avgLeafDepI: Calculation of the average leaf depth index for rooted trees
Description
This function calculates the average leaf depth \(N(T)\) for a given
rooted tree \(T\). The tree must not necessarily be binary. \(N(T)\) is
defined as $$N(T)=\frac{1}{n}\cdot\sum_{u\in V_{in}(T)} n_u$$ in which \(n\) denotes the number of leaves in \(T\),
\(V_{in}(T)\) denotes the set of inner nodes of \(T\) and
\(n_u\) denotes the number of leaves in the pending subtree that is rooted
at the inner node \(u\). Note that \(N(T)\) can also be
computed from the Sackin index \(S(T)\) as \(N(T)=\frac{1}{n}\cdot S(T)\).
The average leaf depth is an imbalance index.
For \(n=1\) the function returns \(N(T)=0\) and a warning.
For details on the average leaf depth, see also Chapter 6 in "Tree balance indices: a comprehensive survey" (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39800-1_6).
Usage
avgLeafDepI(tree)
Value
avgLeafDepI returns the average leaf depth of the given tree.
Arguments
tree
A rooted tree in phylo format.
Author
Luise Kuehn
References
M. J. Sackin. "Good" and "Bad" Phenograms. Systematic Biology, 21(2):225-226, 1972. doi: 10.1093/sysbio/21.2.225.
K.-T. Shao and R. R. Sokal. Tree Balance. Systematic Zoology, 39(3):266, 1990. doi: 10.2307/2992186.