Scientific Inquiry and Review (2025) 9:2
Review Open Access

On Irregularity Indices for Fractal- and Cayley-Tree Type Dendrimers

DOI:

Muhammad Ibraheem and Muhammad Javaid*

Department of Mathematics, School of Science, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Consider  as a simple connected (molecular) graph, whereas,  and  are the sets of vertices and edges, respectively. A graph is supposed to be regular if all vertices have equal degree, otherwise irregular. The fractal- and cayley-trees are irregular acyclic and connected graphs which are widely used to develop signal amplifiers for biosensors, cellular imaging and genetic engineering. The topological index (TI) serves as a mathematical function for determining numerical values of molecular graphs, aiding in the prediction of diverse physical, chemical, biological, thermodynamic, and structural properties. An irregular index, a specific type of TI, quantifies the irregularity of atomic bonding within chemical compounds represented by the graphs under analysis. This study focuses on calculating the irregularity indices for fractal dendrimers and Cayley tree-type dendrimers. A comparative analysis of the obtained indices is conducted using their numerical values and 3D visualizations. Lastly, the most efficient and consistent irregularity indices for fractal- and Cayley-tree dendrimers are identified and discussed.

Keywords:cayley-tree dendrimers, fractal dendrimers, irregularity indices, topological descriptors

*Corresponding author 1: [email protected]

Published: 30-06-2025

1. INTRODUCTION

Graph theory is an evolving field that has become a central part of mathematics, playing a foundational role across multiple disciplines, including computer science, operations research, social networks, map colouring, chemical engineering, game theory, and mathematical chemistry. Specifically, chemical graph theory focuses on analyzing the physical and chemical properties, along with the structural characteristics, of chemical compounds. These properties include a variety of factors like temperature, heat of formation, weight, point of stability, freezing point, melting point, boiling point, solubility, heat formation, heat evaporation, and surface tension. By analyzing these characteristics, researchers can gain valuable insights into the behavior and composition of different compounds. For this purpose, while various mathematical tools and models are used in chemical graph theory, topological indices are most familiar [1].

Wiener [2] used a distance-based TI for the paraffins boiling point. [3] defined the novel indices for determining the total π-electron energy of alternant hydrocarbons. If all vertices in a graph have an identical degree, the graph is referred to as regular and vice versa. Irregularity indices are TIs that help us to characterize irregular graphs with various properties. [4] discussed graph irregularity indices as molecular descriptors of QSPR studies. [5] calculated irregularity indices for complex biomolecular networks. Bell [6] defined different novel properties for irregularity of graphs. Gutman [7] determined and discussed the Irregularity of quasi perfect molecular graphs. Majcher et al. [8] discussed highly irregular graphs with an extreme number of edges. Liu et al. [9] calculated maximally irregular triangle free graphs and size of maximally irregular graphs. [10-12] investigated the change of the total irregularity of graphs under various subdivision operations.

Zahid et al. [13] analyzed irregularity measures of particular nanotubes, as observed by  Gao et al. [14] calculated irregularity of indices of some molecular graphs of various classes of dendrimers. Imbalance-based irregularity indices of boron nanotubes were computationally analyzed [15]. Dimitrov et al. [16] discussed graphs with equal irregularity indices. The irregularity of indices has been concentrated as of late in a novel manner [9, 17]. The irregularity of such as , irregularity index  and  is imported as in the previous study  presented by Albertson [18]. Other indices handled the concept of imbalance of an edge discussed [19].

 Gutman et al. [20] gave new idea of the  irregularity index for graphs. Imran et al. [21] worked on fractal- and cayley-tree type dendrimers and calculated various irregularity indices for these graphs. Manimaran utilized edge partition method to investigate Sombor variants for tree Graph, Fractal-, and Cayley-Tree Type Dendrimers [22]. Hamanakaet al. [23] assessed non-Hermitian skin effect on the cayley tree through multifractal statistics. Pannipitiya investigated a dynamical approach to the Potts model on cayley tree [24]. FDEs attracted significant consideration due to their ability to model composite phenomena, such as visco-elastic materials [25], economics [26], continuum and statistical mechanics [27]. 

Fractal dendrimer is denoted by F_q and constructed from F_(q-1) by performing some steps at first to make a way of three connections with two same end nodes. After that, r new nodes are made for every one of the two center nodes of F_(q-1) and then they are attached to the center nodes. Cayley tree dendrimer is denoted by C_(p,q) and obtained from C_(p,q-1) by performing p-1 and vertices are generated and attached to the boundary vertices.

