Pebbling in Split Graphs

• Published in: SIAM journal on discrete mathematics Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 1449 - 1466
• Main Authors: Alcón, Liliana, Gutierrez, Marisa, Hurlbert, Glenn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Algorithms; Consumption; Graphs; Mathematical models; Neighborhoods; Optimization; Orange peel; Polynomials; Transporting
• ISSN: 0895-4801; 1095-7146
• DOI: 10.1137/130914607

Graph pebbling is a network optimization model for transporting discrete resources that are consumed in transit: the movement of 2 pebbles across an edge consumes one of the pebbles. The pebbling number of a graph is the fewest number of pebbles $t$ so that, from any initial configuration of $t$ pebbles on its vertices, one can place a pebble on any given target vertex via such pebbling steps. It is known that deciding whether a given configuration on a particular graph can reach a specified target is \sf NP-complete, even for diameter $2$ graphs, and that deciding whether the pebbling number has a prescribed upper bound is $\Pi_2^{\sf P}$-complete. On the other hand, for many families of graphs there are formulas or polynomial algorithms for computing pebbling numbers; for example, complete graphs, products of paths (including cubes), trees, cycles, diameter $2$ graphs, and more. Moreover, graphs having minimum pebbling number are called Class 0, and many authors have studied which graphs are Class 0 and what graph properties guarantee it, with no characterization in sight. In this paper we investigate an important family of diameter 3 chordal graphs called split graphs; graphs whose vertex set can be partitioned into a clique and an independent set. We provide a formula for the pebbling number of a split graph, along with an algorithm for calculating it that runs in $O(n^\beta)$ time, where $\beta=2\omega/(\omega+1)\cong 1.41$ and $\omega\cong 2.376$ is the exponent of matrix multiplication. Furthermore we determine that all split graphs with minimum degree at least 3 are Class 0. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]