The Wiener Index of Signed Graphs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a signed graph version of the Wiener index, constructs many graphs with a vertex-removed invariance property, and relates it to a graph coloring problem involving balanced paths.

Contribution

It defines a new Wiener index for signed graphs and constructs numerous graphs with invariant properties under vertex removal, connecting to a novel edge-coloring problem.

Findings

Many signed graphs satisfy $W_\sigma(G)=W_\sigma(G-v)$ for all vertices v.

The work links the invariance property to a 2-coloring problem with balanced paths.

Provides new insights into the structure of signed graphs and their topological indices.

Abstract

The Wiener index of a graph $W(G)$ is a well studied topological index for graphs. An outstanding problem of \v{S}olt{\'e}s is to find graphs $G$ such that $W(G)=W(G-v)$ for all vertices $v\in V(G)$, with the only known example being $G=C_{11}$. We relax this problem by defining a notion of Wiener indices for signed graphs, which we denote by $W_\sigma(G)$, and under this relaxation we construct many signed graphs such that $W_\sigma(G)=W_\sigma(G-v)$ for all $v\in V(G)$. This ends up being related to a problem of independent interest, which asks when it is possible to $2$-color the edges of a graph $G$ such that there is a path between any two vertices of $G$ which uses each color the same number of times.