Total Restrained Domination in Cubic Graphs

A set S of vertices in a graph G = (V, E) is a total restrained dominating set (TRDS) of G if every vertex of G is adjacent to a vertex in S and every vertex of V − S is adjacent to a vertex in V − S. The total restrained domination number of G, denoted by γ _tr (G), is the minimum cardinality of a TRDS of G. Let G be a cubic graph of order n. In this paper we establish an upper bound on γ _tr (G). If adding the restriction that G is claw-free, then we show that γ _tr (G) = γ _t (G) where γ _t (G) is the total domination number of G, and thus some results on total domination in claw-free cubic graphs are valid for total restrained domination. Research was partially supported by the NNSF of China (Nos. 60773078, 10832006), the ShuGuang Plan of Shanghai Education Development Foundation (No. 06SG42) and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (No. S30104).