Abstract
The bipolar fuzzy model is a rapidly evolving research area that provides a robust framework for addressing real-world problems, with wide-ranging applications in scientific and technical domains. Within this framework, bipolar fuzzy graphs play a significant role in decision-making and problem-solving, particularly through domination theory, which helps tackle practical challenges. This study explores various operations on product bipolar fuzzy graphs, including union (∪), join (+), intersection (∩), Cartesian product (×), composition (∘), and complement, leading to the generation of new graph structures. Several important results related to complete product bipolar fuzzy graphs under these operations are established. Additionally, we introduce key concepts such as dominating sets, minimal dominating sets, and the domination number , supported by illustrative examples. This study further investigates the properties of domination in the context of these operations. To demonstrate practical applicability, we present a decision-making problem involving the optimization of bus routes and the strategic placement of bus stations using domination principles. This research contributes to the advancement of bipolar fuzzy graph theory and its practical applications in real-world scenarios.
Keywords:
bipolar fuzzy product graph; domination measure; graph operations; structural isomorphism; decision-making strategy MSC:
05C78; 05C90
1. Introduction
In 1783, Euler introduced the concept of graph theory. Graphs play a crucial role in tackling combinatorial problems in different fields, including geometry, algebra, number theory, topology, computer science, and many more. Lofti A. Zadeh introduced fuzzy set theory [1] in 1965 for representing the vagueness, uncertainty, and inexact thinking that occurs in real-life situations. Fuzzy sets play a fundamental role in various research domains. The theory of the bipolar fuzzy () set was proposed by Zhang [2]; its degree of membership range is , and it is an extension of fuzzy sets. The component whose membership grade is shows that the component somewhat fulfills the property, and the component whose membership grade is shows that the component somewhat fulfills the implicit counter-property. The component whose membership grade is 0 indicates that the component is not related to the corresponding property. The thought that motivates such a portrayal is associated with the presence of “bipolar facts” (e.g., positive facts and negative facts) about the particular set. Positive facts indicate what is granted to be possible, while negative facts indicate what is considered to be impossible. sets capture the double-sided positive facts and negative facts of human perceptions, e.g., young and old, healthy and unhealthy, advantages and disadvantages, and so on. sets have numerous applications, including in artificial intelligence, information technology, social science, etc. Based on Zadeh’s [3] fuzzy relations, Kaufmann [4] introduced the idea of the fuzzy graph in 1973. Another elaborated definition of a fuzzy graph and the fuzzy relations between sets was studied by Rosenfeld [5] in 1975. Moreover, some remarkable results on fuzzy graphs were investigated by Bhattacharya [6], and Mordeson and Nair [7] studied certain operations on fuzzy graphs. Later, in 1994, Mordeson and Peng [8] defined certain operations on fuzzy graphs. In 2002, Sunitha and Vijayakumar [9] presented the idea of the complement of a fuzzy graph. In 2011, Akram [10] introduced the concept of bipolar fuzzy graphs. Recently, Akram and Shumaiza [11] presented the idea of multi-criteria decision-making methods with bipolar fuzzy sets.
The notion of the domination set (DS) in graph theory was studied by Ore and Berge [12]. Domination plays a significant role in graph theory. Basically, domination arises in problems involving finding sets of representatives, for example, facility location problems, school bus routing, the selection of a group leader in a class, locating a station along a railway, electrical networks, and computer networks. To find solutions to such problems, the concept of domination is used. Later, E. J. Cockayne and S. T. Hedetniemi [13] advanced this idea and published a paper on domination in graphs. In 1978, R. B. Allan and R. Laskar [14] introduced the notion of independent domination in graphs. The notion of domination in fuzzy graphs using effective edges was initiated by A. Somasundram and S. Somasundaram [15]. M. G. Karunambigai, Akram, and Palanivel [16] introduced the notion of domination in graphs. The idea of edge domination in fuzzy graphs was studied by C. Ponnappan, S. B. Ahamed, and P. Surulinathan [17].
