On minimum identifying codes in some Cartesian product graphs

Abstract

An identifying code in a graph is a dominating set that also has the property that the closed neighborhood of each vertex in the graph has a distinct intersection with the set. The minimum cardinality of an identifying code, or ID code, in a graph $G$ is called the ID code number of $G$ and is denoted $\gid(G)$. In this paper, we give upper and lower bounds for the ID code number of the prism of a graph, or $G\Box K_2$. In particular, we show that $\gid(G \Box K_2) \ge \gid(G)$ and we show that this bound is sharp. We also give upper and lower bounds for the ID code number of grid graphs and a general upper bound for $\gid(G\Box K_2)$.