The matching energy of a graph

The energy of a graph G is equal to the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of G. We define the matching energy (ME) of the graph G as the sum of the absolute values of the zeros of the matching polynomial of G, and determine its basic properties. It is pointed out that the chemical applications of ME go back to the 1970s. (C) 2012 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved.