A note on Roman domination in graphs

Let G=(V,E) be a simple graph. A subset S⊆V is a dominating set of G, if for any vertex u∈V-S, there exists a vertex v∈S such that uv∈E. The domination number of G, γ(G), equals the minimum cardinality of a dominating set. A Roman dominating function on graph G=(V,E) is a function f:V→{0,1,2} satisfying the condition that every vertex v for which f(v)=0 is adjacent to at least one vertex u for which f(u)=2. The weight of a Roman dominating function is the value f(V)=∑_v∈Vf(v). The Roman domination number of a graph G, denoted by γ_R(G), equals the minimum weight of a Roman dominating function on G. In this paper, for any integer k(2?k?γ(G)), we give a characterization of graphs for which γ_R(G)=γ(G)+k, which settles an open problem in [E.J. Cockayne, P.M. Dreyer Jr, S.M. Hedetniemi et al. On Roman domination in graphs, Discrete Math. 278 (2004) 11-22].