Global offensive k-alliance in bipartite graphs

Let k ≥ 0 be an integer. A set S of vertices of a graph G = (V (G), E(G)) is called a global offensive k-alliance if /N(v) ∩ S/ ≥ /N(v) - S/ + k for every v ∈ V (G) - S, where 0 ≤ k Δ and Δ is the maximum degree of G. The global offensive k-alliance number [formula] is the minimum cardinality of a global offensive k-alliance in G. We show that for every bipartite graph G and every integer k ≥ 2, [formula], where Lk(G) is the set of vertices of degree at most k - 1. Moreover, extremal trees attaining this upper bound are characterized.