Abstract

The greedy tree $\mathcal{G}(D)$ and the $\mathcal{M}$-tree $\mathcal{M}(D)$ are known to be extremal among trees with degree sequence $D$ with respect to various graph invariants. This paper provides a general theorem that covers a large family of invariants for which $\mathcal{G}(D)$ or $\mathcal{M}(D)$ is extremal. Many known results, for example on the Wiener index, the number of subtrees, the number of independent subsets and the number of matchings follow as corollaries, as do some new results on invariants such as the number of rooted spanning forests, the incidence energy and the solvability. We also extend our results on trees with fixed degree sequence $D$ to the set of trees whose degree sequence is majorised by a given sequence $D$, which also has a number of applications.

Highlights

  • In the context of chemical graph theory, graphs are used to model molecules: the vertices of the graph represent the atoms of the molecule, and the edges correspond to the chemical bonds between atoms

  • We extend our results on trees with fixed degree sequence D to the set of trees whose degree sequence is majorised by a given sequence D, which has a number of applications

  • The greedy tree G(D) with degree sequence D, formally defined is a tree that can be constructed by starting with the largest degree vertex and always assigning the largest available degree to a neighbour of the vertex with the largest degree whose neighbour degrees are not yet fully specified

Read more

Summary

Introduction

In the context of chemical graph theory, (molecular) graphs are used to model molecules: the vertices of the graph represent the atoms of the molecule, and the edges correspond to the chemical bonds between atoms. Let ρ be an invariant of rooted trees that satisfies the recurrence relation (2). Various special cases are listed at the end of each section This includes many known results, but we obtain several new results, for the number of rooted spanning forests (related to the coefficients of the Laplacian characteristic polynomial), the incidence energy, and an invariant called the solvability. We will see that the greedy tree is the unique ρ-exchange-extremal tree if ρ satisfies the following conditions: I.1 the recurrence relation (2) holds, for some symmetric recurrence rule fρ, I.2 the function fρ is strictly increasing (strictly increasing in each single variable and strictly increasing under addition of further variables), I.3 ρ() < ρ(B), for all rooted trees B with |V (B)| > 1, where denotes a single vertex tree. If T is a ρ0-exchange-extremal tree, T is a greedy tree

Main result
The number of subtrees
A common generalisation of Wiener index and terminal Wiener index
The Steiner Wiener index
Decreasing recurrence rule fρ
Special case: the Hosoya index
Matching polynomial and energy
Merrifield-Simmons index
Solvability
Majorisation of degree sequences

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.