI$2$RD function of $G$. In this paper, we first prove that $n/2$ is a lower bound on the OI$2$RD number of a connected claw-free graph of order $n$ and characterize all such graphs for which the equality holds, solving an open problem given in an earlier paper. In addition, a study of this parameter for some graph products is carried out. In particular, we give a closed (resp. an exact) formula for the OI$2$RD number of rooted (resp. corona) product graphs and prove upper bounds on this parameter for the Cartesian product and direct product of two graphs.