Algorithmic Aspects of Total Vertex-Edge Domination in Graphs

A vertex [Formula: see text] of a simple graph [Formula: see text] ve-dominates every edge incident to [Formula: see text] as well as every edge adjacent to these incident edges. A set [Formula: see text] is a total vertex-edge dominating set if every edge of [Formula: see text] is ve-dominated by a vertex of [Formula: see text] and the subgraph induced by [Formula: see text] has no isolated vertex. The total vertex-edge domination problem is to find a total vertex-edge dominating set of minimum cardinality. In this paper, we first show that the total vertex-edge domination problem is NP-complete for chordal graphs. Then we provide a linear-time algorithm for this problem in trees. Moreover, we show that the minimum total vertex-edge domination problem cannot be approximated within [Formula: see text] for any [Formula: see text] unless [Formula: see text]). Finally, we prove that the minimum total vertex-edge domination problem is APX-complete for bounded-degree graphs.