Graphs with small diameter determined by their <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis>-spectra

Let G be a connected graph with vertex set V(G) = {v₁, v₂,..., v _n }. The distance matrix D(G) = (d _ij )_n×n is the matrix indexed by the vertices of G, where d _ij denotes the distance between the vertices v _i and v _j . Suppose that λ₁(D) ≥ λ₂(D) ≥... ≥ λ _n (D) are the distance spectrum of G. The graph G is said to be determined by its D-spectrum if with respect to the distance matrix D(G), any graph having the same spectrum as G is isomorphic to G. We give the distance characteristic polynomial of some graphs with small diameter, and also prove that these graphs are determined by their D-spectra.     

Unicyclic graphs with bicyclic inverses

A graph is nonsingular if its adjacency matrix A(G) is nonsingular. The inverse of a nonsingular graph G is a graph whose adjacency matrix is similar to A(G)^?1 via a particular type of similarity. Let H denote the class of connected bipartite graphs with unique perfect matchings. Tifenbach and Kirkland (2009) characterized the unicyclic graphs in H which possess unicyclic inverses. We present a characterization of unicyclic graphs in H which possess bicyclic inverses.     

Outer-2-independent domination in graphs

We initiate the study of outer-2-independent domination in graphs. An outer-2-independent dominating set of a graph G is a set D of vertices of G such that every vertex of V(G)?D has a neighbor in D and the maximum vertex degree of the subgraph induced by V(G)?D is at most one. The outer-2-independent domination number of a graph G is the minimum cardinality of an outer-2-independent dominating set of G. We show that if a graph has minimum degree at least two, then its outer-2-independent domination number equals the number of vertices minus the 2-independence number. Then we investigate the outer-2-independent domination in graphs with minimum degree one. We also prove the Vizing-type conjecture for outer-2-independent domination and disprove the Vizing-type conjecture for outer-connected domination.     

On the optimality and sharpness of Laguerre’s lower bound on the smallest eigenvalue of a symmetric positive definite matrix

Lower bounds on the smallest eigenvalue of a symmetric positive definite matrix A ∈ R ^m×m play an important role in condition number estimation and in iterative methods for singular value computation. In particular, the bounds based on Tr(A ^?1) and Tr(A ^?2) have attracted attention recently, because they can be computed in O(m) operations when A is tridiagonal. In this paper, we focus on these bounds and investigate their properties in detail. First, we consider the problem of finding the optimal bound that can be computed solely from Tr(A ^?1) and Tr(A ^?2) and show that the so called Laguerre’s lower bound is the optimal one in terms of sharpness. Next, we study the gap between the Laguerre bound and the smallest eigenvalue. We characterize the situation in which the gap becomes largest in terms of the eigenvalue distribution of A and show that the gap becomes smallest when {Tr(A ^?1)}²/Tr(A ^?2) approaches 1 or m. These results will be useful, for example, in designing efficient shift strategies for singular value computation algorithms.     

Proof of conjecture involving the second largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue and the index of graphs

Let G = (V, E) be a simple graph. Denote by D(G) the diagonal matrix of its vertex degrees and by A(G) its adjacency matrix. Then the signless Laplacian matrix of G is Q(G) = D(G) + A(G). In [5], Cvetkovi? et al. have given the following conjecture involving the second largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue (q₂) and the index (λ₁) of graph G (see also Aouchiche and Hansen [1]):

     

The Colin de Verdière number and graphs of polytopes

The Colin de Verdière number µ(G) of a graph G is the maximum corank of a Colin de Verdière matrix for G (that is, of a Schrödinger operator on G with a single negative eigenvalue). In 2001, Lovász gave a construction that associated to every convex 3-polytope a Colin de Verdière matrix of corank 3 for its 1-skeleton.We generalize the Lovász construction to higher dimensions by interpreting it as minus the Hessian matrix of the volume of the polar dual. As a corollary, µ(G) ≥ d if G is the 1-skeleton of a convex d-polytope.Determination of the signature of the Hessian of the volume is based on the second Minkowski inequality for mixed volumes and on Bol’s condition for equality.     

On the commutation graph of cyclic <Emphasis Type="Italic">TI</Emphasis>-subgroups in linear groups

We study the commutation graph Γ(A) of a cyclic TI-subgroup A of order 4 in a finite group G with quasisimple generalized Fitting subgroup F*(G). It is proved that, if F*(G) is a linear group, then the graph Γ(A) is either a coclique or an edge-regular graph but not a coedge-regular graph.     

