Applied Mathematics Letters 24 (2011) 1026–1030

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Applied Mathematics Letters

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aml

The Zagreb indices of graphs with a given clique number✩

Kexiang Xu
College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

article info abstract

Article history: For a (molecular) graph, the first Zagreb index M1 is equal to the sum of squares of the
Received 5 February 2010 degrees of vertices, and the second Zagreb index M2 is equal to the sum of the products of
Received in revised form 23 January 2011 the degrees of pairs of adjacent vertices. Let Wn,k be the set of connected n-vertex graphs
Accepted 25 January 2011
with clique number k. In this work we characterize the graphs from Wn,k with extremal
(maximal and minimal) Zagreb indices, and determine the values of corresponding indices.
Keywords:
© 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Zagreb index
Clique number
Chromatic number

1. Introduction

All graphs considered in this work are undirected and simple. Let G be a graph with vertex set V (G) and edge set E (G).
The degree of v ∈ V (G), denoted by dG (v), is the number of vertices in G adjacent to v . Other undefined notation and
terminology for graph theory can be found in [1].
A graphical invariant is a number related to a graph which is structurally invariant, in other words, it is a fixed number
under graph automorphisms. In chemical graph theory, these invariant numbers are also known as the topological indices.
One of the oldest graph invariants is the well-known Zagreb index first introduced in [2], where Gutman and Trinajstić
examined the dependence of total π -electron energy on molecular structure, and this was elaborated on in [3]. For a
(molecular) graph G, the first Zagreb index M1 (G) and the second Zagreb index M2 (G) are, respectively, defined as follows:
− −
M1 = M1 (G) = dG (v)2 , M2 = M2 (G) = dG (u)dG (v).
v∈V (G) uv∈E (G)

These two topological indices (M1 and M2 ) reflect the extent of branching of the molecular carbon-atom skeleton [4,5].
Note that some authors call M1 the Gutman index (see [5]). The main properties of M1 and M2 were summarized in [6–8].
Recently, determining the extremal values or bounds of these two topological indices of graphs, as well as characterizing
the corresponding extremal graphs, has attracted the attention of many researchers. Already, many nice results concerning
this topic have been obtained (see [9–13,7,14–16]). In particular, Zhou [15] determined the upper bounds of Zagreb indices
of all Kr +1 -free graphs with m edges. Deng [12] introduced some new transformations of graphs, which increase or decrease
the Zagreb indices of graphs. Behtoei et al. [9] determined the extremal graph with maximal first Zagreb index among all
graphs with edge or vertex connectivity k.
The chromatic number of a graph G, denoted by χ (G), is the minimum number of colors such that G can be colored with
these colors in such a way that no two adjacent vertices have the same color. A clique of graph G is a subset V0 of V (G) such
that in G[V0 ], the subgraph of G induced by V0 , any two vertices are adjacent. The clique number of G, denoted by ω(G), is the
number of vertices in a largest clique of G. For any two nonadjacent vertices x and y in graph G, we use G + xy to denote the
graph obtained from adding a new edge xy to graph G. Similarly, for e = xy ∈ E (G), G − xy represents a new graph obtained

✩ This work was supported by NUAA Research Funding, No. NS2010205.

E-mail addresses: xukexiang0922@yahoo.cn, kexxu1221@126.com.

0893-9659/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.aml.2011.01.034
 K. Xu / Applied Mathematics Letters 24 (2011) 1026–1030 1027

Fig. 1. The graph K4 (51 ).

from graph G by deleting the edge e = xy. We denote by Pn , Cn and Kn the path graph, the cycle graph and the complete
graph on n vertices, respectively, throughout this work.
Let Xn,k and Wn,k be the set of connected graphs of order n with chromatic number k and the set of connected graphs of
order n with clique number k, respectively. Recall that the Turán graph Tn (k) is a complete k-partite graph whose partition
sets differ in size by at most 1. Denote by Kk ((n − k)1 ) the graph obtained by identifying one vertex of Kk with a pendent
vertex of path Pn−k+1 . For an example, K4 (51 ) is shown as Fig. 1. Note that Kk ((n − k)1 ) is just akite graph. In this note we
show that the Turán graph Tn (k) has the maximal (first and second) Zagreb index in Wn,k , and the minimal (first and second)
Zagreb index of graphs from Wn,k is uniquely attained at Kk ((n − k)1 ).

