On a Conjecture about the Sombor Index of Graphs

Let G be a graph with vertex set V(G) and edge set E(G). A graph invariant for G is a number related to the structure of G which is invariant under the symmetry of G. The Sombor and reduced Sombor indices of G are two new graph invariants defined as SO(G)=∑uv∈E(G)dG(u)2+dG(v)2 and SOred(G)=∑uv∈E(G)dG(u)−12+dG(v)−12, respectively, where dG(v) is the degree of the vertex v in G. We denote by Hn,ν the graph constructed from the star Sn by adding ν edge(s), 0≤ν≤n−2, between a fixed pendent vertex and ν other pendent vertices. Réti et al. [T. Réti, T Došlić and A. Ali, On the Sombor index of graphs, Contrib. Math.3 (2021) 11–18] proposed a conjecture that the graph Hn,ν has the maximum Sombor index among all connected ν-cyclic graphs of order n, where 0≤ν≤n−2. In some earlier works, the validity of this conjecture was proved for ν≤5. In this paper, we confirm that this conjecture is true, when ν=6. The Sombor index in the case that the number of pendent vertices is less than or equal to n−ν−2 is investigated, and the same results are obtained for the reduced Sombor index. Some relationships between Sombor, reduced Sombor, and first Zagreb indices of graphs are also obtained.

Maximal distance spectral radius of trees

In this paper, we determine the unique tree that maximizes the distance spectral radius in the class of all trees in which each non-pendent vertex has degree at least [Formula: see text].

ALGEBRAIC CONNECTIVITY OF LOLLIPOP GRAPHS: A NEW APPROACH

The unicyclic graph Cn,gobtained by appending a cycle Cgof length g to a pendent vertex of a path on n - g vertices is the lollipop graph on n vertices. In [Algebraic connectivity of lollipop graphs, Linear Algebra Appl.434 (2011) 2204–2210], Guo et al. proved that a( Cn,g-1) < a( Cn,g) for g ≥ 4, where a( Cn,g) is the algebraic connectivity of Cn,g. In this paper, we present a new approach which is quite different from that of Guo et al. in proving a( Cn,g-1) < a( Cn,g) for g ≥ 4.