In real-life situations, when a critical problem arises, we use a mathematical model to find the best possible solution, often representing it in the form of a graph. The key elements of the problem are represented as vertices, while the relationships between them are represented as edges. Depending on the role of vertices and edges, fuzzy values are assigned to each vertex and edge. Sometimes, ambiguity arises in the relationship between two objects, where the edge is assigned either the maximum value of its incident vertices or the minimum value of the product of its incident vertices. Such types of graph are called “anti fuzzy graphs” and “product fuzzy graphs”. The idea of product fuzzy () graphs was first investigated by Ramaswamy and Poornima in 2009 [18]. In a graph, we replace the sign of the minimum, which is in the definition of fuzzy graphs, with the product and call the resulting structure a graph. The idea of domination in graphs was introduced by Mahioub Shubatah [19] in 2012. Moreover, Haifa and Mahioub Shubatah [20] defined certain operations on graphs and gave some results of domination for some operations on graphs. Recently, a significant amount of research has been conducted on the domination of bipolar fuzzy graphs [21,22,23,24,25,26].
The motives of this study are as follows:
- Graph theory is a fundamental way of dealing with relations between objects using a figure comprising vertices and a line that joins these vertices. Domination plays a fundamental role in graph theory for solving problems of daily life. To deal with uncertainty and approximate reasoning, we use fuzzy graph models. Due to the bipolar facts that arise in real-life situations, the theory of fuzzy graphs is inadequate. However, depending on the problems, we use models of graphs.
- To handle situations where the membership grade of an edge is either less than or greater than the product of the membership grades of its adjacent vertices, we use the theory of product bipolar fuzzy () graphs, as bipolar fuzzy () graph theory does not always yield better results.
The main contributions of this article are as follows:
- The notion of complete graphs, the order and size of graphs, dominating sets (DSs), minimal dominating sets (MDSs), domination number (), and operations like the complement of a graph, ∪, +, ∩, ×, ∘ on graphs are introduced in this article. Various results related to DSs, MDSs, and the are discussed in this article, and some results of the domination of the above-mentioned operations are also studied.
- The importance of the given notions is studied with an application involving the placement of stations along a bus route and designing an algorithm to sort out this decision-making problem. Moreover, the comparison between graphs and graphs is studied in this paper.
The abbreviations that we used in this article are given in Table 1.
Table 1.
List of abbreviations.
2. Preliminaries
In this section, we define some elementary concepts and terminologies. For other concepts and terminologies that are not specified in this paper, we refer the reader to [9,10,19,27,28]. Let W be a non-empty set. A crisp graph on W is a pair , where W is called a vertex set, and is the set of all edges of .
Definition 1
([28]). A graph on W is a pair = , where M = is a set on W, and N = is a relation on W with the property that
for all
Definition 2
([29]). Let = (M, N) be a graph on An edge of a graph is called an effective edge if it satisfies the following condition:
where Otherwise, edge is called a non-effective edge. We say that dominates in a graph if there exists an effective edge between and
Definition 3
([29]). Let be a graph on Suppose is a subset of W, and if for each there exists such that dominates , then is called a DS of a graph
Definition 4
([29]). Let be a DS of a graph Then, is called an MDS if no proper subset of is a DS of a graph
Definition 5
([29]). The minimum cardinality among all MDSs of a graph is called a of a graph. It is represented as or
Definition 6
([30]). A graph on W is a pair , where is a set on W, and is a relation on W with the property that
for all Thus, is a graph of if
for all
Definition 7
([30]). A graph of is called a strong graph if
for all
3. Domination in Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
In this section, we define the notions of DSs, MDSs, and the in a graph. We also evaluate the DS, MDS, and of a graph.
Definition 8.
Let = be a graph of The order of a graph is p, where
The size of is q, where
If , then the cardinality of is defined as
Definition 9.
Let = be a graph on If
for all , then a graph is called a complete graph. It is represented as
Remark 1.
Every graph is a graph. Let = be a graph on W. Then, and are less than or equal to 1; likewise, and are greater than or equal to −1. It follows that
for all Hence, = is a graph. Thus, every graph is a graph.
Definition 10.
