Proof of a Conjecture on the Wiener Index of Eulerian Graphs

Abstract

The Wiener index of a connected graph is the sum of the distances between all unordered pairs of vertices. A connected graph is Eulerian if its vertex degrees are all even. In [Gutman, Cruz, Rada, Wiener index of Eulerian Graphs, Discrete Applied Mathematics 132 (2014), 247-250] the authors proved that the cycle is the unique graph maximising the Wiener index among all Eulerian graphs of given order. They also conjectured that for Eulerian graphs of order $n \geq 26$ the graph consisting of a cycle on $n-2$ vertices and a triangle that share a vertex is the unique Eulerian graph with second largest Wiener index. The conjecture is known to hold for all $n\leq 25$ with exception of six values. In this paper we prove the conjecture.