Paired domination in trees: A linear algorithm and asymptotic normality

Abstract

A set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G$ is a paired dominating set if every vertex of $G$ is adjacent to a vertex in $S$ and the subgraph induced by $S$ contains a perfect matching (not necessarily as an induced subgraph). The paired domination number, $\gamma_{\mathrm{pr}}(G)$, of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a paired dominating set of $G$. We present a linear algorithm for computing the paired domination number of a tree. As an application of our algorithm, we prove that the paired domination number is asymptotically normal in a random rooted tree of order $n$ generated by a conditioned Galton-Watson process as $n\to\infty$. In particular, we have found that the paired domination number of a random Cayley tree of order $n$, where each tree is equally likely, is asymptotically normal with expectation approaching $(0.5177\ldots)n$.