Irregular independence and irregular domination

Abstract

If A is an independent set of a graph G such that the vertices in A have pairwise different degrees, then we call A an irregular independent set of G. If D is a dominating set of G such that the vertices that are not in D have pairwise different numbers of neighbours in D, then we call D an irregular dominating set of G. The size of a largest irregular independent set of G and the size of a smallest irregular dominating set of G are denoted by αir(G) andγir(G), respectively. We initiate the investigation of these two graph parameters. For each of them, we obtain sharp bounds in terms of basic graph parameters such as the order, the size, the minimum degree and the maximum degree, and we obtain Nordhaus–Gaddum-type bounds. We also establish sharp bounds relating the two parameters. Furthermore, we characterize the graphs G with αir(G) = 1, we determine those that are planar, and we determine those that are outerplanar.