Fractional zero forcing via three-color forcing games

An r-fold analogue of the positive semidefinite zero forcing process that is carried out on the r-blowup of a graph is introduced and used to define the fractional positive semidefinite forcing number. Properties of the graph blowup when colored with a fractional positive semidefinite forcing set are examined and used to define a three-color forcing game that directly computes the fractional positive semidefinite forcing number of a graph. We develop a fractional parameter based on the standard zero forcing process and it is shown that this parameter is exactly the skew zero forcing number with a three-color approach. This approach and an algorithm are used to characterize graphs whose skew zero forcing number equals zero. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.