The classical problem of characterizing the graphs with bounded eigenvalues may date back to the work of Smith in 1970. Especially, the research on graphs with smallest eigenvalues not less than $-2$ has attracted widespread attention. Mixed graphs are natural generalization of undirected graphs. In this paper, we completely characterize the mixed graphs with smallest Hermitian eigenvalue greater than $-\frac{\sqrt{5}+1}{2}$, which consists of three infinite classes of mixed graphs and $30$ scattered mixed graphs. By the way, we get a new class of mixed graphs switching equivalent to their underlying graphs.
We give a structural classification of edge-signed graphs with smallest eigenvalue greater than -2. We prove a conjecture of Hoffman about the smallest eigenvalue of the line graph of a tree that was stated in the 1970s. Furthermore, we prove a more general result extending Hoffman's original statement to all edge-signed graphs with smallest eigenvalue greater than -2. Our results give a classification of the special graphs of fat Hoffman graphs with smallest eigenvalue greater than -3.
In this paper, we give a combinatorial characterization of the special graphs of fat Hoffman graphs containing $\mathfrak{K}_{1,2}$ with smallest eigenvalue greater than -3, where $\mathfrak{K}_{1,2}$ is the Hoffman graph having one slim vertex and two fat vertices.
A new method is introduced for bounding the separation between the value of $-k$ and the smallest eigenvalue of a non-bipartite $k$-regular graph. The method is based on fractional decompositions of graphs. As a consequence we obtain a very short proof of a generalization and strengthening of a recent result of Qiao, Jing, and Koolen [Non-bipartite distance-regular graphs with a small smallest eigenvalue, Electronic J. Combin. 26(2) (2019), P2.41] about the smallest eigenvalue of non-bipartite distance-regular graphs.
Let $λ_{2}(G)$ be the second smallest normalized Laplacian eigenvalue of a graph $G$. In this paper, we determine all unicyclic graphs of order $n\geq21$ with $λ_{2}(G)\geq 1-\frac{\sqrt{6}}{3}$. Moreover, the unicyclic graphs with $λ_{2}(G)=1-\frac{\sqrt{6}}{3}$ are also determined.
Let $(G, +)$ be an abelian group. In 2004, Eliahou and Kervaire found an explicit formula for the smallest possible cardinality of the sumset $A+A$, where $A \subseteq G$ has fixed cardinality $r$. We consider instead the smallest possible cardinality of the difference set $A-A$, which is always greater than or equal to the smallest possible cardinality of $A+A$ and can be strictly greater. We conjecture a formula for this quantity and prove the conjecture in the case that $G$ is a cyclic group or a vector space over a finite field. This resolves a conjecture of Bajnok and Matzke on signed sum…
In this paper, we show that every connected signed graph with smallest eigenvalue strictly greater than $-2$ and large enough minimum degree is switching equivalent to a complete graph. This is a signed analogue of a theorem of Hoffman. The proof is based on what we call Hoffman's limit theorem which we formulate for Hermitian matrices, and also the extension of the concept of Hoffman graph and line graph for the setting of signed graphs.
Let $G$ be a graph of order $n$ and size $m$, and let $\mathrm{mc}_{k}\left( G\right) $ be the maximum size of a $k$-cut of $G.$ It is shown that \[ \mathrm{mc}_{k}\left( G\right) \leq\frac{k-1}{k}\left( m-\frac{μ_{\min }\left( G\right) n}{2}\right) , \] where $μ_{\min}\left( G\right) $ is the smallest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of $G.$ An infinite class of graphs forcing equality in this bound is constructed.
Let $λ\geq2$ be an integer. For strongly regular graphs with parameters $(v, k, a,c)$ and smallest eigenvalue $-λ$, Neumaier gave two bounds on $c$ by using algebraic property of strongly regular graphs. In this paper, we will study a new class of regular graphs called sesqui-regular graphs, which contains strongly regular graphs as a subclass, and prove that for a sesqui-regular graph with parameters $(v,k,c)$ and smallest eigenvalue at least $-λ$, if $k$ is very large, then either $c \leq λ^2(λ-1)$ or $v-k-1 \leq \frac{(λ-1)^2}{4} + 1$ holds.