2. Some lemmas

To obtain our main results, we first give some lemmas as necessary preliminaries.
From the definitions of the first Zagreb index and the second Zagreb index of graphs, these two lemmas are obvious but
fundamental.
Lemma 2.1. Let G be a graph with two nonadjacent vertices u, v ∈ V (G). Then we have Mi (G + uv) > Mi (G) for i = 1, 2.

Lemma 2.2. Let G be a graph with e ∈ E (G). Then we have Mi (G − e) < Mi (G) for i = 1, 2.
In the following we always assume that n1 + n2 + · · · + nk = n. Denote by Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk the complete k-partite graph of
order n whose partition sets are of size n1 , n2 , . . . , nk , respectively. The next lemma presents the values of Zagreb indices of
Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk .

Lemma 2.3.
k
−
M1 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk ) = nt ( n − nt ) 2 ,
t =1
k
− k
−
M2 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk ) = ns nt (n − ns )(n − nt ).
s=1 t =s+1

Proof. For j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k}, in a partition set of size nj in Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk , each vertex is of degree n − nj ; by the definition of the
first Zagreb index, it is easy to see that M1 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk ) = t =1 nt (n − nt ) .
∑k 2

Between two partition sets of sizes ni , nj with 1 ≤ i < j ≤ k, respectively, in Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk , there exist in total ni nj edges
linking these two sets. Moreover, the two vertices incident with each of these edges are of degrees n − ni and n − nj ,
respectively. From the definition of the second Zagreb index, M2 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk ) = ns nt (n − ns )(n − nt ), ending
∑k ∑k
s=1 t =s +1
the proof of this lemma. 

Lemma 2.4. Let Gi ∈ Xn,k be a graph with maximal Zagreb index Mi for i ∈ {1, 2}. Then Gi must be of the form Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk where
i ∈ {1, 2}.
Proof. Considering the definition of the set Xn,k , in view of Lemma 2.1, this lemma follows immediately. 
To continue our study, we first introduce some new definitions. If u, v ∈ V (G) are two distinct vertices of a graph G, for
two positive integers p and q, we denote by Gu,v (p, q) the graph obtained from G by attaching at u a path of length p and at
v a path of length q. Analogously, for v ∈ V (G), Gv (k) denotes the graph obtained by attaching at v a path of length k. Below,
we list two transformations of graphs introduced in [12] which decrease the Zagreb indices of graphs.

Lemma 2.5 ([12]). Let G ̸= K1 be a connected graph with v ∈ V (G). G(k, n − 1 − k) is the graph resulting from attaching at v
two paths of length k and n − 1 − k, respectively, with 1 ≤ k ≤ n − 2. Then we have Mi (G(k, n − 1 − k)) > Mi (Gv (n − 1)) for
i ∈ {1, 2}.
By repeating Lemma 2.5, the following remark is easily obtained.

Remark 2.1 ([12]). When a tree T of size t attached to a graph G is replaced by a path Pt +1 as shown in Fig. 2, the Zagreb
indices M1 and M2 all decrease.

Lemma 2.6 ([12]). Assume that s, t are two positive integers. Let u and v be two vertices in graph G such that dG (u) ≥ dG (v) > 1.
Then we have Mi (Gu,v (s, t )) > Mi (Gv (s + t )) for i ∈ {1, 2}.
1028 K. Xu / Applied Mathematics Letters 24 (2011) 1026–1030

Fig. 2. The graphs in Remark 2.1.

3. The main results

To obtain our main results, we first consider the maximal Zagreb indices of graphs from Xn,k . For k = 1, the set Xn,k
contains a single connected graph K1 . When k = n, the only graph in Xn,k is Kn . So, in the following, we always assume that
1 < k < n and n = kq + r where 0 ≤ r < k, i.e., q = ⌊ nk ⌋.

