A comparison between the metric dimension and zero forcing number of trees and unicyclic graphs (Q2403987)

The authors show a relationship between the metric dimension and the zero forcing number of trees and unicyclic graphs. The metric dimension \(\dim(G)\) of a graph \(G\) is defined as the minimum cardinality of a vertex set \(W\) such that the vector of distances from \(W\) uniquely determines each vertex of \(G\). Let the set \(S\) be a subset of black vertices in \(V(G)\) and all vertices in \(V(G)\setminus S\) be white. The zero forcing number \(Z(G)\) is the minimal cardinality of \(S\) such that all vertices of \(V(G)\) are turned to black after finitely many applications of the `color-change rule'; a white vertex is converted to black if it is the only white neighbor of a black vertex. In this paper, the author proves that for trees \(\dim(T)\leq Z(T)\) and \(\dim(G)\leq Z(G)+1\) for unicyclic graphs. Trees with \(\dim(T)= Z(T)\) are characterized.