We provide upper and lower bounds on the smallest eigenvalue of grounded Laplacian matrices (which are matrices obtained by removing certain rows and columns of the Laplacian matrix of a given graph). The gap between the upper and lower bounds depends on the ratio of the smallest and largest components of the eigenvector corresponding to the smallest eigenvalue of the grounded Laplacian. We provide a graph-theoretic bound on this ratio, and subsequently obtain a tight characterization of the smallest eigenvalue for certain classes of graphs. Specifically, for Erdos-Renyi random graphs, we show…
In this paper we present and analyze computational results concerning small complete caps in the projective spaces $\mathrm{PG}(N,q)$ of dimension $N=3$ and $N=4$ over the finite field of order $q$. The results have been obtained using randomized greedy algorithms and the algorithm with fixed order of points (FOP). The computations have been done in relatively wide regions of $q$ values; such wide regions are not considered in literature for $N=3,4$. The new complete caps are the smallest known. Basing on them, we obtained new upper bounds on $t_2(N,q)$, the minimum size of a complete cap in $…
In 2017, Qiao and Koolen showed that for any fixed integer $D\geq 3$, there are only finitely many such graphs with $θ_{\min}\leq -αk$, where $0<α<1$ is any fixed number. In this paper, we will study non-bipartite distance-regular graphs with relatively small $θ_{\min}$ compared with $k$. In particular, we will show that if $θ_{\min}$ is relatively close to $-k$, then the odd girth $g$ must be large. Also we will classify the non-bipartite distance-regular graphs with $θ_{\min} \leq \frac{D-1}{D}$ for $D =4,5$.
Let $G$ be a triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices with adjacency matrix eigenvalues $μ_1(G)\geq μ_2(G)\geq \dots \geq μ_n(G)$. In this paper we study the quantity $$μ_1(G)+μ_n(G).$$ We prove that for any triangle-free graph $G$ we have $$μ_1(G)+μ_n(G)\leq (3-2\sqrt{2})n.$$ This was proved for regular graphs by Brandt, we show that the condition on regularity is not necessary. We also prove that among triangle-free strongly regular graphs the Higman-Sims graph achieves the maximum of $$\frac{μ_1(G)+μ_n(G)}{n}.$$
The bondage number of a nonempty graph $G$ is the cardinality of a smallest edge set whose removal from $G$ results in a graph with domination number greater than the domination number of $G$. This lecture gives a survey on the bondage number, including the known results, problems and conjectures. We also summarize other types of bondage numbers.
For a degree sequence $d:d_1\geq \cdots \geq d_n$, we consider the smallest chromatic number $χ_{\min}(d)$ and the largest chromatic number $χ_{\max}(d)$ among all graphs with degree sequence $d$. We show that if $d_n\geq 1$, then $χ_{\min}(d)\leq \max\left\{ 3,d_1-\frac{n+1}{4d_1}+4\right\}$, and, if $\sqrt{n+\frac{1}{4}}-\frac{1}{2}>d_1\geq d_n\geq 1$, then $χ_{\max}(d)=\max\limits_{i\in [n]}\min\left\{ i,d_i+1\right\}$. For a given degree sequence $d$ with bounded entries, we show that $χ_{\min}(d)$, $χ_{\max}(d)$, and also the smallest independence number $α_{\min}(d)$ among all graphs wit…
For a graph $H$, the 1-subdivision of $H$, denoted by $H'$, is the graph obtained by replacing the edges of $H$ by internally disjoint paths of length 2. Recently, Conlon, Janzer and Lee (arXiv: 1903.10631) asked the following question: For any integer $s\ge2$, estimate the smallest $t$ such that $\textup{ex}(n,K_{s,t}')=Ω(n^{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{2s}})$. In this paper, we consider the case $s=3$. More precisely, we provide an explicit construction giving \begin{align*} \text{ex}(n,K_{3,30}')=Ω(n^{\frac{4}{3}}), \end{align*} which reduces the estimation for the smallest value of $t$ from a magn…
