Total vertex-edge domination in graphs: Complexity and algorithms

Abstract

Let [Formula: see text] be a simple, undirected and connected graph. A vertex [Formula: see text] of a simple, undirected graph [Formula: see text]-dominates all edges incident to at least one vertex in its closed neighborhood [Formula: see text]. A set [Formula: see text] of vertices is a vertex-edge dominating set of [Formula: see text], if every edge of graph [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]-dominated by some vertex of [Formula: see text]. A vertex-edge dominating set [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] is called a total vertex-edge dominating set if the induced subgraph [Formula: see text] has no isolated vertices. The total vertex-edge domination number [Formula: see text] is the minimum cardinality of a total vertex-edge dominating set of [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we prove that the decision problem corresponding to [Formula: see text] is NP-complete for chordal graphs, star convex bipartite graphs, comb convex bipartite graphs and planar graphs. The problem of determining [Formula: see text] of a graph [Formula: see text] is called the minimum total vertex-edge domination problem (MTVEDP). We prove that MTVEDP is linear time solvable for chain graphs and threshold graphs. We also show that MTVEDP can be approximated within approximation ratio of [Formula: see text]. It is shown that the domination and total vertex-edge domination problems are not equivalent in computational complexity aspects. Finally, an integer linear programming formulation for MTVEDP is presented.