Distant digraph domination

TL;DR

This paper advances the understanding of $k$-kernels in digraphs by proving conjectures for specific classes, improving bounds on kernel sizes, and providing new partial results for strongly-connected digraphs.

Contribution

It proves the Erdős-Szekély conjecture for split digraphs, improves kernel size bounds in certain classes, and offers new bounds for $k$-kernels in strongly-connected digraphs.

Findings

Proved the Erdős-Szekély conjecture for split digraphs.

Established that in certain digraphs, a 2-kernel covers at least half of the vertices.

Derived an upper bound of about |G|/(k-1) for $k$-kernels in strongly-connected digraphs.

Abstract

A {\em $k$-kernel} in a digraph $G$ is a stable set $X$ of vertices such that every vertex of $G$ can be joined from $X$ by a directed path of length at most $k$. We prove three results about $k$-kernels. First, it was conjectured by Erd\H{o}s and Sz\'ekely in 1976 that every digraph $G$ with no source has a 2-kernel $|K|$ with $|K|\le |G|/2$. We prove this conjecture when $G$ is a ``split digraph'' (that is, its vertex set can be partitioned into a tournament and a stable set), improving a result of Langlois et al., who proved that every split digraph $G$ with no source has a 2-kernel of size at most $2|G|/3$. Second, the Erd\H{o}s-Sz\'ekely conjecture implies that in every digraph $G$ there is a 2-kernel $K$ such that the union of $K$ and its out-neighbours has size at least $|G|/2$. We prove that this is true if $V(G)$ can be partitioned into a tournament and an acyclic set. Third, in a recent paper, Spiro asked whether, for all $k\ge 3$, every strongly-connected digraph $G$ has a $k$-kernel of size at most about $|G|/(k+1)$. This remains open, but we prove that there is one of size at most about $|G|/(k-1)$.