$m$-Eternal Dominating Set Problem on Subclasses of Chordal Graphs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the computational complexity of the m-Eternal Dominating Set problem on subclasses of chordal graphs, providing polynomial algorithms for some cases and NP-completeness results for others, highlighting complexity differences among related problems.

Contribution

It offers a detailed complexity analysis of m-Eternal Dominating Set on various graph classes, including polynomial algorithms and NP-hardness proofs, and compares it with related domination problems.

Findings

Polynomial-time algorithm for K1,t-free split graphs with t≤4

NP-completeness for t≥5 in split graphs

NP-hardness on undirected path graphs

Abstract

A dominating set of a graph G(V, E) is a set of vertices D\subseteq V such that every vertex in V\D has a neighbor in D. An eternal dominating set extends this concept by placing mobile guards on the vertices of D. In response to an infinite sequence of attacks on unoccupied vertices, a guard can move to the attacked vertex from an adjacent position, ensuring that the new guards configuration remains a dominating set. In the one (all) guard(s) move model, only one (multiple) guard(s) moves(may move) per attack. The set of vertices representing the initial configuration of guards in one(all) guard move model is the eternal dominating set (m-eternal dominating set) of G. The minimum size of such a set in one(all) guard move model is called the eternal domination number (m-eternal domination number) of G, respectively. Given a graph G and an integer k, the m-Eternal Dominating Set asks whether G has an m-eternal dominating set of size at most k. In this work, we focus mainly on the computational complexity of m-Eternal Dominating Set in subclasses of chordal graphs. For split graphs, we show a dichotomy result by first designing a polynomial-time algorithm for K1,t-free split graphs with t\le 4, and then proving that the problem becomes NP-complete for t\ge 5. We showed that the problem is NP-hard on undirected path graphs. Moreover, we exhibit the computational complexity difference between the variants by showing the existence of two graph classes such that, in one, both Dominating Set and m-Eternal Dominating Set are solvable in polynomial time while Eternal Dominating Set is NP-hard, whereas in the other, Eternal Dominating Set is solvable in polynomial time and both Dominating Set and m-Eternal Dominating Set are NP-hard. Finally, we present a graph class where Dominating Set is NP-hard, but m-Eternal Dominating Set is efficiently solvable.