Pushing Cops and Robber on graphs of maximum degree four

Cops and Robber is a game played on graphs where a set of cops aim to capture the position of a single robber . The main parameter of interest in this game is the cop number , which is the minimum number of cops that are sufficient to guarantee the capture of the robber. In a directed graph G ⃗ , the push operation on a vertex v reverses the orientation of all arcs incident to v . We consider a variation of the classical Cops and Robber on oriented graphs, where in its turn, each cop can either move to an out-neighbor of its current vertex or push some vertex of the graph, whereas, the robber can move to an out-neighbor in its turn. [Das et al., CALDAM, 2023] introduced this variant and established that if G ⃗ is an orientation of a subcubic graph, then one cop with push ability has a winning strategy. We extend these results to establish that if G ⃗ is an orientation of a 3-degenerate graph, or of a graph with maximum degree 4, then one cop with push ability has a winning strategy. Moreover, we establish that if G ⃗ can be made to be a directed acyclic graph, then one cop with push ability has a winning strategy.

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Publication Details

Journal
Discrete Applied Mathematics
Published
2026-01-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2025.12.067
Primary Topic
Advanced Graph Theory Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Pushing Cops and Robber on graphs of maximum degree four

Harmender Gahlawat
Discrete Applied Mathematics
Advanced Graph Theory Research
article

Pushing Cops and Robber on graphs of maximum degree four

Harmender Gahlawat
article en

Abstract

Cops and Robber is a game played on graphs where a set of cops aim to capture the position of a single robber . The main parameter of interest in this game is the cop number , which is the minimum number of cops that are sufficient to guarantee the capture of the robber. In a directed graph G ⃗ , the push operation on a vertex v reverses the orientation of all arcs incident to v . We consider a variation of the classical Cops and Robber on oriented graphs, where in its turn, each cop can either move to an out-neighbor of its current vertex or push some vertex of the graph, whereas, the robber can move to an out-neighbor in its turn. [Das et al., CALDAM, 2023] introduced this variant and established that if G ⃗ is an orientation of a subcubic graph, then one cop with push ability has a winning strategy. We extend these results to establish that if G ⃗ is an orientation of a 3-degenerate graph, or of a graph with maximum degree 4, then one cop with push ability has a winning strategy. Moreover, we establish that if G ⃗ can be made to be a directed acyclic graph, then one cop with push ability has a winning strategy.

Discrete Applied MathematicsVol. 383
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (IL), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Clermont Auvergne (FR), Clermont Université (FR)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 87%
Advanced Graph Theory Research
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