# Bounds on sum of squares of node degrees in undirected graphs

Admittedly, this is less of a research-y question (and admittedly, a little non-algorithmic trivial question), but I am hoping to get some meaningful answer.

Given an undirected graph $G = (V, E)$, with $n = |V|$ vertices and $m = |E|$ edges, what is a good upper bound on $\sum_{v \in V} \deg^2(v)$ in terms of $m$ and $n$.

Two obvious upper bounds are $O(n^3)$ and $O(m^2)$, which are quite weak for extremely sparse and extremely dense graphs respectively. Is there any reference to find a non-trivial (asymptotic) bound? For example, can we bound it as $O(m^\alpha n^\beta)$ for some $\alpha < 2$ and $\beta < 3$?

• Is O(mn^2) less trivial than the two bounds you mentioned? :) – Tsuyoshi Ito May 4 '12 at 17:49

It's $\Theta(m^2)$ for multigraphs (consider a graph with $m$ edges between the same pair of nodes and all other nodes isolated) and $\Theta(mn)$ for simple graphs (the sum of squared degrees equals the number of directed two-edge walks; each edge can be continued to form a two-edge walk in $O(n)$ ways; consider $K_{m/n,n}$).
• ...and it is lower bounded always by $\Theta(m^2/n)$. As easily implied either by symmetry, or Cauchy-Schwarz. – Sariel Har-Peled May 6 '12 at 1:50