Spreading in claw-free cubic graphs

TL;DR

This paper investigates a generalized dynamic coloring process called $(p,q)$-spreading in claw-free cubic graphs, determining the minimum initial blue vertices needed to eventually color the entire graph blue, extending previous zero-forcing studies.

Contribution

It extends the concept of zero-forcing and percolation sets to $(p,q)$-spreading in claw-free cubic graphs, providing exact or bounded spreading numbers for various $(p,q)$ pairs.

Findings

Determined $(p,q)$-spreading numbers for most $(p,q)$ pairs in claw-free cubic graphs.

Identified conditions under which the spreading number attains specific values.

Extended the understanding of dynamic coloring processes in specialized graph classes.

Abstract

Let $p \in \mathbb{N}$ and $q \in \mathbb{N} \cup \lbrace \infty \rbrace$. We study a dynamic coloring of the vertices of a graph $G$ that starts with an initial subset $S$ of blue vertices, with all remaining vertices colored white. If a white vertex~$v$ has at least~$p$ blue neighbors and at least one of these blue neighbors of~$v$ has at most~$q$ white neighbors, then by the spreading color change rule the vertex~$v$ is recolored blue. The initial set $S$ of blue vertices is a $(p,q)$-spreading set for $G$ if by repeatedly applying the spreading color change rule all the vertices of $G$ are eventually colored blue. The $(p,q)$-spreading set is a generalization of the well-studied concepts of $k$-forcing and $r$-percolating sets in graphs. For $q \ge 2$, a $(1,q)$-spreading set is exactly a $q$-forcing set, and the $(1,1)$-spreading set is a $1$-forcing set (also called a zero forcing set), while for $q = \infty$, a $(p,\infty)$-spreading set is exactly a $p$-percolating set. The $(p,q)$-spreading number, $\sigma_{(p,q)}(G)$, of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a $(p,q)$-spreading set. In this paper, we study $(p,q)$-spreading in claw-free cubic graphs. While the zero-forcing number of claw-free cubic graphs was studied earlier, for each pair of values $p$ and $q$ that are not both $1$ we either determine the $(p,q)$-spreading number of a claw-free cubic graph $G$ or show that $\sigma_{(p,q)}(G)$ attains one of two possible values.