The hub number of a graph

A hub set in a graph G is a set U ⊆ V (G) such that any two vertices outside U are connected by a path whose internal vertices lie in U . We prove that h(G) ≤ hc(G) ≤ γc(G) ≤ h(G) + 1, where h(G), hc(G), and γc(G), respectively, are the minimum sizes of a hub set in G, a hub set inducing a connected subgraph, and a connected dominating set. Furthermore, all graphs with γc(G) > hc(G) ≥ 4 are obtained by substituting graphs into three consecutive vertices of a cycle; this yields a polynomial-time algorithm to check whether hc(G) = γc(G).