The general (\(\alpha, 3\))-path connectivity indices of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Q1727162)

Summary: The general \((\alpha, t)\)-path connectivity index of a molecular graph originates from many practical problems such as three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity (3D QSAR) and molecular chirality. It is defined as \({}^tR_\alpha(G) = \sum_{P^t = v_{i_1} v_{i_2} \cdots v_{i_{t + 1}} \subseteq G} [d(v_{i_1}) d(v_{i_2}) \cdots d(v_{i_{t + 1}})]^\alpha\), where the summation is taken over all possible paths of length \(t\) of \(G\) and we do not distinguish between the paths \(v_{i_1} v_{i_2} \cdots v_{i_{t + 1}}\) and \(v_{i_{t + 1}} \cdots v_{i_2} v_{i_1}\). In this paper, we focus on the structures of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH\(_{\mathrm n}\)), which play a role in organic materials and medical sciences. We try to compute the exact general \((\alpha, 3)\)-path connectivity indices of this family of hydrocarbon structures. Furthermore, we exactly derive the monotonicity and the extremal values of \({}^3R_\alpha(\mathrm{PAH}_{\mathrm n})\) for any real number \(\alpha\). These valuable results could produce strong guiding significance to these applied sciences.