Closed-Form Analysis and Extremal Bounds of Albertson and Sigma Indices in Trees with Prescribed Degree Sequences

Abstract: This study explores the irregularity properties of trees with prescribed degree sequences by analyzing two prominent topological indices: the Albertson index and the sigma index. With a particular emphasis on caterpillar trees -frequently used to model molecular chains- we derive a closed-form expression for the Albertson index: [ \mathrm{irr}(\mathscr{C}(n,m)) = m(m+1)n - 2m + 2, \quad \text{for } n \geq 3. ] Furthermore, we establish extremal bounds for both indices across tree families characterized by fixed degree sequences. The results yield a unified analytical framework for comparing linear and quadratic irregularity measures, and provide new structural insights relevant to applications in chemical graph theory and extremal graph analysis.