In a projective plane $Π_{q}$ (not necessarily Desarguesian) of order $q,$ a point subset $S$ is saturating (or dense) if any point of $Π_{q}\setminus S$ is collinear with two points in$~S$. Using probabilistic methods, the following upper bound on the smallest size $ s(2,q)$ of a saturating set in $Π_{q}$ is proved: \begin{equation*} s(2,q)\leq 2\sqrt{(q+1)\ln (q+1)}+2\thicksim 2\sqrt{q\ln q}. \end{equation*} We also show that for any constant $c\ge 1$ a random point set of size $k$ in $Π_{q}$ with $ 2c\sqrt{(q+1)\ln(q+1)}+2\le k<\frac{q^{2}-1}{q+2}\thicksim q$ is a saturating set with probab…
An \emph{obstacle representation} of a graph $G$ is a straight-line drawing of $G$ in the plane together with a collection of connected subsets of the plane, called \emph{obstacles}, that block all non-edges of $G$ while not blocking any of the edges of $G$. The \emph{obstacle number} obs$(G)$ is the minimum number of obstacles required to represent $G$. We study the structure of graphs with obstacle number greater than one. We show that the icosahedron has obstacle number $2$, thus answering a question of Alpert, Koch, \& Laison asking whether all planar graphs have obstacle number at most $1…
A graph is hypohamiltonian if it is not Hamiltonian, but the deletion of any single vertex gives a Hamiltonian graph. Until now, the smallest known planar hypohamiltonian graph had 42 vertices, a result due to Araya and Wiener. That result is here improved upon by 25 planar hypohamiltonian graphs of order 40, which are found through computer-aided generation of certain families of planar graphs with girth 4 and a fixed number of 4-faces. It is further shown that planar hypohamiltonian graphs exist for all orders greater than or equal to 42. If Hamiltonian cycles are replaced by Hamiltonian pat…
In this paper, we classify distance regular graphs such that all of its second largest local eigenvalues are at most one. Also we discuss the consequences for the smallest eigenvalue of a distance-regular graph. These extend a result by the first author, who classified the distance-regular graph with smallest eigenvalue $-1-\frac{b_1}{2}$.
In the projective planes $\mathrm{PG}(2,q)$, we collect the smallest known sizes of complete arcs for the regions \begin{align*} &\mbox{all } q\le160001,~~ q \mbox{ prime power};\\ &Q_{4}=\{34 \mbox{ sporadic }q'\mbox{s in the interval }[160801\ldots430007], \mbox{ see Table 3}\}. \end{align*} For $q\le160001$, the collection of arc sizes is complete in the sense that arcs for all prime powers are considered. This proves new upper bounds on the smallest size $t_{2}(2,q)$ of a complete arc in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q)$, in particular \begin{align*} t_{2}(2,q)&<0.998\sqrt{3q\ln q}<1.729\sqrt{q\ln q}&\mb…
For an oriented graph $G$, let $f(G)$ denote the maximum chromatic number of an acyclic subgraph of $G$. Let $f(n)$ be the smallest integer such that every oriented graph $G$ with chromatic number larger than $f(n)$ has $f(G) > n$. Let $g(n)$ be the smallest integer such that every tournament $G$ with more than $g(n)$ vertices has $f(G) > n$. It is straightforward that $Ω(n) \le g(n) \le f(n) \le n^2$. This paper provides the first nontrivial lower and upper bounds for $g(n)$. In particular, it is proved that $\frac{1}{4}n^{8/7} \le g(n) \le n^2-(2-\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}})n+2$. It is also shown tha…
Given a graph $H$, a graph $G$ is called $H$-critical if $G$ does not admit a homomorphism to $H$, but any proper subgraph of $G$ does. Observe that $K_{k-1}$-critical graphs are the standard $k$-(colour)-critical graphs. We consider questions of extremal nature previously studied for $k$-critical graphs and generalize them to $H$-critical graphs. After complete graphs, the next natural case to consider for $H$ is that of the odd-cycles. Thus, given integers $\ell$ and $k$, $\ell\geq k$, we ask: what is the smallest order of a $C_{2\ell +1}$-critical graph of odd-girth at least $2k+1$? Denotin…
The bondage number $b(G)$ of a nonempty graph $G$ is the smallest number of edges whose removal from $G$ results in a graph with domination number greater than that of $G$. Denote $P_n\times P_m$ be the Cartesian product of two paths $P_n$ and $P_m$. This paper determines that the exact value of $b(P_n\times P_2)$, $b(P_n\times P_3)$ and $b(P_n\times P_4)$ for $n\ge 2$.