The following study unfolds as under: Section 2 covers preliminary information. Section 3 covers irregularity indices for fractal-trees, while Section 4 explores irregularity indices for cayley trees. The paper concludes in Section 5.

2. PRELIMINARIES

Suppose G=(V(G),E(G)) is a simple connected graph, where V(G) & E(G) are sets of vertices & edges, respectively. Whereas, the total number of edges adjacent to any vertex n_i is called degree of the vertex, which is denoted as d(n_i ). A graph is considered connected if there is always a path connecting every pair of vertices within the graph. Connected and acyclic graph is called a tree. In tree the vertices that have d(v)≥3 is the branching point. A tree-graph is chemical tree has Δ(G)=4. Any graph is supposed to be a regular graph if all of its vertices have a similar degree. The majority of Irregularity indices are from the family of degree based topological lists and are utilized in quantitative structure action relationship demonstrating.

Table 1. Irregularity Indices

Irregularity Indices

Mathematical Demonstration

Reference

imballuv

|d u - d v |

[21]

AL(G)

[22]

IRL(G)

 

 

[22]

IRR_t (G)

[11]

IRF(G)

[20]

IRA(G)

[4]

IRDIF(G)

[4]

IRLF(G)

[4]

LA(G)

[4]

IRLF(G)

[4]

IRD1(G)

[4]

IRGA(G)

[4]

IRLU(G)

[4]

IRB(G)

[4]

3. IRREGULARITY INDICES FOR FRACTAL-TREE DENDRIMERS

The term fractal is derived from Latin signifying "to break", and graph designs in that each littler piece of the structure is like as entirety. There are numerous instances of fractal dendrimers, such as broccoli, sierpinski triangle, lotus white flower, von koch curve, , ferns etc. This work explores the proposed fractal-tree dendrimers for F_q where q≥0 is the repetition if q=0 then F_0 only an edge connecting two exact nodes. F_q is borrowed from F_(q-1) while performing three operations in every edge of F_(q-1).

  • Step 1 to make a way of three connections with two same end nodes.
  • Step 2 to make new nodes for every one of the two center nodes.
  • Step 3 attached all new nodes to the center nodes.

Figure 1. Fractal-tree Dendrimer F_0.

Figure 2. Fractal-tree Dendrimer (a)F3 andr=2 and (b)F4andr=3

Table 2. Separation of Edge Set of Fractal-Tree Dendrimer Based on Degrees of End Vertices

Proof : (i) IRR (G) = n1 n2 E(G) | dG(n1) - dG(n2) | = [ n1n2E1,r+2 + n1n2E4,r+2 + n1n2Er+2,r+2 ] | dG(n1) - dG(n2) | = (42rq+14q-28r-8) | dG(n1)-dG(n2) | + (28q-20) | dG(n1)-dG(n2) | + 21q-14 | dG(n1)-dG(n2) | = (42rq+14q-28r-8) |1-r-2| + (28q-20) |4-r-2| = (42rq+14q-28r-8) |-(r+1)| + (28q-20) |-r+2| (ii) IRL (G) = n1 n2 E(G) | lnd(n1) - lnd(n2) | = [ n1n2E1,r+2 + n1n2E4,r+2 + n1n2Er+2,r+2 ] | lnd(n1) - lnd(n2) | = (42rq+14q-28r-8) |ln(1)-ln(r+2)| + (28q-20) |ln(4)-ln(r+2)| + (21q-14) |ln(r+2)-ln(r+2)| = (42rq+14q-28r-8) (ln(r+2)) + (28q-20) ln 4r+2 (iii) IRRt (G) = 12 n1 n2 E(G) | dG(n1) - dG(n2) | = 12 [ n1n2E1,r+2 + n1n2E4,r+2 + n1n2Er+2,r+2 ] [ | dG(n1)-dG(n2) | ] = 12 [ (42rq+14q-28r-8) |-(r+1)| + (28q-20) |-r+2| ] (iv) IRF (G) = n1 n2 E(G) ( dG(n1) - dG(n2) ) 2 = [ n1n2E1,r+2 + n1n2E4,r+2 + n1n2Er+2,r+2 ] ( dG(n1) - dG(n2) ) 2 = (42rq+14q-28r-8) (-r-1) )2 + (28q-20) (-r+2) )2 (v) IRD1 (G) = n1 n2 E(G) ( ln ( 1 + | dG(n1) + dG(n2) | ) ) = (42rq+14q-28r-8) (ln(1+|-r-1|)) + (28q-20) (ln(1+|-r+2|)) (vi) IRB (G) = n1 n2 E(G) ( dn1 - dn2 ) 2 = [ n1n2E1,r+2 + n1n2E4,r+2 + n1n2Er+2,r+2 ] ( du - dv ) 2 = [ (42rq+14q-28r-8) (1- r+2 ) )2 ] + [ (28q-20) (2- r+2 ) )2 ]

