The Monophonic-triangular Number of a Graph

A path \(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n\) in a connected graph \( G \) that has no edge \( x_i x_j \) \((j \geq i+3)\) is called a monophonic-triangular path or mt-path. A non-empty subset \( M \) of \( V(G) \) is a monophonic-triangular set or mt-set of \( G \) if every member in \( V(G) \) exists in a mt-path joining some pair of members in \( M \). The monophonic-triangular number or mt-number is the lowest cardinality of an mt-set of \( G \) and it is symbolized by \( mt(G) \). The general properties satisfied by mt-sets are discussed. Also, we establish \( mt \)-number boundaries and discover similar results for a few common graphs. Graphs \( G \) of order \( p \) with \( mt(G) = p \), \( p – 1 \), or \( p – 2 \) are characterized.