The Zero (Total) Forcing Number and Covering Number of Trees

Abstract

Let $F(G)$, $F_{t}(G)$, $\beta(G)$, and $\beta'(G)$ be the zero forcing number, the total forcing number, the vertex covering number and the edge covering number of a graph $G$, respectively. In this paper, we first completely characterize all trees $T$ with $F(T) = (\Delta-2) \beta(T) + 1$, solving a problem proposed by Brimkov et al. in 2023. Next, we study the relationship between the zero (or total) forcing number of a tree and its edge covering number, and show that $F(T) \leq \beta'(T)-1$ and $F_{t}(T) \leq \beta'(T)$ for any tree $T$ of order $n \geq 3$. Moreover, we also characterize all trees $T$ with $F(T) = \beta'(T)-1$ and $F(T) = \beta'(T)-2$, respectively.