Maximum pebbling number of graphs of diameter three

Given a configuration of pebbles on the vertices of a graph G, a pebbling move consists of taking two pebbles off some vertex v and putting one of them back on a vertex adjacent to v. A graph is called pebbleable if for each vertex v there is a sequence of pebbling moves that would place at least one pebble on v. The pebbling number of a graph G is the smallest integer m such that G is pebbleable for every configuration of m pebbles on G. We prove that the pebbling number of a graph of diameter 3 on n vertices is no more than (3-2)n + O(1), and, by explicit construction, that the bound is sharp. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory