The detour index
of a graph
is a graph invariant defined as half the sum of all off-diagonal matrix elements
of the detour matrix of
.
Unless otherwise stated, hydrogen atoms are usually ignored in the computation of such indices as organic chemists usually do when they write a benzene ring as a hexagon (Devillers and Balaban 1999, p. 25).
Precomputed detour indices for many named graphs are available in the Wolfram Language as GraphData[graph, "DetourIndex"].
Since a Hamilton-connected graph with vertex count has all off-diagonal matrix elements equal to
, the detour index of such a graph is given by
.
The detour index is not particularly good at distinguishing graphs. The figures above illustrate a number of small nonisomorphic graphs sharing the same detour index (Amić and Trinajstić 1995;
Nikolić et al. 2000, p. 292, corrected), where
is the number of graph vertices.
The following table gives values for various common classes of graphs. The index of each value list in the table starts at 1. An X indicates that the family in that row is not defined for the corresponding parameter value.
| graph | OEIS | sequence |
| Andrásfai graph | A386906 | 1, 35, 196, 550, 1183, 2176, 3610, 5566, 8125, ... |
| antiprism graph | A139757 | X, X, 75, 196, 405, 726, 1183, 1800, 2601, 3610, ... |
| Apollonian network | A297027 | 18, 126, 1575, ... |
| barbell graph | A226450 | X, X, 45, 124, 265, 486, 805, 1240, 1809, ... |
| black bishop graph | A387645 | X, X, X, 194, 936, 2601, 7200, 15376, 32800, ... |
| book graph | A387659 | 16, 67, 150, 251, 378, 531, 710, 915, ... |
| cocktail party graph | A139757 | X, 16, 75, 196, 405, 726, 1183, 1800, 2601, ... |
| complete bipartite graph | 1, 16, 69, 184, 385, 696, 1141, 1744, 2529, 3520, ... | |
| complete graph | A002411 | 0, 1, 6, 18, 40, 75, 126, 196, 288, 405, 550, ... |
| complete tripartite graph | 6, 75, 288, 726, 1470, 2601, ... | |
| X, X, X, 184, 696, 1744, 3520, 6216, 10024, ... | ||
| crown graph | X, X, 63, 184, 385, 696, 1141, 1744, 2529, 3520, ... | |
| cube-connected cycle graph | A296777 | X, X, 6348, 126016, 2022480, ... |
| cycle
graph | X, X, 6, 16, 35, 63, 105, 160, 234, 325, 440, 576, ... | |
| Fibonacci cube graph | A291918 | 1, 4, 28, 174, 864, 4000, 18241, ... |
| folded cube graph | A296778 | X, 1, 18, 184, 1800, 15136, ... |
| gear graph | A033430 | X, X, 108, 256, 500, 864, 1372, 2048, 2916, 4000, ... |
| grid graph | A296779 | 0, 16, 256, 1744, 6912, 21744, ... |
| grid graph | A296780 | 0, 184, 8788, ... |
| halved cube graph | 1, 18, 196, 1800, 15376, ... | |
| Hanoi graph | 6, 252, 8439, ... | |
| helm graph | A181617 | X, X, 72, 160, 300, 504, 784, 1152, 1620, 2200, ... |
| hypercube graph | A288720 | 1, 16, 184, 1744, 15136, ... |
| Keller graph | X, 1800, 127008, 8323200, ... | |
| king
graph | A288959 | X, 18, 288, 1800, 7200, 22050, ... |
| knight
graph | A296781 | X, X, 1532, 6840, 21744, ... |
| ladder
graph | 1, 16, 67, 176, 369, 668, 1099, 1684, 2449, 3416, ... | |
| Menger sponge graph | 2864, ... | |
| Möbius ladder | X, X, 69, 196, 385, 726, 1141, 1800, 2529, 3610, ... | |
| Mycielski
graph | 0, 1, 35, 550, 5566, 49726, 419710, 3447550, ... | |
| odd graph | 0, 6, 390, 20230, 984375, 49092351, 2523571050, ... | |
| pan graph | X, X, 13, 28, 54, 90, 142, 208, 295, 400, 531, 684, ... | |
| path
graph | A000292 | 0, 1, 4, 10, 20, 35, 56, 84, 120, 165, 220, 286, 364, ... |
| permutation star graph | A296782 | 0, 1, 63, 6216, ... |
| prism
graph | X, X, 75, 184, 405, 696, 1183, 1744, 2601, 3520, 4851, ... | |
| queen graph | A288959 | X, 18, 288, 1800, 7200, 22050, 56448, 127008, 259200, ... |
| rook complement graph | A288959 | 0, X, 288, 1800, 7200, 22050, 56448, 127008, 259200, ... |
| rook graph | A288959 | 0, 16, 288, 1800, 7200, 22050, 56448, 127008, 259200, ... |
| Sierpiński carpet graph | 160, 123080, ... | |
| Sierpiński gasket graph | A296783 | 6, 69, 1404, 34485, ... |
| Sierpiński tetrahedron graph | ... | |
| star graph | A000290 | X, X, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144, ... |
| sun graph | X, X, 69, 180, 375, 678, 1113, 1704, 2475, 3450, ... | |
| sunlet graph | X, X, 39, 92, 185, 318, 511, 760, 1089, 1490, 1991, ... | |
| tetrahedral Johnson graph | X, X, X, X, X, 18, 405, 3610, 20230, 84700, 289338, ... | |
| torus grid graph | A296784 | X, X, 288, 1744, 7200, 21744, 56448, ... |
| transposition
graph | A296785 | 0, 1, 69, 6216, ... |
| triangular graph | X, X, 6, 75, 405, 1470, 4200, 10206, 22050, ... | |
| triangular
grid graph | A288719 | 6, 69, 399, 1467, 4197, 10203, 22047, ... |
| web graph | X, X, 189, 452, 970, 1653, 2779, 4080, 6048, 8165, ... | |
| wheel graph | A002411 | X, X, X, 18, 40, 75, 126, 196, 288, 405, 550, 726, ... |
| white bishop graph | X, X, X, 194, 726, 2601, 6348, 15376, 30420, ... |
Closed forms for some of these classes of graphs are summarized in the following table.