Table 3. Irregularity Indices Related to Theorem 1

(r,q)

IRL(G)

IRR(G)

IRRRt (G)

IRF(G)

IRD1

IRB(G)

(1,1)

24.2737

48

24

88

27.5174

11.2923

(1,2)

93.8510

188

94

340

108.4478

43.3129

(1,3)

163.42

328

164

592

189.3782

75.33

(1,4)

232.99

468

234

844

270.3086

107.34

(1,5)

302.58

608

304

1096

351.23

139.36

(1,6)

372.15

748

374

1348

432.16

171.38

(1,7)

441.7380

888

444

1600

513.09

203.4

(1,8)

511.3

1028

514

1852

594.02

235.43

(1,9)

580.89

1168

584

2104

674.96

267.45

(1,10)

650.46

1308

654

2356

755.88

299.47

(1,11)

720.04

1448

724

2608

836.81

331.49

(1,12)

789.61

1588

794

2860

897.74

363.51

(1,13)

859.19

1784

864

3112

998.67

395.53

(1,14)

928.77

1868

934

3364

1079.61

427.55

(1,15)

998.35

2008

1004

3661

1160.53

459.57

(1,16)

1067.92

2148

1074

3868

1241.46

491.59

(1,17)

11137.5

2288

1144

4120

1322.39

523.61

(1,18)

1229.85

2428

1214

4372

1403.33

555.63

(1,19)

1276.66

2568

1284

4624

1484.26

587.65

(1,20)

1346.23

2708

1354

4876

1565.18

619.68

Figure 3. Comparison of the Irregularity Indices indicated with distinct colors

IRR(G)by red color ,IRL(G)by green color,IRR_t (G)by blue color, IRF(G)by yellow color,IRD1(G)by dark green color and IRB(G) by Plum Color

Among these indices IRR(G) is a more dominant irregularity index for fractal-tree dendrimers.

Table 4. Irregularity Indices Related to Theorem 2.

(r,q)

IRLU(G)

IRLU(G)

IRA(G)

IRDIF(G)

IRLF(G)

IRGA(G)

LA(G)

(1,1)

42.66

42

3.7162

16

14

7.82

26.85

(1,2)

164

161

14.22

62.67

17.89

30.72

106.85

(1,3)

285.33

280

24.72

109.34

93.34

53.61

185.85

(1,4)

406.66

399

35.2342

156

133

76.5

266.85

(1,5)

528

518

45.74

202.66

259

99.4

346.85

(1,6)

649.33

637

56.2463

249.33

212.33

122.3

426.85

(1,7)

770.66

756

66.7523

296

252

145.2

506.85

(1,8)

892

875

77.2583

342.66

191.66

168.1

586.85

(1,9)

1013.33

994

87.7643

389.33

331.33

191

666.85

(1,10)

1134.66

1113

98.27

436

371

213.9

746.85

(1,11)

1256

1232

108.7763

482.66

410.66

236.8

826.85

(1,12)

1377.33

1351

119.2824

529.33

450.33

259.7

906.85

(1,13)

1498.66

1470

129.7884

576

490

282.6

986.85

(1,14)

1620

1589

140.2944

622.66

529.66

305.5

1066.85

(1,15)

1741.33

1809

150.8

669.33

569.33

328.4

1146.85

(1,16)

1862.66

1827

161.3064

716

609

351.3

1226.85

(1,17)

1984

1946

171.8124

762.66

648.66

374.2

1306.85

(1,18)

2105.33

2065

182.3184

809.33

688.33

397.1

1386.85

(1,19)

2226.66

2184

192.8244

856

728

420

1466.85

(1,20)

2348

2303

203.33

902.66

767.66

442.9

1546.85

Figure 4. Comparison of the Irregularity Indices, i.e., Represented by IRLU(G),IRLU(G),IRA(G),IRDIF(G),LA(G), IRGA(G),IRLF(G) Presented by Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, Maroon & Purple Colors, Respectively

Among these indices IRLU(G) is more dominant irregularity index for fractal-trees dendrimers.

4. IRREGULARITY INDICES FOR CAYLEY'S TREE DENDRIMERS

The Cayley tree is a type of dendrimers, which is also known as Bethe lattice Let C_(p,q) (p≥3,q≥0)represents the Cayley tree dendrimers after t iterations. Initially (q=0),C_(p,0) consists of central vertex only to form C_(p,1) we creates p vertices and attach them to middle vertex. For >1,C_(p,q) is obtained from C_(p,q-1) by performing p-1 vertices are generated and attached to the boundary vertices.