Let = (C, D) be a graph on An edge of a graph is called an effective edge if it satisfies the following condition:
where Otherwise, edge is called a non-effective edge.
Example 1.
Consider the crisp set . Let C be a set on W and D be a relation in W as specified in Table 2. The graph is given in Figure 1.
Table 2.
set C and relation D.
Figure 1.
graph
It is clear that is an effective edge of a graph because
Similarly, and are effective edges of a graph However, is a non-effective edge of a graph because
Definition 11.
Let be two vertices of a graph . We say that dominates in a graph if there exists an effective edge between and
From Example 1, it is clear that dominates because and have an effective edge between them. Similarly, dominates , and dominates
Definition 12.
Let = be a graph on The neighborhood of in is defined as follows:
The closed neighborhood of in is defined as follows:
Example 2.
From Figure 1, the following are clear:
- 1.
- = , = , = , and =
- 2.
- = , = , = , and =
Definition 13.
Let be a graph on Suppose is a subset of W, and if for each there exists such that
then is called a DS of a graph
Example 3.
Consider the graph on W = , as shown in Figure 1. The following are the subsets of W:
- 1.
- Let = = dominate , and dominate . So, by Definition 13, = is a DS of a graph
- 2.
- Let = = and and dominate , but neither nor dominate So, = is not a DS of a graph
- 3.
- Similarly, is a DS of a graph , but , , and are not DSs of a graph
Definition 14.
Let be a DS of a graph Then, is called an MDS if no proper subset of is a DS of a graph
Example 4.
From Example 3, it is clear that is not an MDS because is a DS of The DS is an MDS because there does not exist any proper subset of that is dominating in
Table 3.
DSs and MDSs.
Theorem 1.
A DS of is an MDS if and only if every element satisfies at least one of the following conditions:
- 1.
- w does not dominate the elements in
- 2.
- There exists such that is the only element in that dominates
Proof.
Suppose is an MDS of and Now, we want to prove that every element satisfies at least one of conditions 1 and 2. is an MDS, so is not a DS of . Then, there exists that is not dominated by any element of Here, two cases arise:
- Case (i) If , then does not dominate the elements in Suppose dominates the elements in . Then, is a DS of This is a contradiction, so no element in dominates w. Hence, property 1 holds.
- Case (ii) If then from above we know that Since is a DS of , then there exists such that dominates However, is not dominated by any element of Thus, therefore is the only element in that dominates Hence, property 2 holds.
Conversely, suppose is a DS, and every element satisfies at least one of conditions 1 and 2. Now, we want to prove that is an MDS of :
- Suppose is not an MDS of Then, there exists a such that is a DS. Hence, w dominates the elements in Condition 1 does not hold.
- If is a DS, then for each element in , there exists an element in that dominates the elements in Condition 2 does not hold.
This is a contradiction; hence , is an MDS of □
We can also illustrate Theorem 1 in another way, which is the following.
Theorem 2.
A DS of is an MDS if and only if for each , one of the following two conditions holds:
- 1.
- =
- 2.
- There is a vertex such that =
Proof.
Let be an MDS and Then, = is not a DS, and hence, there exists such that is not dominated by any element of
- If , then w is not dominated by any element in , which implies that =
- If , then is not dominated by any element in , but in , element only dominates Hence, = The converse is obvious. □
Definition 15.
Let = be a graph on A vertex of a graph is said to be an isolated vertex if and for all that is,
An isolated vertex does not dominate any other vertex in In Figure 1, there exists no isolated vertex.
Theorem 3.
Let be a graph on W without isolated vertices. If is an MDS of , then is a DS of
Proof.
Let be an MDS of and Since has no isolated vertices, there is an element It follows from Theorem 2 that Element w was arbitrary; the result holds for every Thus, every element of D is dominated by some element of Hence, is a DS of □
Definition 16.
The minimum cardinality among all MDSs of a graph is called a of a graph It is represented as or
Definition 17.
The maximum cardinality among all MDSs of a graph is called an upper of a graph . It is represented as or
Definition 18.
