Among many topological indices of trees the sum of distances $sigma(T)$ and the number of subtrees $F(T)$ have been a long standing pair of graph invariants that are well known for their negative correlation. That is, among various given classes of trees, the extremal structures maximizing one usually minimize the other, and vice versa. By introducing the local
The general position number of a graph $G$ is the size of the largest set of vertices $S$ such that no geodesic of $G$ contains more than two elements of $S$. The monophonic position number of a graph is defined similarly, but with `induced path in place of `geodesic. In this paper we investigate some extremal problems for these parameters. Firstly we discuss the problem of the smallest possible order of a graph with given general and monophonic position numbers, with applications to a realisation result. We then solve a Tur{a}n problem for the size of graphs with given order and position numbers and characterise the possible diameters of graphs with given order and monophonic position number. Finally we classify the graphs with given order and diameter and largest possible general position number.
A subtree of a tree is any induced subgraph that is again a tree (i.e., connected). The mean subtree order of a tree is the average number of vertices of its subtrees. This invariant was first analyzed in the 1980s by Jamison. An intriguing open question raised by Jamison asks whether the maximum of the mean subtree order, given the order of the tree, is always attained by some caterpillar. While we do not completely resolve this conjecture, we find some evidence in its favor by proving different features of trees that attain the maximum. For example, we show that the diameter of a tree of order $n$ with maximum mean subtree order must be very close to $n$. Moreover, we show that the maximum mean subtree order is equal to $n - 2log_2 n + O(1)$. For the local mean subtree order, which is the average order of all subtrees containing a fixed vertex, we can be even more precise: we show that its maximum is always attained by a broom and that it is equal to $n - log_2 n + O(1)$.
Measures of tree balance play an important role in various research areas, for example in phylogenetics. There they are for instance used to test whether an observed phylogenetic tree differs significantly from a tree generated by the Yule model of speciation. One of the most popular indices in this regard is the Colless index, which measures the degree of balance for rooted binary trees. While many statistical properties of the Colless index (e.g. asymptotic results for its mean and variance under different models of speciation) have already been discussed in different contexts, we focus on its extremal properties. While it is relatively straightforward to characterize trees with maximal Colless index, the analysis of the minimal value of the Colless index and the characterization of trees that achieve it, are much more involved. In this note, we therefore focus on the minimal value of the Colless index for any given number of leaves. We derive both a recursive formula for this minimal value, as well as an explicit expression, which shows a surprising connection between the Colless index and the so-called Blancmange curve, a fractal curve that is also known as the Takagi curve. Moreover, we characterize two classes of trees that have minimal Colless index, consisting of the set of so-called emph{maximally balanced trees} and a class of trees that we call emph{greedy from the bottom trees}. Furthermore, we derive an upper bound for the number of trees with minimal Colless index by relating these trees with trees with minimal Sackin index (another well-studied index of tree balance).
We introduce some natural families of distributions on rooted binary ranked plane trees with a view toward unifying ideas from various fields, including macroevolution, epidemiology, computational group theory, search algorithms and other fields. In the process we introduce the notions of split-exchangeability and plane-invariance of a general Markov splitting model in order to readily obtain probabilities over various equivalence classes of trees that arise in statistics, phylogenetics, epidemiology and group theory.
In a generalized Turan problem, two graphs $H$ and $F$ are given and the question is the maximum number of copies of $H$ in an $F$-free graph of order $n$. In this paper, we study the number of double stars $S_{k,l}$ in triangle-free graphs. We also study an opposite version of this question: what is the maximum number edges/triangles in graphs with double star type restrictions, which leads us to study two questions related to the extremal number of triangles or edges in graphs with degree-sum constraints over adjacent or non-adjacent vertices.