On bicyclic graphs with maximal energy

Let λ₁,λ₂,…,λ_n be the eigenvalues of a graph G of order n. The energy of G is defined as E(G)=|λ₁|+|λ₂|+?+|λ_n|. Let be the graph obtained from two copies of C₆ joined by a path P_n-10, B_n be the class of all bipartite bicyclic graphs that are not the graph obtained from two cycles C_a and C_b (a,b?10 and a≡b≡2 (mod 4)) joined by an edge. In this paper, we show that is the graph with maximal energy in B_n, which gives a partial solution to Gutman’s conjecture in Gutman and Vidovi? (2001) [I. Gutman, D. Vidovi?, Quest for molecular graphs with maximal energy: a computer experiment, J. Chem. Inf. Sci. 41 (2001) 1002-1005].     

Complete solution to a problem on the maximal energy of unicyclic bipartite graphs

The energy of a simple graph G, denoted by E(G), is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. Denote by C_n the cycle, and the unicyclic graph obtained by connecting a vertex of C₆ with a leaf of P_n-6. Caporossi et al. conjectured that the unicyclic graph with maximal energy is for n=8,12,14 and n≥16. In Hou et al. (2002) [Y. Hou, I. Gutman, C. Woo, Unicyclic graphs with maximal energy, Linear Algebra Appl. 356 (2002) 27-36], the authors proved that is maximal within the class of the unicyclic bipartite n-vertex graphs differing from C_n. And they also claimed that the energies of C_n and is quasi-order incomparable and left this as an open problem. In this paper, by utilizing the Coulson integral formula and some knowledge of real analysis, especially by employing certain combinatorial techniques, we show that the energy of is greater than that of C_n for n=8,12,14 and n≥16, which completely solves this open problem and partially solves the above conjecture.     

Connected graphs with maximal Q-index: The one-dominating-vertex case

By the signless Laplacian of a (simple) graph G we mean the matrix Q(G)=D(G)+A(G), where A(G),D(G) denote respectively the adjacency matrix and the diagonal matrix of vertex degrees of G. For every pair of positive integers n,k, it is proved that if 3?k?n-3, then H_n,k, the graph obtained from the star K_1,n-1 by joining a vertex of degree 1 to k+1 other vertices of degree 1, is the unique connected graph that maximizes the largest signless Laplacian eigenvalue over all connected graphs with n vertices and n+k edges.     

On the energy of some circulant graphs

We give an explicit construction of circulant graphs of very high energy. This construction is based on Gauss sums. We also show the Littlewood conjecture can be used to establish new result for a certain class of circulant graphs.     

Unoriented Laplacian maximizing graphs are degree maximal

A connected graph is said to be unoriented Laplacian maximizing if the spectral radius of its unoriented Laplacian matrix attains the maximum among all connected graphs with the same number of vertices and the same number of edges. A graph is said to be threshold (maximal) if its degree sequence is not majorized by the degree sequence of any other graph (and, in addition, the graph is connected). It is proved that an unoriented Laplacian maximizing graph is maximal and also that there are precisely two unoriented Laplacian maximizing graphs of a given order and with nullity 3. Our treatment depends on the following known characterization: a graph G is threshold (maximal) if and only if for every pair of vertices u,v of G, the sets N(u)?{v},N(v)?{u}, where N(u) denotes the neighbor set of u in G, are comparable with respect to the inclusion relation (and, in addition, the graph is connected). A conjecture about graphs that maximize the unoriented Laplacian matrix among all graphs with the same number of vertices and the same number of edges is also posed.     

On the maximal energy tree with two maximum degree vertices

For a simple graph G, the energy E(G) is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of its adjacent matrix.For Δ?3 and t?3, denote by T_a(Δ,t) (or simply T_a) the tree formed from a path P_t on t vertices by attaching Δ-1P₂’s on each end of the path P_t, and T_b(Δ,t) (or simply T_b) the tree formed from P_t+2 by attaching Δ-1P₂’s on an end of the P_t+2 and Δ-2P₂’s on the vertex next to the end.In Li et al.(2009) [16] proved that among trees of order n with two vertices of maximum degree Δ, the maximal energy tree is either the graph T_a or the graph T_b, where t=n+4-4Δ?3.However, they could not determine which one of T_a and T_b is the maximal energy tree.This is because the quasi-order method is invalid for comparing their energies.In this paper, we use a new method to determine the maximal energy tree.It turns out that things are more complicated.We prove that the maximal energy tree is T_b for Δ?7 and any t?3, while the maximal energy tree is T_a for Δ=3 and any t?3.Moreover, for Δ=4, the maximal energy tree is T_a for all t?3 but one exception that t=4, for which T_b is the maximal energy tree.For Δ=5, the maximal energy tree is T_b for all t?3 but 44 exceptions that t is both odd and 3?t?89, for which T_a is the maximal energy tree.For Δ=6, the maximal energy tree is T_b for all t?3 but three exceptions that t=3,5,7, for which T_a is the maximal energy tree.One can see that for most cases of Δ, T_b is the maximal energy tree,Δ=5 is a turning point, and Δ=3 and 4 are exceptional cases, which means that for all chemical trees (whose maximum degrees are at most 4) with two vertices of maximum degree at least 3, T_a has maximal energy, with only one exception T_a(4,4).     

