Convexity result and trees with large Balaban index

Abstract

Abstract Balaban index is defined as J ( G ) = m m − n + 2 Σ 1 w ( u ) ⋅ w ( v ) , $J\left( G \right)=\frac{m}{m-n+2}\Sigma \frac{1}{\sqrt{w\left( u \right)\cdot w\left( v \right)}},$ where the sum is taken over all edges of a connected graph G, n and m are the cardinalities of the vertex and the edge set of G, respectively, and w(u) (resp. w(v)) denotes the sum of distances from u (resp. v) to all the other vertices of G. In 2011, H. Deng found an interesting property that Balaban index is a convex function in double stars. We show that this holds surprisingly to general graphs by proving that attaching leaves at two vertices in a graph yields a new convexity property of Balaban index. We demonstrate this property by finding, for each n, seven trees with the maximum value of Balaban index, and we conclude the paper with an interesting conjecture.