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Sometimes I see or hear a reference to some kind of tree function in math, but every time I look it up, the term is so broad or vague that there's no consistent explanation of what it is or how it's used. Is there any kind of actual consensus on it? Because I have seen in occur in subjects ranging from the error function to graph theory to summations to properties of logarithms.

John Joe
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    Without explicit references, it's hard to say. – Randall Mar 28 '18 at 14:24
  • Do you have some sources for your different places you've seen it? Just in case they do end up being different ones. A quick google gives the Wiki for the tree function for graph theory as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruskal%27s_tree_theorem (under the section TREE(3) ) – TheMathsGeek Mar 28 '18 at 14:25
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    This question is more broad and vague than the explanations you say you've found, since you tell us so little about them and give no examples or citations. There do appear to be multiple distinct things that might be called a "tree function," so the meaning is context-dependent and the question cannot be answered without context. – David K Mar 28 '18 at 14:25
  • There's nothing more that can be said, not all references were on google, they were with actual people or books and you can use google very easily see all the millions of other possible references. If you don't have the expertise to answer that's okay, you don't lose anything. What I know is: it can be used in such a way that it is a function of a variable, like f(x). – John Joe Mar 28 '18 at 15:08

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Perhaps you refer to something like this "Thus, the tree function T(z) is related to the W-Lambert function by T(z) = −W(−z)." from Euler Lambert and_the Lambert W-function today. This is in the context of graph theory used to enumerate labelled rooted trees as in the OEIS sequence A000169. The Lambert W function is related and has applications to logarithms and summation of series.

Somos
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