Sparse graphs are not flammable

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the following \emph{$k$-many firefighter problem} on a finite graph $G=(V,E)$. Suppose that a fire breaks out at a given vertex $v \in V$. In each subsequent time unit, a firefighter protects $k$ vertices which are not yet on fire, and then the fire spreads to all unprotected neighbours of the vertices on fire. The objective of the firefighter is to save as many vertices as possible. The surviving rate $\rho(G)$ of $G$ is defined as the expected percentage of vertices that can be saved when a fire breaks out at a random vertex of $G$. Let $\tau_k = k+2-\frac {1}{k+2}$. We show that for any $\epsilon >0$ and $k \ge 2$, each graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with at most $(\tau_k-\epsilon)n$ edges is not flammable; that is, $\rho(G) > \frac {2\epsilon}{5\tau_k} > 0$. Moreover, a construction of a family of flammable random graphs is proposed to show that the constant $\tau_k$ cannot be improved.