English

Decreasing the mean subtree order by adding $k$ edges

Combinatorics 2023-08-25 v1

Abstract

The mean subtree order of a given graph GG, denoted μ(G)\mu(G), is the average number of vertices in a subtree of GG. Let GG be a connected graph. Chin, Gordon, MacPhee, and Vincent [J. Graph Theory, 89(4): 413-438, 2018] conjectured that if HH is a proper spanning supergraph of GG, then μ(H)>μ(G)\mu(H) > \mu(G). Cameron and Mol [J. Graph Theory, 96(3): 403-413, 2021] disproved this conjecture by showing that there are infinitely many pairs of graphs HH and GG with HGH\supset G, V(H)=V(G)V(H)=V(G) and E(H)=E(G)+1|E(H)|= |E(G)|+1 such that μ(H)<μ(G)\mu(H) < \mu(G). They also conjectured that for every positive integer kk, there exists a pair of graphs GG and HH with HGH\supset G, V(H)=V(G)V(H)=V(G) and E(H)=E(G)+k|E(H)| = |E(G)| +k such that μ(H)<μ(G)\mu(H) < \mu(G). Furthermore, they proposed that μ(Km+nK1)<μ(Km,n)\mu(K_m+nK_1) < \mu(K_{m, n}) provided nmn\gg m. In this note, we confirm these two conjectures.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.12808,
  title  = {Decreasing the mean subtree order by adding $k$ edges},
  author = {Stijn Cambie and Guantao Chen and Yanli Hao and Nizamettin Tokar},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.12808},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

11 Pages, 5 Figures Paper identical to JGT submission

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:03:29.971Z