Lemma 3.1. Let G ∈ Xn,k . Then we have:

(1) M1 (G) ≤ M1 (Tn (k)) = (k − r )⌊ nk ⌋(n − ⌊ nk ⌋)2 + r ⌈ nk ⌉(n − ⌈ nk ⌉)2 with the first equality holding if and only if G ∼
= Tn (k).
 
(2) M2 (G) ≤ M2 (Tn (k)) = ⌊ nk ⌋2 (n − ⌊ nk ⌋)2 + r (k − r )⌊ nk ⌋⌈ nk ⌉(n − ⌊ nk ⌋)(n − ⌈ nk ⌉) + (r2 )⌈ nk ⌉2 (n − ⌈ nk ⌉)2 with the first
k−r
2
equality holding if and only if G ∼= Tn (k).
Proof. From the definition of chromatic number, any graph G from Xn,k has k color classes each of which is an independent
set. Suppose that the k classes have order n1 , n2 , . . . , nk , respectively. From Lemma 2.4, the graph from Xn,k which reaches
the maximal Zagreb index Mi for i ∈ {1, 2} will be a complete k-partite graph Kn1 ,n2 ,...,nk .
Suppose that a graph Gi ∈ Xn,k has the maximal Zagreb index Mi for i = 1, 2. Now we claim that Gi must be Tn (k). Next
we will distinguish the following two cases.
Case 1. For the first Zagreb index M1 .
Otherwise, without loss of generality, we assume that the orders of two classes, say n1 and n2 , satisfy n2 − n1 ≥ 2.
When k = 2, note that n1 + n2 = n. By Lemma 2.3, we have

M1 (Kn1 ,n2 ) = n1 (n − n1 )2 + n2 (n − n2 )2
= n1 n22 + n2 n21 = n1 n2 n,
M1 (Kn1 +1,n2 −1 ) = (n1 + 1)(n2 − 1)n,

and

M1 (Kn1 +1,n2 −1 ) − M1 (Kn1 ,n2 ) = (n1 + 1)(n2 − 1)n − n1 n2 n

= n(n2 − n1 − 1) ≥ n > 0.
This is a contradiction to the choice of G1 .
If k ≥ 3, we set A = M1 (Kn1 +1,n2 −1,n3 ,...,nk )−M1 (Kn1 ,n2 ,n3 ,...,nk ). Considering the fact that n2 −n1 ≥ 2, that is, n2 −1 ≥ n1 +1,
similarly, we have
k
−
M1 (Kn1 ,n2 ,n3 ,...,nk ) = n1 (n − n1 )2 + n2 (n − n2 )2 + nt (n − nt )2 ,
t =3
k
−
M1 (Kn1 +1,n2 −1,n3 ,...,nk ) = (n1 + 1)(n − n1 − 1)2 + (n2 − 1)(n − n2 + 1)2 + nt (n − nt )2 ,
t =3

and

A = n1 (n − n1 − 1)2 − n1 (n − n1 )2 + (n − n1 − 1)2 + (n2 − 1)(n − n2 + 1)2 − n2 (n − n2 )2

= −n1 (2n − 2n1 − 1) + (n − n1 − 1)2 − (n − n2 + 1)2 + n2 [(n − n2 + 1)2 − (n − n2 )2 ]
= [n − (n1 + 1)]2 − [n − (n2 − 1)]2 + n2 (2n − 2n2 + 1) − n1 (2n − 2n1 − 1)
≥ n2 + n1 + 2[n2 (n − n2 ) − n1 (n − n1 )]
> 2[n(n2 − n1 ) − (n22 − n21 )]
= 2(n − n1 − n2 )(n2 − n1 ) > 0.

This contradicts the choice of G1 , again.

