Certain Properties of Vague Graphs with a Novel Application

• Main Authors: Yongsheng Rao, Saeed Kosari, Zehui Shao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
• Series: Mathematics
• Subjects: vague set (VS); vague graph (VG); strongly irregular (SI); highly irregular (HI); neighborly irregular (NI); dominating set (DS)
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/10/1647

Fuzzy graph models enjoy the ubiquity of being present in nature and man-made structures, such as the dynamic processes in physical, biological, and social systems. As a result of inconsistent and indeterminate information inherent in real-life problems that are often uncertain, for an expert, it is highly difficult to demonstrate those problems through a fuzzy graph. Resolving the uncertainty associated with the inconsistent and indeterminate information of any real-world problem can be done using a vague graph (VG), with which the fuzzy graphs may not generate satisfactory results. The limitations of past definitions in fuzzy graphs have led us to present new definitions in VGs. The objective of this paper is to present certain types of vague graphs (VGs), including strongly irregular (SI), strongly totally irregular (STI), neighborly edge irregular (NEI), and neighborly edge totally irregular vague graphs (NETIVGs), which are introduced for the first time here. Some remarkable properties associated with these new VGs were investigated, and necessary and sufficient conditions under which strongly irregular vague graphs (SIVGs) and highly irregular vague graphs (HIVGs) are equivalent were obtained. The relation among strongly, highly, and neighborly irregular vague graphs was established. A comparative study between NEI and NETIVGs was performed. Different examples are provided to evaluate the validity of the new definitions. A new definition of energy called the Laplacian energy (LE) is presented, and its calculation is shown with some examples. Likewise, we introduce the notions of the adjacency matrix (AM), degree matrix (DM), and Laplacian matrix (LM) of VGs. The lower and upper bounds for the Laplacian energy of a VG are derived. Furthermore, this study discusses the VG energy concept by providing a real-time example. Finally, an application of the proposed concepts is presented to find the most effective person in a hospital.