A DS of cardinality ⋎ is called a minimum DS or ⋎-set.
Example 5.
- 1.
- Let = and = , so = = and = = . Hence, the of is = min = .
- 2.
- The upper of a graph is = max = .
- 3.
- Furthermore, is the ⋎-set.
Theorem 4.
For any graph without isolated vertices,
Proof.
Let be an MDS of . By Theorem 3, we know that is a DS of . Then, and . However, . Since = p, , which implies that . □
Remark 2.
Let = be a graph on W:
- If dominates , then dominates , where Hence, domination is a symmetric relation on
- If and for all then W is the only DS of
- = p if and only if and for all
- For any is precisely the set of all that are dominated by
4. Operations on Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
In this section, we define certain operations on graphs, including the complement of a graph, ∪, +, ∩, ×, and ∘ of two graphs to yield new graphs. The complement of a graph does not acquire the characteristics of the complement of a crisp graph. We give several results of domination in these operations and also present relations of the complete graph of the products of graphs.
4.1. Complement of a Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graph
Definition 19.
Let = be a graph on The complement of a graph = is a graph = with the following:
- (i)
- = C.
- (ii)
- = for all
- (iii)
- = − and = −for all
Example 6.
Consider a graph = on W as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2.
graph
The membership grade of vertex set = and edge set = of are specified in Table 4.
Table 4.
Membership grades of and .
Figure 3.
Complement of a graph
Remark 3.
Let = be a graph on W:
- The complement of a complete graph is always a null graph.
- =
- If is a graph, then
Theorem 5.
Let be a graph on W. Then, , where is the of and if and only if and for all
Proof.
The inequality is trivial. Suppose . Then, we want to prove that and for all means that and We know that if and only if and for all and if and only if = and = for all Further, , and Hence, if and only if and for all □
Corollary 1.
Let be a graph in such a way that both and have no isolated vertices. Then, . Moreover, if and only if
Proof.
By Theorem 4, we know that and
Hence, Now, let , and we want to prove that If , then = Conversely, suppose that By Theorem 4, and If either or or both and , then our supposition will be wrong. However, the only option is that Hence, the proof is complete. □
4.2. Union of Two Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
Definition 20.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively, with . The union of two graphs and is denoted as = = and defined as follows:
for all , and
for all
Remark 4.
It is not necessary that the union of two complete graphs is a complete graph.
In the following, we give a counterexample that shows that the union of two complete graphs is not a complete graph.
Example 7.
Consider two complete graphs = and = on and , respectively, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4.
graphs.
The vertex set and edge set of = are and . The membership grades of both and of are given in Table 5.
Table 5.
Membership grades of C and
The union of and given in Figure 4 is the same as in Figure 4. Both are complete graphs, but their union is not a complete graph.
Theorem 6.
Let and be two graphs on and , respectively. Suppose and are two minimum DSs of and , respectively. Then, is a DS of
Proof.
Let be a minimum DS of . Then, for every , there exists such that w dominates Similarly, let be a minimum DS of . Then, for every , there exists such that dominates Now, we want to prove that is a DS of For this, let There are two possibilities:
- If , then there exists such that dominates
- If , then there exists such that dominates
Thus, was arbitrary; the result holds for every Hence, the proof is complete. □
4.3. Joining Two Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
Definition 21.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively, with = ϕ. The joining = of two graphs and is a pair , where
for all , and
for all
Remark 5.
From the definition of the union and joining of two graphs, we can see that
Example 8.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively, as shown in Figure 5. The vertex set and edge set of = are and , respectively. The membership grades of and of are given in Table 6 and Table 7, respectively. The joining of and is given in Figure 6.
Figure 5.
graphs.
Table 6.
.
Table 7.
Figure 6.
Proposition 1.
Let = and = be two complete graphs on and , respectively, with = ϕ. Then, is a complete graph.
Proof.
Let and . Then,
Hence, the result holds for every and . □
Theorem 7.
Let and be two graphs on and , respectively. Suppose and are two minimum DSs of and , respectively. Then, and are DSs of
Proof.