Case 2. For the second Zagreb index M2 .
To the contrary, without loss of generality, we assume that the orders of two classes, say np and nq with 1 ≤ p < q ≤ k,
∑j
satisfy nq − np ≥ 2. For convenience, let i ni = 0 if j < i.
 K. Xu / Applied Mathematics Letters 24 (2011) 1026–1030 1029

∑p−1 ∑k ∑q−1 ∑k
ni nj (n−ni )(n−nj ), B2 = ni nj (n−ni )(n−nj ), B3 = ni nj (n−ni )(n−nj )
∑k ∑k
Set B1 = i=1 j=i+1 i=p+1 j=i+1 i =q +1 j=i+1
j̸=p,q j̸=q
∑p−1 ∑q−1
ni (n − ni ) + ni ( n − ni ) + ni (n − ni ). By Lemma 2.3, we have
∑k
and D = i=1 i=p+1 j =q +1

p−1 −
− k q−1 −
− k
M2 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,np ,...,nq ,...,nk ) = ni nj (n − ni )(n − nj ) + ni nj (n − ni )(n − nj )
i=1 j=i+1 i=p+1 j=i+1
j̸=p,q j̸=q
 
k
− k
− −p−1 k
−
+ ni nj (n − ni )(n − nj ) + np (n − np ) ni (n − ni ) + nj ( n − nj )
i=q+1 j=i+1 i =1 j=p+1
 
−p−1 q −1
− k
−
+ nq ( n − nq ) ni (n − ni ) + nj ( n − nj ) + nj (n − nj )
i =1 j=p+1 j =q +1
p−1
−
= B1 + B2 + B3 + [np (n − np ) + nq (n − nq )] ni (n − ni )
i=1
q −1
−
+ [np (n − np ) + nq (n − nq )] ni (n − ni )
i=p+1
k
−
+ [np (n − np ) + nq (n − nq )] ni (n − ni ) + np nq (n − np )(n − nq )
j =q +1
= B1 + B2 + B3 + [np (n − np ) + nq (n − nq )]D + np nq (n − np )(n − nq ),
M2 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,np +1,...,nq −1,...,nk ) = B1 + B2 + B3 + [(np + 1)(n − np − 1) + (nq − 1)(n − nq + 1)]D
+ (np + 1)(nq − 1)(n − np − 1)(n − nq + 1),
and
M2 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,np +1,...,nq −1,...,nk ) − M2 (Kn1 ,n2 ,...,np ,...,nq ,...,nk )
= [(np + 1)(n − np − 1) + (nq − 1)(n − nq + 1) − np (n − np ) − nq (n − nq )]D
+ (np + 1)(nq − 1)(n − np − 1)(n − nq + 1) − np nq (n − np )(n − nq )
= 2(nq − np − 1)D + (np nq + nq − np − 1)(n − np − 1)(n − nq + 1) − np nq (n − np )(n − nq )
≥ 2(nq − np − 1)D + np nq [(n − np − 1)(n − nq + 1) − (n − np )(n − nq )]
≥ np nq [(n − np ) − (n − nq ) − 1] > nq − np − 1 > 0.
This is impossible because of the maximality of the second Zagreb index of G2 .
Recall that n = k⌊ nk ⌋ + r = (k − r )⌊ nk ⌋ + r ⌈ nk ⌉. Applying Lemma 2.3, the values of Zagreb indices Mi (Tk (n)) for i = 1, 2
can be obtained immediately.
Conversely, one can see easily that the first equality holds in (1) or (2) when G ∼ = Tn (k). This completes the proof of this
lemma. 

Lemma 3.2 ([17]). Let G = (V , E ) be a graph with ω(G) ≤ k. Then there is a k-partite graph G′ = (V , E ′ ) such that for every
vertex v ∈ V , dG (v) ≤ dG′ (v).

Theorem 3.1. Let G ∈ Wn,k . Then we have:

(1) M1 (G) ≤ (k − r )⌊ nk ⌋(n − ⌊ nk ⌋)2 + r ⌈ nk ⌉(n − ⌈ nk ⌉)2 with equality holding if and only if G ∼
= Tn (k).
 