Given a constant $α>0$, an $n$-vertex graph is called an $α$-expander if every set $X$ of at most $n/2$ vertices in $G$ has an external neighborhood of size at least $α|X|$. Addressing a question posed by Friedman and Krivelevich in [Combinatorica, 41(1), (2021), pp. 53--74], we prove the following result: Let $k>1$ be an integer with smallest prime divisor $p$. Then for $α>\frac{1}{p-1}$ every sufficiently large $α$-expanding graph contains cycles of length congruent to any given residue modulo $k$. This result is almost best possible, in the following sense: There exists an absolute constant…
We study the following problem: given a real number k and integer d, what is the smallest epsilon such that any fractional (k+epsilon)-precoloring of vertices at pairwise distances at least d of a fractionally k-colorable graph can be extended to a fractional (k+epsilon)-coloring of the whole graph? The exact values of epsilon were known for k=2 and k\ge3 and any d. We determine the exact values of epsilon for k \in (2,3) if d=4, and k \in [2.5,3) if d=6, and give upper bounds for k \in (2,3) if d=5,7, and k \in (2,2.5) if d=6. Surprisingly, epsilon viewed as a function of k is discontinuous f…
For $n \in \mathbb{N}$ let $δ_n$ be the smallest value such that every graph of order $n$ and minimum degree at least $δ_n$ admits an orientation of diameter two. We show that $δ_n=\frac{n}{2} + Θ(\ln n)$.
The Cheeger constant of a graph is the smallest possible ratio between the size of a subgraph and the size of its boundary. It is well known that this constant must be at least $\frac{λ_1}{2}$, where $λ_1$ is the smallest positive eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix. The subject of this paper is a conjecture of the authors that for distance-regular graphs the Cheeger constant is at most $λ_1$. In particular, we prove the conjecture for the known infinite families of distance-regular graphs, distance-regular graphs of diameter 2 (the strongly regular graphs), several classes of imprimitive dista…
In the projective space $\mathrm{PG}(N,q)$ over the Galois field of order $q$, $N\ge3$, an iterative step-by-step construction of complete caps by adding a new point on every step is considered. It is proved that uncovered points are evenly placed on the space. A natural conjecture on an estimate of the number of new covered points on every step is done. For a part of the iterative process, this estimate is proved rigorously. Under the conjecture mentioned, new upper bounds on the smallest size $t_{2}(N,q)$ of a complete cap in $\mathrm{PG}(N,q)$ are obtained, in particular, \begin{align*} t_{…
A dominating set of a graph is a subset $D$ of its vertices such that every vertex not in $D$ is adjacent to at least one member of $D$. The domination number of a graph $G$ is the number of vertices in a smallest dominating set of $G$. The bondage number of a nonempty graph $G$ is the size of a smallest set of edges whose removal from $G$ results in a graph with domination number greater than the domination number of $G$. In this note, we study the bondage number of binomial random graph $G(n,p)$. We obtain a lower bound that matches the order of the trivial upper bound. As a side product, we…
The repetition threshold is the smallest real number $α$ such that there exists an infinite word over a $k$-letter alphabet that avoids repetition of exponent strictly greater than $α$. This notion can be generalized to graph classes. In this paper, we completely determine the repetition thresholds for caterpillars and caterpillars of maximum degree $3$. Additionally, we present bounds for the repetition thresholds of trees with bounded maximum degrees.
Let $λ(G)$ be the smallest number of vertices that can be removed from a non-empty graph $G$ so that the resulting graph has a smaller maximum degree. Let $λ_{\rm e}(G)$ be the smallest number of edges that can be removed from $G$ for the same purpose. Let $k$ be the maximum degree of $G$, let $t$ be the number of vertices of degree $k$, let $M(G)$ be the set of vertices of degree $k$, let $n$ be the number of vertices in the closed neighbourhood of $M(G)$, and let $m$ be the number of edges incident to vertices in $M(G)$. Fenech and the author showed that $λ(G) \leq \frac{n+(k-1)t}{2k}$, and …