Let be a minimum DS of . Then, for every , there exists such that w dominates By the definition of , we know that every vertex of is dominated by all the vertices of Thus, every element in and in is dominated by the elements in Similarly, is also a DS of Hence, the proof is complete. □
Theorem 8.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively. Then,
where and
Proof.
By the definition of , we know that if we take any edge from , where and , then is an effective edge. However, any vertex of dominates all the vertices of Now, suppose is any MDS of Then, is one of the following forms:
- = , where is an MDS of
- = , where is an MDS of
- = , where , , and both and sets are not DSs of and , respectively.
Hence,
where and □
4.4. Intersection of Two Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
Definition 22.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively, with . The intersection = of two graphs and is a pair , where
for all , and
for all
Example 9.
Consider two graphs = and = on and , respectively, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7.
graphs.
The vertex set and edge set of = are and The membership grades of both and of are given in Table 8.
Table 8.
Membership grades of and
The intersection of and is given in Figure 8.
Figure 8.
Both and are complete graphs, and is also a complete graph.
Proposition 2.
If and are complete graphs on and , respectively, then is also a complete graph.
Proof.
Let and be complete graphs. Suppose Then, by definition,
Hence, the proof is complete. □
Theorem 9.
Let and be two disjoint graphs. Then,
Proof.
Let and be two minimum DSs or ⋎-sets of graphs and , respectively. Since and are two disjoint graphs,
Therefore,
□
4.5. Cartesian Product of Two Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
Definition 23.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively. The Cartesian product = of two graphs and is a pair , where
for all
, and
for all
Example 10.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively, as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9.
graphs.
The vertex set and edge set of are and
. The membership grades of and of are given in Table 9.
Table 9.
Membership grades of and
The Cartesian product of is given in Figure 10.
Figure 10.
.
Theorem 10.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively. Suppose and are two minimum DSs of and , respectively. Then,
Proof.
We first prove that is a DS of Let ; therefore, Since is a DS of , there exists such that
Now, . So,
Thus, dominates in so that is a DS of . Similarly, is also a DS of . Hence, it follows that
□
The Cartesian product of two graphs and is not a complete graph (see Example 10).
4.6. Composition of Two Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
Definition 24.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively. The composition = of two graphs and is a pair , where
for all , and
for all
Figure 11.
Proposition 3.
If and are complete graphs on and , respectively, then is also a complete graph.
Proof.
Let and be complete graphs. Suppose There are three cases:
- Case (i) Suppose . Then,
- Case (ii) Suppose . Then,
- Case (iii) Suppose . Then,
Hence, the proof is complete. □
Theorem 11.
Let and be two DSs of graphs = and = , respectively. Then, is a DS of
Proof.
Let
- Case (i) Let and . Consider such that dominates w. Then,
Now, So,
Hence, dominates in
- Case (ii) Let and . Consider such that dominates . Then,
Now, So,
Hence, dominates in
- Case (iii) Let and . Consider and such that dominates w in and dominates in Then,
Now, So,
Hence, dominates in Thus, is a DS of □
5. Relations Between Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
Definition 25.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively. An isomorphism of graphs is a bijective map that fulfills the following properties:
- 1.
- and for all
- 2.
- and for all
If there is an isomorphism from to , then we denote
Theorem 12.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively. Then,
Proof.
Consider the identity map It is enough to prove the following:
- (i)
- = and = for all
- (ii)
- = and = for all
By the definition of a complement, we know that
for all Then,
Hence,
for all
Hence,
for all □
Theorem 13.
Let = and = be two graphs on and , respectively. Then,
Proof.
Consider the identity map It is enough to prove the following:
- (i)
- = and = for all
- (ii)
- = and = for all
By the definition of a complement, we know that
for all Then,
Hence,
for all
Hence,
for all □
Theorem 14.
Let = be a graph of such that and for all . Similarly, let = be a graph of such that and for all . Both and are disjoint graphs. Then,
Proof.