Figure 5. Cayley Tree Dendrimer C_4,3

Table 5. Sepration of Edge Set of Cayley's Tree Dendrimer Based on degrees of End Vertices

Proof :

Table 6. Irregularity Indices Related to Theorem 3

(p,q)

IRR(G)

IRRR_t (G)

IRL(G)

IRF(G)

IRD1

IRB(G)

(4,1)

12

6

5.5451

36

49.9

36

(4,2)

36

18

16.6355

108

149.71

108

(4,3)

108

54

49.9

324

449.15

324

(4,4)

324

162

149.71

972

1347.47

972

(4,5)

972

486

449.15

2916

4042.434357

2916

(4,6)

2916

1458

1347.47

8748

12127.30307

8748

(4,7)

8748

4374

4042.42

26244

36381.90921

26244

(4,8)

26244

13122

12127.3

78732

109145.7276

78732

(4,9)

78732

39366

36381.9

236196

327437.1829

236196

(4,10)

236196

118098

109145.72

708588

982311.5488

708588

(4,11)

708588

354294

327437.18

2125764

2646934.646

2125764

(4,12)

21225764

1062882

982311.54

6377292

8840803.939

6377292

(4,13)

6377292

3186146

2946934064

19131876

26522411.82

19131876

(4,14)

19131876

95655938

8840803.93

573956228

79567235.45

573956228

(4,15)

57395628

28697814

79567235.45

172186884

238701706.3

172186884

(4,16)

172186884

86093442

26522411.82

516560652

716105119

516560652

(4,17)

515160652

258280326

238701706

1549681956

2148315357

1549681956

Figure 6.Comparison of the Irregularity Indices, i.e., IRR(G),IRR_t (G),IRL(G),IRF(G),IRD1(G),IRB(G) are Indicated as Red, Green, Blue, Teal, Yellow and Plum Colours Respectively.

Among these indices IRD1(G) is more dominant irregularity index for Cayley tree dendrimers.

Table 7. Irregularity Indices Related to Theorem 4

(p,q)

IRLU(G)

IRA(G)

IRDIF(G)

LA(G)

IRLF(G)

IRGA(G)

(4,1)

12

9

27

43.2

27

8.0331

(4,2)

36

27

81

129.6

81

24.0995

(4,3)

108

81

243

288.8

243

72.2985

(4,4)

324

243

729

1166.4

729

216.8955

(4,5)

972

729

2187

3499.2

2187

650.6865

(4,6)

2916

2187

6561

10497.6

6561

1952.059

(4,7)

8748

6561

19683

31492.8

19683

5856.173

(4,8)

26244

19683

59049

94478.4

59049

17568.538

(4,9)

78732

59049

177147

283435.2

177147

52705.6142

(4,10)

236196

177147

531441

850305.6

531441

158116.8424

(4,11)

708588

531441

1594323

2550916.8

1594323

1423051.585

(4,12)

2125764

1594323

4782969

7652750.4

4782969

4269154.754

(4,13)

6377292

4782969

14348907

22958251.2

14348907

12807464.26

(4,14)

19131876

14348907

43046721

68874753.6

43046721

38422392.29

(4,15)

57395628

43046721

129140162

206624260.8

129140162

115267178.4

(4,16)

172186884

129140162

387420489

619872782.4

387420489

345801535.1

(4,17)

515160652

387420489

387420489

1859618347

387420489

1037404605

Figure 7. Comparison of the Irregularity Indices, i.e., IRLU(G),IRDIF(G),IRA(G),LA(G),IRLF(G),IRGA(G) are indicated as Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan and Maroon Colours

Among these indices LA(G) is a more dominant irregularity index for Cayley tree dendrimers.

5. CONCLUSION

Dendrimers grow in patterns similar to trees or fractals found in nature. This repeating, organized structure allows scientists to control their shape very precisely. As a result, these molecules are very useful for targeted drug delivery, designing new nanomaterials, and speeding up chemical reactions. Their branching architecture also makes them efficient, flexible, and easy to adapt for advanced chemical and biomedical applications. In conclusion, various irregularity indices for fractal- and Cayley-tree dendrimers are determined. The results are presented through tables containing numerical values and figures showcasing graphical representations. Our analysis revealed that IRD1 is the most dominant and consistent index among the fractal- and Cayley-tree dendrimers.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors of the manuscript have no financial or non-financial conflict of interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data is freely-available and the reference paper is cited in data analysis section.

FUNDING DETAILS

No funding was received for this research.

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