Extremal values for Steiner distances and the Steiner $k$-Wiener index

TL;DR

This paper extends extremal graph theory results to Steiner distances in trees, analyzing concavity, median distances, and bounds for Steiner $k$-Wiener indices, with extremal graphs identified.

Contribution

It generalizes known theorems on distances in trees to Steiner distance variants and provides bounds and extremal graphs for these measures.

Findings

Steiner $k$-distances are concave along paths in trees.

Bounds are established for ratios of Steiner $k$-distances between vertices.

Extremal graphs achieving bounds are characterized.

Abstract

Various questions related to distances between vertices of simple, finite graphs are of interest to extremal graph theorists. The Steiner distance of a set of $k$ vertices is a natural generalization of the regular distance. We extend several theorems on the middle parts and extremal values of trees from their regular distance variants to their Steiner distance variants. More specifically, we show that for a tree $T$, the Steiner $k$-distance, Steiner $k$-leaf-distance, and Steiner $k$-internal-distance are all concave along a path. We also calculate distances between the Steiner $k$-median, Steiner $k$-internal-median, and Steiner $k$-leaf-median. Letting the Steiner $k$-distance of a vertex $v \in V(T)$ be $\dd_k^T(v)$, we find bounds based on the order of $T$ for the ratios $\frac{\dd^T_{k}(u)}{\dd^T_{k}(v)}$, $\frac{\dd^T_{k}(w)}{\dd^T_{k}(z)}$, and $\frac{\dd^T_{k}(u)}{\dd^T_{k}(y)}$ where $u$ and $v$ are leaves, $w$ and $z$ are internal vertices, and $y$ is a Steiner $k$-centroid. Also, denoting the Steiner $k$-Wiener index as $\mathsf{SW}_k(T)$, we find upper and lower bounds for $\frac{\mathsf{SW}_k(T)}{\dd^G_{k}(v)}$. The extremal graphs that produce these bounds are also presented.