Bounds for the Independent Domination Number of Graphs and Planar Graphs

G. MacGillivray1, K. Seyffarth2
1Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Victoria Victoria, British Columbia Canada V8W 3P4
2Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 1N4

Abstract

We first prove that if \( G \) is a connected graph with \( n \) vertices and chromatic number \( \chi(G) = k \geq 2 \), then its independent domination number

\[i(G) \leq \left\lceil \frac{(k-1)}{k}n \right\rceil – (k-2).\]

This bound is tight and remains so for planar graphs. We then prove that the independent domination number of a diameter two planar graph on \( n \) vertices is at most \( \left\lceil \frac{n}{3} \right\rceil \).