On conjectures involving second largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue of graphs

Let G=(V,E) be a simple graph. Denote by D(G) the diagonal matrix of its vertex degrees and by A(G) its adjacency matrix. Then the Laplacian matrix of G is L(G)=D(G)-A(G) and the signless Laplacian matrix of G is Q(G)=D(G)+A(G). In this paper we obtain a lower bound on the second largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue and an upper bound on the smallest signless Laplacian eigenvalue of G. In [5], Cvetkovi? et al. have given a series of 30 conjectures on Laplacian eigenvalues and signless Laplacian eigenvalues of G (see also [1]). Here we prove five conjectures.     

On trees with total domination number equal to edge-vertex domination number plus one

An edge e∈E(G) dominates a vertex v∈V(G) if e is incident with v or e is incident with a vertex adjacent to v. An edge-vertex dominating set of a graph G is a set D of edges of G such that every vertex of G is edge-vertex dominated by an edge of D. The edge-vertex domination number of a graph G is the minimum cardinality of an edge-vertex dominating set of G. A subset D?V(G) is a total dominating set of G if every vertex of G has a neighbor in D. The total domination number of G is the minimum cardinality of a total dominating set of G. We characterize all trees with total domination number equal to edge-vertex domination number plus one.     

Extendability of Contractible Configurations for Nowhere-Zero Flows and Modulo Orientations

Let H be a connected graph and G be a supergraph of H. It is trivial that for any k-flow (D, f) of G, the restriction of (D, f) on the edge subset E(G / H) is a k-flow of the contracted graph G / H. However, the other direction of the question is neither trivial nor straightforward at all: for any k-flow \((D',f')\) of the contracted graph G / H, whether or not the supergraph G admits a k-flow (D, f) that is consistent with \((D',f')\) in the edge subset E(G / H). In this paper, we will investigate contractible configurations and their extendability for integer flows, group flows, and modulo orientations. We show that no integer flow contractible graphs are extension consistent while some group flow contractible graphs are also extension consistent. We also show that every modulo \((2k+1)\)-orientation contractible configuration is also extension consistent and there are no modulo (2k)-orientation contractible graphs.     

On a class of modules over group rings of locally soluble groups

A module A over a group ring DG is studied in the case when D is a Dedekind domain, the group G is locally soluble, the quotient module A/C _A (G) is not an Artinian D-module, and the system of all subgroups H ≤ G for which the quotient modules A/C _A (H) are not Artinian D-modules satisfies the minimality condition for subgroups. Under these assumptions, it is proved that the group G is hyperabelian and some properties of its periodic radical are described.     

Perfect state transfer in Laplacian quantum walk

For a graph G and a related symmetric matrix M, the continuous-time quantum walk on G relative to M is defined as the unitary matrix \(U(t) = \exp (-itM)\), where t varies over the reals. Perfect state transfer occurs between vertices u and v at time \(\tau \) if the (u, v)-entry of \(U(\tau )\) has unit magnitude. This paper studies quantum walks relative to graph Laplacians. Some main observations include the following closure properties for perfect state transfer. If an n-vertex graph has perfect state transfer at time \(\tau \) relative to the Laplacian, then so does its complement if \(n\tau \in 2\pi {\mathbb {Z}}\). As a corollary, the join of \(\overline{K}_{2}\) with any m-vertex graph has perfect state transfer relative to the Laplacian if and only if \(m \equiv 2\pmod {4}\). This was previously known for the join of \(\overline{K}_{2}\) with a clique (Bose et al. in Int J Quant Inf 7:713–723, 2009). If a graph G has perfect state transfer at time \(\tau \) relative to the normalized Laplacian, then so does the weak product \(G \times H\) if for any normalized Laplacian eigenvalues \(\lambda \) of G and \(\mu \) of H, we have \(\mu (\lambda -1)\tau \in 2\pi {\mathbb {Z}}\). As a corollary, a weak product of \(P_{3}\) with an even clique or an odd cube has perfect state transfer relative to the normalized Laplacian. It was known earlier that a weak product of a circulant with odd integer eigenvalues and an even cube or a Cartesian power of \(P_{3}\) has perfect state transfer relative to the adjacency matrix. As for negative results, no path with four vertices or more has antipodal perfect state transfer relative to the normalized Laplacian. This almost matches the state of affairs under the adjacency matrix (Godsil in Discret Math 312(1):129–147, 2011).     

