On the saturation number of graphs

Abstract

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a simple connected graph. A matching $M$ in a graph $G$ is a collection of edges of $G$ such that no two edges from $M$ share a vertex. A matching $M$ is maximal if it cannot be extended to a larger matching in $G$. The cardinality of any smallest maximal matching in $G$ is the saturation number of $G$ and is denoted by $s(G)$. In this paper we study the saturation number of the corona product of two specific graphs. We also consider some graphs with certain constructions that are of importance in chemistry and study their saturation number.