Arbitrarily large jumps of the Golovach function for trees (Q1759500)

In the \(\varepsilon\)-search problem on a connected topological graph we considered team of pursuers \(P_1,\dots,P_k\) trying to capture the invisible evader \(E\), who, in turn, tries to escape. It is assumed that the evader is captured by a pursuer if they are a distance not exceeding a given nonnegative \(\varepsilon\) apart. Solution of the problem, \textit{the \(\varepsilon\)-search number}, is the minimum number of pursuers required to successfully complete \(\varepsilon\)-search. Properties of the Golovach function, which associates each nonnegative number \(\varepsilon\) with the \(\varepsilon\)-search number, are studied for trees. As it is known, the Golovach function for trees with at most 27 edges has only unit jumps. In the authors' earlier papers, examples of trees on which the Golovach function has a jump of size 2 were constructed. In the present paper, it is shown that the jumps of the Golovach function for trees may be arbitrarily large. A sharp bound for the size of jumps is given for a sequence of trees constructed in the paper. A theorem about small perturbations of edge lengths for trees is proved, which asserts that an arbitrarily small perturbation of the edge lengths of a given tree (whose Golovach function may be degenerated) may yield a new tree whose Golovach function has only unit jumps.