The real symmetric matrices of odd order with a P-set of maximum size

Suppose that A is a real symmetric matrix of order n. Denote by m_A(0) the nullity of A. For a nonempty subset α of {1, 2,..., n}, let A(α) be the principal submatrix of A obtained from A by deleting the rows and columns indexed by α. When m_A(α)(0) = m_A(0)+|α|, we call α a P-set of A. It is known that every P-set of A contains at most ?n/2? elements. The graphs of even order for which one can find a matrix attaining this bound are now completely characterized. However, the odd case turned out to be more difficult to tackle. As a first step to the full characterization of these graphs of odd order, we establish some conditions for such graphs G under which there is a real symmetric matrix A whose graph is G and contains a P-set of size (n ? 1)/2.     

Proper connection number of bipartite graphs

An edge-colored graph G is proper connected if every pair of vertices is connected by a proper path. The proper connection number of a connected graph G, denoted by pc(G), is the smallest number of colors that are needed to color the edges of G in order to make it proper connected. In this paper, we obtain the sharp upper bound for pc(G) of a general bipartite graph G and a series of extremal graphs. Additionally, we give a proper 2-coloring for a connected bipartite graph G having δ(G) ≥ 2 and a dominating cycle or a dominating complete bipartite subgraph, which implies pc(G) = 2. Furthermore, we get that the proper connection number of connected bipartite graphs with δ ≥ 2 and diam(G) ≤ 4 is two.     

When a line graph associated to annihilating-ideal graph of a lattice is planar or projective

Let (L,∧, ∨) be a finite lattice with a least element 0. AG(L) is an annihilating-ideal graph of L in which the vertex set is the set of all nontrivial ideals of L, and two distinct vertices I and J are adjacent if and only if I ∧ J = 0. We completely characterize all finite lattices L whose line graph associated to an annihilating-ideal graph, denoted by L(AG(L)), is a planar or projective graph.     

Improved Upper Bound for Generalized Acyclic Chromatic Number of Graphs

A vertex coloring of a graph G is called r-acyclic if it is a proper vertex coloring such that every cycle D receives at least min{|D|, r} colors. The r-acyclic chromatic number of G is the least number of colors in an r-acyclic coloring of G. We prove that for any number r ≥ 4, the r-acyclic chromatic number of any graph G with maximum degree Δ ≥ 7 and with girth at least (r ? 1)Δ is at most (4r ? 3)Δ.     

Bounds for the signless Laplacian energy of digraphs

Let G be a digraph with n vertices, a arcs, c ₂ directed closed walks of length 2. Let q1; q2;:::; q _n be the eigenvalues of the signless Laplacian matrix of G. The signless Laplacian energy of a digraph G is defined as E _SL (G) = \(\sum\limits_{i = 1}^n {\left| {{q_i} - \frac{a}{n}} \right|} \). In this paper, some lower and upper bounds are derived for the signless Laplacian energy of digraphs.     

Neighbor sum distinguishing colorings of graphs with maximum average degree less than $$\tfrac{{37}} {{12}}$$

Let G be a graph and let its maximum degree and maximum average degree be denoted by Δ(G) and mad(G), respectively. A neighbor sum distinguishing k-edge colorings of graph G is a proper k-edge coloring of graph G such that, for any edge uv ∈ E(G), the sum of colors assigned on incident edges of u is different from the sum of colors assigned on incident edges of v. The smallest value of k in such a coloring of G is denoted by χ′_∑(G). Flandrin et al. proposed the following conjecture that χ′_∑ (G) ≤ Δ(G) + 2 for any connected graph with at least 3 vertices and G ≠ C₅. In this paper, we prove that the conjecture holds for a normal graph with mad(G) < \(\tfrac{{37}}{{12}}\) and Δ(G) ≥ 7.     

Group distance magic and antimagic graphs

Given a graph G with n vertices and an Abelian group A of order n, an A-distance antimagic labelling of G is a bijection from V (G) to A such that the vertices of G have pairwise distinct weights, where the weight of a vertex is the sum (under the operation of A) of the labels assigned to its neighbours. An A-distance magic labelling of G is a bijection from V (G) to A such that the weights of all vertices of G are equal to the same element of A. In this paper we study these new labellings under a general setting with a focus on product graphs. We prove among other things several general results on group antimagic or magic labellings for Cartesian, direct and strong products of graphs. As applications we obtain several families of graphs admitting group distance antimagic or magic labellings with respect to elementary Abelian groups, cyclic groups or direct products of such groups.     

On primitive permutation groups with nontrivial global stabilizers

In the paper the distinguishing number D(G) of an arbitrary finite primitive permutation group G is determined. As a consequence, the distinguishing number D(Г) of an arbitrary finite graph Г with a vertex-primitive group of automorphisms is found.