Packing $(2^{k+1}-1)$-order perfect binary trees into (\emph{k}+1)-connected graph

Abstract

Let $G=(V,E)$ and $H$ be two graphs. Packing problem is to find in $G$ the largest number of independent subgraphs each of which is isomorphic to $H$. Let $U\subset{V}$. If the graph $G-U$ has no subgraph isomorphic to $H$, $U$ is a cover of $G$. Covering problem is to find the smallest set $U$. The vertex-disjoint tree packing was not sufficiently discussed in literature but has its applications in data encryption and in communication networks such as multi-cast routing protocol design. In this paper, we give the kind of $(k+1)$-connected graph $G'$ into which we can pack independently the subgraphs that are each isomorphic to the $(2^{k+1}-1)$-order perfect binary tree $T_k$. We prove that in $G'$ the largest number of vertex-disjoint subgraphs isomorphic to $T_k$ is equal to the smallest number of vertices that cover all subgraphs isomorphic to $T_k$. Then, we propose that $T_k$ does not have the \emph{Erd\H{o}s-P\'{o}sa} property. We also prove that the $T_k$ packing problem in an arbitrary graph is NP-hard, and propose the distributed approximation algorithms.