On Zagreb index, signless Laplacian eigenvalues and signless Laplacian energy of a graph

TL;DR

This paper establishes optimal upper bounds for Zagreb index, signless Laplacian eigenvalues, and energy of a graph, providing characterizations of extremal graphs and relations to various graph parameters.

Contribution

It introduces new upper bounds for the Zagreb index and signless Laplacian spectral quantities, with characterizations of extremal cases and applications to graph energy.

Findings

Derived best possible upper bounds for the Zagreb index.

Established bounds for the sum of largest and smallest signless Laplacian eigenvalues.

Provided bounds for the signless Laplacian energy and characterized extremal graphs.

Abstract

Let $G$ be a simple graph with order $n$ and size $m$. The quantity $M_1(G)=\displaystyle\sum_{i=1}^{n}d^2_{v_i}$ is called the first Zagreb index of $G$, where $d_{v_i}$ is the degree of vertex $v_i$, for all $i=1,2,\dots,n$. The signless Laplacian matrix of a graph $G$ is $Q(G)=D(G)+A(G)$, where $A(G)$ and $D(G)$ denote, respectively, the adjacency and the diagonal matrix of the vertex degrees of $G$. Let $q_1\geq q_2\geq \dots\geq q_n\geq 0$ be the signless Laplacian eigenvalues of $G$. The largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue $q_1$ is called the signless Laplacian spectral radius or $Q$-index of $G$ and is denoted by $q(G)$. Let $S^+_k(G)=\displaystyle\sum_{i=1}^{k}q_i$ and $L_k(G)=\displaystyle\sum_{i=0}^{k-1}q_{n-i}$, where $1\leq k\leq n$, respectively denote the sum of $k$ largest and smallest signless Laplacian eigenvalues of $G$. The signless Laplacian energy of $G$ is defined as $QE(G)=\displaystyle\sum_{i=1}^{n}|q_i-\overline{d}|$, where $\overline{d}=\frac{2m}{n}$ is the average vertex degree of $G$. In this article, we obtain upper bounds for the first Zagreb index $M_1(G)$ and show that each bound is best possible. Using these bounds, we obtain several upper bounds for the graph invariant $S^+_k(G)$ and characterize the extremal cases. As a consequence, we find upper bounds for the $Q$-index and lower bounds for the graph invariant $L_k(G)$ in terms of various graph parameters and determine the extremal cases. As an application, we obtain upper bounds for the signless Laplacian energy of a graph and characterize the extremal cases.