The p-Bondage Number of Trees

Let p be a positive integer and G = (V, E) be a simple graph. A p-dominating set of G is a subset D  í  V{D\,{\subseteq}\, V} such that every vertex not in D has at least p neighbors in D. The p-domination number of G is the minimum cardinality of a p-dominating set of G. The p-bondage number of a graph G with (ΔG) ≥ p is the minimum cardinality among all sets of edges B í E{B\subseteq E} for which γ _p (G − B) > γ _p (G). For any integer p ≥ 2 and tree T with (ΔT) ≥ p, this paper shows that 1 ≤  b _p (T) ≤ (ΔT) − p + 1, and characterizes all trees achieving the equalities.