Trees with the Second and Third Largest Number of Maximal Independent Sets

Zemin Jin1, Sherry H.F.Yan1
1Department of Mathematics, Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua 321004, P. R. China

Abstract

Let \(G\) be a simple undirected graph. Denote by \(mi(G)\) the number of maximal independent sets in \(G\). In this paper, we determine the second and third largest number of maximal independent sets in trees. Extremal trees achieving these values are also determined.