Let be a -set of a graph and be a -set of a graph . Then, by Theorem 14, is a DS of . Since both and are disjoint graphs, is a minimum DS of . Hence,
□
6. Application of Domination in Product Bipolar Fuzzy Graph
Domination plays a vital role in solving real-life problems. In this section, we utilize the concept of domination to address decision-making problems related to locating metro bus stations. For instance, the Lahore Metro Bus Service in Punjab, Pakistan, operates from Gajju Matah to Shahdara via Ferozepur Road, allowing passengers to reach their destinations on time. However, there are many cities where metro bus services are unavailable, causing inconvenience for travelers.
Consider two cities where people frequently travel, but the metro bus service is not yet available. To save travel time, the government plans to introduce a metro bus service between these cities. Since these cities also contain several rural areas, it is not feasible to establish stations in every locality. Therefore, the concept of domination sets helps us strategically select stations in such a way that every area can benefit from the metro bus service.
6.1. Locating Metro Bus Stations Using Domination
Consider City A as a source point and City B as a destination point. We know that many areas exist between any two cities. In our discussion, we highlight some main areas between City A and City B. Consider a set W of City A, City B, and the main areas that exist between these two cities.
Now, we want to construct a track that connects these places only. To build a route between these two cities, we convert this problem into a graph. We consider that the places are vertices and the existing direct roadways between these places are edges. Let C be a set on W as defined in Table 10.
Table 10.
set C of places.
The positive membership value of each place indicates the degree of frequent transport usage of the people at this place. The negative membership value of each place indicates the degree of infrequent transport usage of the people at this place. In a set form, these attributes can be represented as
For example, the positive membership value of City A is , which indicates that there are people in City A that are frequently using transport services. The negative membership value of City A is , which indicates that there are people who are infrequent transport users. Now, let D be a relation on W as defined in Table 11. In Table 11, we list the membership values between two places, and the membership value of each pair of places is expressed as
for all
Table 11.
relation D of places.
The positive membership value of each pair indicates the degree of comfortable routes while traveling between two areas. The negative membership value of the edge indicates the degree of uncomfortable routes while traveling between two areas. In a set form, these membership characteristics can be stated as
For example, the edge between Area 1 and Area 2 has a membership value of , which indicates that of routes are comfortable for people traveling between Area 1 and Area 2 and of routes are uncomfortable when people travel between Area 1 and Area 2. Based on the data above,
is a crisp set.
is a set on
is a relation on This is a graph = , which is given in Figure 12.
Figure 12.
Bus route using graph.
From Figure 12, we can observe that a track is constructed between the given places. There are eight areas between City A and City B, but it is not feasible to place stations at all of them. The concept of domination plays a crucial role in selecting the optimal locations for stations. We need to find an MDS of a (Figure 12) that decides which are the places where we need to place stations. So, to find the MDS, first, we need to find all DSs of Figure 12. To check whether a given subset of W is a DS or not, we need to check the j places we have, where place i must satisfy the following condition:
And the DS indicates that all the places that are in must have a nearby station in .
Let = {City A, Area 3, Area 5, Area 6, City B}. So, = {Area 1, Area 2, Area 4, Area 7, Area 8}. It is easy to check that is a DS:
- The people who are living in Area 1 may use the nearby station in City A.
- The people who are living in Area 2 may use the nearby station in Area 3.
- The people who are living in Area 4 may use both nearby stations in Area 3 and Area 5.
- The people who are living in Area 7 may use the nearby station in Area 6.
- The people who are living in Area 8 may use the nearby station in City B.
So, {City A, Area 3, Area 5, Area 6, City B} is a DS. If we select stations in both Areas, Area 5, and Area 6, then the DS is not an MDS. However, we need to find an MDS to place stations with maximum benefits. So, we choose a station in just Area 6. Hence,
is an MDS. Therefore, we conclude that these are the optimal locations for the stations. In Figure 13, the circled areas indicate the placement of the stations, and a line between two places shows that the people who are in Area 1 may use the nearby station in City A. Dotted circles indicate those areas that have no station, and a dotted line between two areas indicates that the people who are in Area 1 cannot use Area 2 because there exists no station in Area 2. We added Algorithm 1 for placing metro bus stations.
| Algorithm 1: Method for Placing Stations of Metro Bus |
|
Figure 13.
