Approximating theDomatic Number

A set of vertices in a graph is a dominating set if every vertex outside the set has a neighbor in the set. The domatic number problem is that of partitioning the vertices of a graph into the maximum number of disjoint dominating sets. Let n denote the number of vertices, $\delta$ the minimum degree, and $\Delta$ the maximum degree.We show that every graph has a domatic partition with $(1 - o(1))(\delta + 1)/\ln n$ dominating sets and, moreover, that such a domatic partition can be found in polynomial-time. This implies a $(1 + o(1))\ln n$-approximation algorithm for domatic number, since the domatic number is always at most $\delta + 1$. We also show this to be essentially best possible. Namely, extending the approximation hardness of set cover by combining multiprover protocols with zero-knowledge techniques, we show that for every $\epsilon 0$, a $(1 - \epsilon)\ln n$-approximation implies that $NP \subseteq DTIME(n^{O(\log\log n)})$. This makes domatic number the first natural maximization problem (known to the authors) that is provably approximable to within polylogarithmic factors but no better.We also show that every graph has a domatic partition with $(1 - o(1))(\delta + 1)/\ln \Delta$ dominating sets, where the "o(1)" term goes to zero as $\Delta$ increases. This can be turned into an efficient algorithm that produces a domatic partition of $\Omega(\delta/\ln \Delta)$ sets.