The (revised) Szeged index and the Wiener index of a nonbipartite graph

Lily Chen, Xueliang Li, Mengmeng Liu

Published 2012-11-23, updated 2012-12-07Version 2

Hansen et. al. used the computer programm AutoGraphiX to study the differences between the Szeged index $Sz(G)$ and the Wiener index $W(G)$, and between the revised Szeged index $Sz^*(G)$ and the Wiener index for a connected graph $G$. They conjectured that for a connected nonbipartite graph $G$ with $n \geq 5$ vertices and girth $g \geq 5,$ $ Sz(G)-W(G) \geq 2n-5. $ Moreover, the bound is best possible as shown by the graph composed of a cycle on 5 vertices, $C_5$, and a tree $T$ on $n-4$ vertices sharing a single vertex. They also conjectured that for a connected nonbipartite graph $G$ with $n \geq 4$ vertices, $ Sz^*(G)-W(G) \geq \frac{n^2+4n-6}{4}. $ Moreover, the bound is best possible as shown by the graph composed of a cycle on 3 vertices, $C_3$, and a tree $T$ on $n-3$ vertices sharing a single vertex. In this paper, we not only give confirmative proofs to these two conjectures but also characterize those graphs that achieve the two lower bounds.