Two-Point Concentration of the Domination Number of Random Graphs

Abstract: We show that the domination number of the binomial random graph G_{n,p} with edge-probability p is concentrated on two values for p \ge n^{-2/3+\eps}, and not concentrated on two values for general p \le n^{-2/3}. This refutes a conjecture of Glebov, Liebenau and Szabo, who showed two-point concentration for p \ge n^{-1/2+\eps}, and conjectured that two-point concentration fails for p \ll n^{-1/2}. The proof of our main result requires a Poisson type approximation for the probability that a random bipartite graph has no isolated vertices, in a regime where standard tools are unavailable (as the expected number of isolated vertices is relatively large). We achieve this approximation by adapting the proof of Janson's inequality to this situation, and this adaptation may be of broader interest.