Extremal Values of Ratios: Distance Problems vs. Subtree Problems in Trees

The authors discovered a dual behaviour of two tree indices, the Wiener index and the number of subtrees, for a number of extremal problems [Discrete Appl. Math. 155 (3) 2006, 374-385; Adv. Appl. Math. 34 (2005), 138-155]. Barefoot, Entringer and Székely [Discrete Appl. Math. 80 (1997), 37-56] determined extremal values of σT(w)/σT(u), σT(w)/σT(v), σ(T)/σT(v), and σ(T)/σT(w), where T is a tree on n vertices, v is in the centroid of the tree T, and u,w are leaves in T. In this paper we test how far the negative correlation between distances and subtrees go if we look for the extremal values of FT(w)/FT(u), FT(w)/FT(v), F(T)/FT(v), and F(T)/FT(w), where T is a tree on n vertices, v is in the subtree core of the tree T, and u,w are leaves in T-the complete analogue of [Discrete Appl. Math. 80 (1997), 37-56], changing distances to the number of subtrees. We include a number of open problems, shifting the interest towards the number of subtrees in graphs

Enumeration of subtrees of trees

Let $T$ be a weighted tree. The weight of a subtree $T_1$ of $T$ is defined as the product of weights of vertices and edges of $T_1$. We obtain a linear-time algorithm to count the sum of weights of subtrees of $T$. As applications, we characterize the tree with the diameter at least $d$, which has the maximum number of subtrees, and we characterize the tree with the maximum degree at least $\Delta$, which has the minimum number of subtrees.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figure