Maker-Breaker Metric Resolving Games on Graphs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new combinatorial game on graphs called the maker-breaker distance-k resolving game, analyzing its outcomes and strategies across various graph classes and parameters.

Contribution

It defines the maker-breaker distance-k resolving game, explores its outcome patterns, and provides results on specific graphs and classes, advancing understanding of resolving sets in game-theoretic contexts.

Findings

Outcome pairs $(O_{R,k}(G), O_{R,k+1}(G))$ can realize all combinations of game outcomes.

Graphs exist with specific outcome sequences for different k values.

General results and analyses for certain graph classes are established.

Abstract

Let $d(x,y)$ denote the length of a shortest path between vertices $x$ and $y$ in a graph $G$ with vertex set $V$. For a positive integer $k$, let $d_k(x,y)=\min\{d(x,y), k+1\}$ and $R_k\{x,y\}=\{z\in V: d_k(x,z) \neq d_k(y,z)\}$. A set $S \subseteq V$ is a \emph{distance-$k$ resolving set} of $G$ if $S \cap R_k\{x,y\} \neq\emptyset$ for distinct $x,y\in V$. In this paper, we study the maker-breaker distance-$k$ resolving game (MB$k$RG) played on a graph $G$ by two players, Maker and Breaker, who alternately select a vertex of $G$ not yet chosen. Maker wins by selecting vertices which form a distance-$k$ resolving set of $G$, whereas Breaker wins by preventing Maker from winning. We denote by $O_{R,k}(G)$ the outcome of MB$k$RG. Let $\mathcal{M}$, $\mathcal{B}$ and $\mathcal{N}$, respectively, denote the outcome for which Maker, Breaker, and the first player has a winning strategy in MB$k$RG. Given a graph $G$, the parameter $O_{R,k}(G)$ is a non-decreasing function of $k$ with codomain $\{-1=\mathcal{B}, 0=\mathcal{N}, 1=\mathcal{M}\}$. We exhibit pairs $G$ and $k$ such that the ordered pair $(O_{R,k}(G), O_{R, k+1}(G))$ realizes each member of the set $\{(\mathcal{B}, \mathcal{N}),(\mathcal{B}, \mathcal{M}),(\mathcal{N},\mathcal{M})\}$; we provide graphs $G$ such that $O_{R,1}(G)=\mathcal{B}$, $O_{R,2}(G)=\mathcal{N}$ and $O_{R,k}(G)=\mathcal{M}$ for $k\ge3$. Moreover, we obtain some general results on MB$k$RG and study the MB$k$RG played on some graph classes.