The upper connected vertex monophonic number of a graph (Q2928801)

For a pair of vertices \(u\), \(v\) in a connected graph, its monophonic distance is defined as the length of a shortest monophonic (chordless) path between \(u\) and \(v\). (In fact, the above monophonic distance is defined as the length of a longest monophonic path in at least two papers that the authors wrote. This reviewer made an attempt to contact one of the authors for a clarification, but got no response back.) The notions of monophonic eccentricity, monophonic radius, and diameter, as associated with such a graph \(G\), are defined as usual.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINELet \(G\) be a connected graph, \(x \in V(G),\) a set \(S \subseteq V(G)\) is an \(x\)-monophonic set of \(G\) if each vertex \(v \in V(G)\) lies on an \(x-y\) monophonic path for some \(y \in S.\) The minimum cardinality of such a set, denoted by \(m_x(G)\), is referred to as the \(x\)-monophonic number of \(G\). In particular, a connected \(x\)-monophonic set \(S\) of a graph \(G\) is one such that the subgraph \(G[S]\) as induced by \(S\) is connected, and the minimum cardinality of such a connectivity ensuring set, denoted by \(\operatorname{cm}_x(G)\), is referred to as the connected \(x\)-monophonic number of \(G\). A set with the latter connectivity property is minimal if none of its proper subsets possesses such a property. Finally, the upper connected \(x\)-monophonic number of a graph \(G\), \(x \in V(G)\), denoted by \(\operatorname{cm}^+_x(G)\), is defined as the maximum cardinality of a minimal connected \(x\)-monophonic set of \(G\).NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe authors then proceed to derive the upper connected \(x\)-monophonic number, through case analysis, for various vertices of various graphs including trees, complete graphs and bipartite graphs. They also show, through construction, some rather interesting results relating the above notions, including the following one: for positive integers, \(a\), \(b\), \(c\), \(3 \leq a \leq b \leq c\) and \(b-a-2 \geq 0\), there is a connected graph \(G\) where, from some \(x \in V(G)\), \(m_x(G)=a\), \(\operatorname{cm}_x(G)=b\) and \(\operatorname{cm}^+_x(G)=c\).