Propagation-time interval conjecture for minimum zero forcing sets of hypercubes

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Let QdQ_d be the dd-dimensional hypercube graph. A minimum zero forcing set is a zero forcing set of cardinality equal to the zero forcing number of QdQ_d; its propagation time is the number of parallel forcing rounds needed to color all vertices. Let pt⁡(Qd)\operatorname{pt}(Q_d) and PT⁡(Qd)\operatorname{PT}(Q_d) denote the minimum and maximum propagation times, respectively, among minimum zero forcing sets of QdQ_d. A graph has a full propagation time interval if it has minimum zero forcing sets with every integer propagation time between pt⁡(Qd)\operatorname{pt}(Q_d) and PT⁡(Qd)\operatorname{PT}(Q_d).

Propagation-time interval conjecture. For every d≥2d\geq 2,

pt⁡(Qd)=1andPT⁡(Qd)=2d−2.\operatorname{pt}(Q_d)=1 \quad\text{and}\quad \operatorname{PT}(Q_d)=2^{d-2}.

Moreover, QdQ_d has a full propagation time interval.

The preceding results establish the existence of minimum zero forcing sets with propagation times 11, 22, 33, and 44 for d≥4d\geq 4, and hence already give non-automorphic minimum zero forcing sets. The conjecture predicts the complete range of propagation times through the claimed maximum 2d−22^{d-2}; the source states that this remains open, together with the enumeration of all minimum zero forcing sets of QdQ_d.

References

Primary source

Boris Brimkov, Thomas R. Cameron and Owen Grubbs, “On the forts and related parameters of the hypercube graph”, arXiv:2507.10826 (2025).

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