(2) M2 (G) ≤ ⌊ nk ⌋2 (n − ⌊ nk ⌋)2 + r (k − r )⌊ nk ⌋⌈ nk ⌉(n − ⌊ nk ⌋)(n − ⌈ nk ⌉) + (r2 )⌈ nk ⌉2 (n − ⌈ nk ⌉)2 with equality holding if and
k−r
2
= Tn (k).
only if G ∼
Proof. Since the proof of (2) is analogous to that of (1), we only need to prove (1).
The case when k = n is trivial. Therefore we assume that k < n. Suppose that G from Wn,k has the largest first Zagreb
index. Now we claim that G ∈ Xn,k .
If not, using the case ω(G) = k of Lemma 3.2, we can get a k-partite graph G′ with a same vertex set as G such that for
every vertex v ∈ V (G) = V (G′ ), dG (v) ≤ dG′ (v). Clearly, G′ also belongs to Wn,k . From the definition of first Zagreb index,
we have M1 (G′ ) ≥ M1 (G).
From Lemma 3.1, considering the uniqueness of the extremal graph in the set Xn,k , this theorem follows immediately. 

Theorem 3.2. Let G ∈ Wn,k . Then we have:

(1) M1 (G) ≥ k3 − 2k2 − k + 4n − 4 with equality holding if and only if G ∼= Kk ((n − k)1 ).
(2) M2 (G) ≥ (k2 )(k − 1)2 + k2 + 4(n − k) − 5 with equality holding if and only if G ∼
= Kk ((n − k)1 ).
1030 K. Xu / Applied Mathematics Letters 24 (2011) 1026–1030

Proof. Suppose that a graph G1 from Wn,k has the smallest first Zagreb index. From the definition of the set Wn,k , G1 contains
a complete graph Kk as a subgraph. Without loss of generality, suppose that V (Kk ) = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vk }. By Lemma 2.2, G1 must
be a graph obtained from Kk by attaching some trees rooted at some vertices of Kk . From the structure of G1 , we assume that
V0 = {vi |i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k}, dG1 (vi ) > k − 1} (i.e., there is a tree attached at vi for any vertex vi ∈ V0 ) and the vertices in V0
are labeled as v1 , v2 , . . . , vt with t ≤ k.
From Remark 2.1, we find that, in G1 , all the trees attached at some vertices of Kk must be paths. That is to say, the degrees
of all vertices in V0 of G1 are k. Now we claim that |V0 | = 1. To the contrary, there are at least two vertices, say vi and vj , in
V0 . Note that G1 is just Gvi ,vj (pi , pj ). But from Lemma 2.6, G1 ∼= Gvi ,vj (pi , pj ) can be changed to Gvi (pi + pj ) or Gvj (pi + pj ) with
= Kk ((n − k)1 ).
a smaller first Zagreb index. This is a contradiction to the choice of G1 . Therefore G1 ∼
From the definition of first Zagreb index, we have
M1 (Kk ((n − k)1 )) = (k − 1)(k − 1)2 + k2 + 4(n − k − 1) + 1
= k3 − 2k2 − k + 4n − 4,
which finishes the proof of (1) in this theorem.
By a very similar reasoning, we can prove (2) of this theorem, except for the value of M2 (Kk ((n − k)1 )). Now we calculate
the value of M2 (Kk ((n − k)1 )). From the definition of the second Zagreb index, we have
M2 (Kk ((n − k)1 )) = [(k2 ) − (k − 1)](k − 1)2 + (k − 1)k(k − 1) + 2k + 4(n − k − 2) + 2
= (k2 )(k − 1)2 + k2 + 4(n − k) − 5,
completing the proof of this theorem. 

However, it seems more difficult to determine the extremal graphs from Xn,k with smallest (first and second) Zagreb
indices. Perhaps the kite graph Kk ((n − k)1 ) may be a possible choice. But it is pointed out by an anonymous referee that a
kite graph will not always achieve the lower bound for the Zagreb index in this set, by the fact that M1 (C5 ) < M1 (K3 (21 )).

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the anonymous referee and the handling editor for some valuable comments and corrections,
which have considerably improved the presentation of this work. He also thanks Professor Nenad Trinajstić and Professor
Bo Zhou for their genuine encouragement and help.

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