Domination in Functigraphs

Abstract

Let $G_1$ and $G_2$ be disjoint copies of a graph $G$, and let $f: V(G_1) \rightarrow V(G_2)$ be a function. Then a \emph{functigraph} $C(G, f)=(V, E)$ has the vertex set $V=V(G_1) \cup V(G_2)$ and the edge set $E=E(G_1) \cup E(G_2) \cup \{uv \mid u \in V(G_1), v \in V(G_2), v=f(u)\}$. A functigraph is a generalization of a \emph{permutation graph} (also known as a \emph{generalized prism}) in the sense of Chartrand and Harary. In this paper, we study domination in functigraphs. Let $\gamma(G)$ denote the domination number of $G$. It is readily seen that $\gamma(G) \le \gamma(C(G,f)) \le 2 \gamma(G)$. We investigate for graphs generally, and for cycles in great detail, the functions which achieve the upper and lower bounds, as well as the realization of the intermediate values.