Domination Cover Pebbling: Graph Families

James J. Gardner1, Anant P. Godbole2, Alberto Mokak Teguia3, Annalies Z. Vuong4, Nathaniel G. Watson5, Carl R. Yerger6
1Mathematics & Science Center, Suite W401, 400 Dowman Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30322, jgardn3@emory.edu
2Department of Mathematics, East Tennessee State University, Box 70663, Johnson City, Tennessee 37614,
3Duke University, Box 90320, Durham, NC 27708-0320,
4Dartmouth College, 6188 Kemeny Hall Hanover, NH 03755
5Department of Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley 850 Evans Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3840
6Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Mathematics, 686 Cherry Street, Atlanta, GA 30332-0160

Abstract

Given a configuration of pebbles on the vertices of a connected graph \( G \), a \emph{pebbling move} is defined as the removal of two pebbles from some vertex and the placement of one of these on an adjacent vertex. We introduce the notion of domination cover pebbling, obtained by combining graph cover pebbling with the theory of domination in graphs. The domination cover pebbling number, \( \psi(G) \), of a graph \( G \) is the minimum number of pebbles that are placed on \( V(G) \) such that after a sequence of pebbling moves, the set of vertices with pebbles forms a dominating set of \( G \), regardless of the initial configuration of pebbles. We discuss basic results and determine \( \psi(G) \) for paths, cycles, and complete binary trees.