Cop throttling number: Bounds, values, and variants

Abstract

<p>The cop throttling number thc(G) of a graph G for the game of Cops and Robbers is the minimum of k+captk(G), where k is the number of cops and captk(G) is the minimum number of rounds needed for k cops to capture the robber on G over all possible games in which both players play optimally. In this paper, we answer in the negative a question from [Breen et al., Throttling for the game of Cops and Robbers on graphs, {\em Discrete Math.}, 341 (2018) 2418--2430.] about whether the cop throttling number of any graph is O(n−−√) by constructing a family of graphs having thc(G)=Ω(n2/3). We establish a sublinear upper bound on the cop throttling number and show that the cop throttling number of chordal graphs is O(n−−√). We also introduce the product cop throttling number th×c(G) as a parameter that minimizes the person-hours used by the cops. We establish bounds on the product cop throttling number in terms of the cop throttling number, characterize graphs with low product cop throttling number, and show that for a chordal graph G, th×c(G)=1+rad(G).</p>