Universal minimal total dominating functions of trees (Q1893182)

A total dominating function of a graph \(G= (V, E)\) is a function \(f: V\to [0, 1]\) such that for every vertex \(v\in V\) the sum \(\sum f(u)\) over all neighbours \(u\) of \(v\) is greater than or equal to 1. In the paper the author concentrates on pointwise minimal total dominating functions. A minimal total dominating function \(f\) is said to be universal if a convex combination of \(f\) with any other minimal total dominating function is also a minimal total dominating function. This definition is meaningful since convex combinations of total dominating functions are certainly total dominating functions. The main result of the paper says that every tree that has a universal minimal total dominating function has one which only takes integer values, necessarily 0 or 1.