On Minimal Geodetic Hop Domination in Graphs

Abstract

Let $G$ be a nontrivial connected graph with vertex set $V(G)$. A set $S \subseteq V(G)$ is a geodetic hop dominating set of $G$ if the following two conditions hold for each $x\in V(G)\setminus S$: $(1)$ $x$ lies in some $u$-$v$ geodesic in $G$ with $u,v\in S$, and $(2)$ $x$ is of distance $2$ from a vertex in $S$. The minimum cardinality $\gamma_{hg}(G)$ of a geodetic hop dominating set of $G$ is the geodetic hop domination number of $G$. A geodetic hop dominating set $S$ is a minimal geodetic hop dominating set if $S$ does not contain a proper subset that is itself geodetic hop dominating set. The maximum cardinality of a minimal geodetic hop dominating set in $G$ is the \emph{upper geodetic hop domination number} of $G$, and is denoted by $\gamma^{+}_{hg}(G)$. This paper initiates the study of the minimal geodetic hop dominating set and the corresponding upper geodetic hop domination number of nontrivial connected graphs. Interestingly, every pair of positive integers $a$ and $b$ with $2\le a\le b$ is realizable as the geodetic domination number and the upper geodetic hop domination number, respectively, of some graph. Furthermore, this paper investigates the concept in the join, corona and lexicographic product of graphs.