Wiener index in graphs with given minimum degree and maximum degree

Abstract

Let $G$ be a connected graph of order $n$.The Wiener index $W(G)$ of $G$ is the sum of the distances between all unordered pairs of vertices of $G$. In this paper we show that the well-known upper bound $(\frac{n}{\delta +1}+2)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n}{2}\right)$ on the Wiener index of a graph of order $n$ and minimum degree $\delta$ [M. Kouider, P. Winkler, Mean distance and minimum degree. J. Graph Theory 25 no. 1 (1997)] can be improved significantly if the graph contains also a vertex of large degree. Specifically, we give the asymptotically sharp bound $W(G)\le \left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n-\Delta +\delta }{2}\right)\frac{n+2\Delta }{\delta +1}+2n(n-1)$ on the Wiener index of a graph $G$ of order $n$, minimum degree $\delta$ and maximum degree $\Delta$. We prove a similar result for triangle-free graphs, and we determine a bound on the Wiener index of $C_4$-free graphs of given order, minimum and maximum degree and show that it is, in some sense, best possible.