Placing stations.
6.2. Comparison with Bipolar Fuzzy Graphs
Domination plays a vital role in graph theory to solve the problems that arise in real-world situations including the problem of determining locations for army posts, radio stations, bus route stations, and many others. To find the solution to these problems, the best way is to convert these problems into graphs. The main parts of the problems and the relations between the main parts are converted into vertices and edges, respectively. Depending on the problems, assign membership grades to the vertices and edges, and then, with the help of domination theory, find the solution to the problems. In graphs, the membership grades of edges are less than or equal to and greater than or equal to the minimum and maximum of two vertices, respectively:
for all (see Definition 1). However, sometimes in real-life problems, it is possible that the membership grades of edges are less than or equal to and greater than or equal to the product of two vertices, respectively:
for all (see Definition 11). We call this a graph, which is also called a graph. For example, in locating stations for the bus routing problem, the membership grades between places are less than or equal to and greater than or equal to the product of the membership grades of incident places, respectively; see Figure 12. In this case, we aim to place stations for bus routing. However, solving this problem using domination theory on the graph does not yield better results. For instance, if we take a set = {City A, Area 3, Area 5, Area 6, City B}, we can check whether it is a DS or not. So, = {Area 1, Area 2, Area 4, Area 7, Area 8}. Clearly, this set is not a dominating set because we have no place in that satisfies the following condition:
where and Thus, the only DS, in this case, is
This set indicates that these stations should be located at these places. However, if we solve this problem with the help of domination theory on the graph, we obtain = {City A, Area 3, Area 6, City B}, which is an MDS and indicates that these are the best places for the stations. So, we see that in this case, the idea of domination in the graph gives a better result compared to the theory of domination on the graph. So, from this example, we conclude the following two facts:
- •
- If the membership grades of edges are less than equal to and greater than equal to the minimum and maximum of two vertices, respectively, we use the idea of domination on graphs.
- •
- In the case of the membership grades of edges being less than equal to and greater than equal to the product of two vertices, respectively, we use the theory of domination on graphs because in some cases, the theory of domination on graphs does not yield better results.
7. Conclusions and Future Directions
The concept of domination in the bipolar fuzzy (Bf) model is a highly powerful tool with significant applications across various research domains. It offers greater accuracy and flexibility compared to traditional fuzzy models, making it a robust framework for addressing complex problems. In this research paper, we defined and explored various operations—such as union (∪), join (+), intersection (∩), Cartesian product (×), and composition (◦)—on product bipolar fuzzy (PBf) graphs, as well as the complement of PBf graphs, to generate new PBf graphs. We observed that the standard definitions of Cartesian product and composition for Bf graphs cannot be directly extended to PBf graphs, as the resulting structures do not satisfy the properties of PBf graphs.
We introduced and investigated the notions of dominating sets (DSs), minimal dominating sets (MDSs), and the domination number () for PBf graphs, supported by illustrative examples. Our study revealed that many results related to domination on Bf graphs also hold true for PBf graphs, particularly in the context of complete PBf graphs. Furthermore, we demonstrated the practical utility of domination on PBf graphs by applying it to a real-world decision-making problem involving the optimization of bus routing and station placement. This application highlights the critical role of domination sets in PBf graphs for solving complex logistical challenges. The present study opens several avenues for future research, including domination on PBf graphs using strong arcs, edge domination on PBf graphs, and strong and weak domination on PBf graphs. These directions promise to further enrich the theoretical and practical applications of bipolar fuzzy graph theory.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; methodology, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; software, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; validation, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; formal analysis, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; investigation, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; resources, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; data curation, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; writing—original draft preparation, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; writing—review and editing, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; visualization, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; supervision, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; project administration, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P.; funding acquisition, W.M., A.R., U.I., S.S., M.G. and I.-L.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Data Availability Statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors on request.
Acknowledgments
The authors extend their appreciation to King Saud University for funding this work through Researchers Supporting Project number (RSPD2025R1056), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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