Complexity and approximation ratio of semitotal domination in graphs

A set $S subseteq V(G)$ is a semitotal dominating set of a graph $G$ if it is a dominating set of $G$ andevery vertex in $S$ is within distance 2 of another vertex of $S$. Thesemitotal domination number $gamma_{t2}(G)$ is the minimumcardinality of a semitotal dominating set of $G$.We show that the semitotal domination problem isAPX-complete for bounded-degree graphs, and the semitotal domination problem in any graph of maximum degree $Delta$ can be approximated with an approximationratio of $2+ln(Delta-1)$.