Restrained domination in trees (Q1969775)

A set \(S\subseteq V\) is a restrained dominating set of the graph \(G= (V,E)\) if every vertex of \(G\) not in \(S\) is adjacent to a vertex in \(S\) and to a vertex in \(V-S\). The restrained domination number of \(G\), denoted by \(\gamma_r(G)\), is the smallest cardinality of a restrained dominating set of \(G\). \textit{G. S. Domke}, \textit{H. J. Hatting}, \textit{S. T. Hedetniemi}, \textit{R. C. Laskar} and \textit{L. R. Markus} [Discrete Math. 203, No. 1-3, 61-69 (1999)] proved that \(\gamma_r(T)\geq \lceil (n+2)/3\rceil\) when \(T\) is the path of order \(n\). Here this is shown to hold for all trees of order \(n\). A constructive characterization of the extremal trees is given.