Steiner (revised) Szeged index of graphs

Abstract

The Steiner distance in a graph, introduced by Chartrand et al. in 1989, is a natural generalization of the concept of classical graph distance. For a connected graph $G$ of order at least 2 and $S\subseteq V(G)$, the Steiner distance $d_G(S)$ of the set $S$ of vertices in $G$ is the minimum size of a connected subgraph whose vertex set contains or connects $S$. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the Steiner (revised) Szeged index ($rSz_k(G)$) $Sz_k(G)$ of a graph $G$, which is a natural generalization of the well-known (revised) Szeged index of chemical use. We determine the $Sz_k(G)$ for trees in general. Then we give a formula for computing the Steiner Szeged index of a graph in terms of orbits of automorphism group action on the edge set of the graph. Finally, we give sharp upper and lower bounds of ($rSz_k(G)$) $Sz_k(G)$ of a connected graph $G$, and establish some of its properties. Formulas of ($rSz_k(G)$) $Sz_k(G)$ for small and large $k$ are also given in this paper.