The $k$-Dominating Graph

Ruth Haas, Karen Seyffarth

Published 2012-09-24, updated 2013-03-01Version 2

Given a graph $G$, the $k$-dominating graph of $G$, $D_k(G)$, is defined to be the graph whose vertices correspond to the dominating sets of $G$ that have cardinality at most $k$. Two vertices in $D_k(G)$ are adjacent if and only if the corresponding dominating sets of $G$ differ by either adding or deleting a single vertex. The graph $D_k(G)$ aids in studying the reconfiguration problem for dominating sets. In particular, one dominating set can be reconfigured to another by a sequence of single vertex additions and deletions, such that the intermediate set of vertices at each step is a dominating set if and only if they are in the same connected component of $D_k(G)$. In this paper we give conditions that ensure $D_k(G)$ is connected.