Note on the energy of regular graphs

For a simple graph G, the energy E(G) is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all the eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix A(G). Let n,m, respectively, be the number of vertices and edges of G. One well-known inequality is that , where λ₁ is the spectral radius. If G is k-regular, we have . Denote . Balakrishnan [R. Balakrishnan, The energy of a graph, Linear Algebra Appl. 387 (2004) 287-295] proved that for each ?>0, there exist infinitely many n for each of which there exists a k-regular graph G of order n with k<n-1 and , and proposed an open problem that, given a positive integer n?3, and ?>0, does there exist a k-regular graph G of order n such that . In this paper, we show that for each ?>0, there exist infinitely many such n that . Moreover, we construct another class of simpler graphs which also supports the first assertion that .     

The Laplacian incidence energy of graphs

The Laplacian incidence energy of a graph is defined as the sum of the singular values of its normalized oriented incidence matrix. In this paper, we give sharp upper and lower bounds as well as the Coulson integral formula for the Laplacian incidence energy. Moreover, we show a close relation of the Laplacian incidence energy, normalized incidence energy and Randi? energy.     

Lower bounds for the energy of digraphs

The energy of a digraph D is defined as , where z₁,…,z_n are the eigenvalues of D. In this article we find lower bounds for the energy of digraphs in terms of the number of closed walks of length 2, extending in this way the result obtained by Caporossi et al. [G. Caporossi, D. Cvetkovi?, I. Gutman, P. Hansen, Variable neighborhood search for extremal graphs. 2. Finding graphs with extremal energy, J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 39 (1999) 984-996]: for all graphs G with m edges. Also, we study digraphs with three eigenvalues.     

Constructing cospectral graphs

Some new constructions for families of cospectral graphs are derived, and some old ones are considerably generalized. One of our new constructions is sufficiently powerful to produce an estimated 72% of the 51039 graphs on 9 vertices which do not have unique spectrum. In fact, the number of graphs of ordern without unique spectrum is believed to be at leastn ³ g _–1 for some>0, whereg _n is the number of graphs of ordern andn 7.     

The weighted complexity and the determinant functions of graphs

The complexity of a graph can be obtained as a derivative of a variation of the zeta function [S. Northshield, A note on the zeta function of a graph, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 74 (1998) 408-410] or a partial derivative of its generalized characteristic polynomial evaluated at a point [D. Kim, H.K. Kim, J. Lee, Generalized characteristic polynomials of graph bundles, Linear Algebra Appl. 429 (4) (2008) 688-697]. A similar result for the weighted complexity of weighted graphs was found using a determinant function [H. Mizuno, I. Sato, On the weighted complexity of a regular covering of a graph, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 89 (2003) 17-26]. In this paper, we consider the determinant function of two variables and discover a condition that the weighted complexity of a weighted graph is a partial derivative of the determinant function evaluated at a point. Consequently, we simply obtain the previous results and disclose a new formula for the complexity from a variation of the Bartholdi zeta function. We also consider a new weighted complexity, for which the weights of spanning trees are taken as the sum of weights of edges in the tree, and find a similar formula for this new weighted complexity. As an application, we compute the weighted complexities of the product of the complete graphs.     

On products and line graphs of signed graphs, their eigenvalues and energy

In this article we examine the adjacency and Laplacian matrices and their eigenvalues and energies of the general product (non-complete extended p-sum, or NEPS) of signed graphs. We express the adjacency matrix of the product in terms of the Kronecker matrix product and the eigenvalues and energy of the product in terms of those of the factor graphs. For the Cartesian product we characterize balance and compute expressions for the Laplacian eigenvalues and Laplacian energy. We give exact results for those signed planar, cylindrical and toroidal grids which are Cartesian products of signed paths and cycles.We also treat the eigenvalues and energy of the line graphs of signed graphs, and the Laplacian eigenvalues and Laplacian energy in the regular case, with application to the line graphs of signed grids that are Cartesian products and to the line graphs of all-positive and all-negative complete graphs.     

Laplacian energy of a graph

Let G be a graph with n vertices and m edges. Let λ₁, λ₂, … , λ_n be the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of G, and let μ₁, μ₂, … , μ_n be the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix of G. An earlier much studied quantity is the energy of the graph G. We now define and investigate the Laplacian energy as . There is a great deal of analogy between the properties of E(G) and LE(G), but also some significant differences.     

Zeta functions of line, middle, total graphs of a graph and their coverings

We consider the (Ihara) zeta functions of line graphs, middle graphs and total graphs of a regular graph and their (regular or irregular) covering graphs. Let L(G), M(G) and T(G) denote the line, middle and total graph of G, respectively. We show that the line, middle and total graph of a (regular and irregular, respectively) covering of a graph G is a (regular and irregular, respectively) covering of L(G), M(G) and T(G), respectively. For a regular graph G, we express the zeta functions of the line, middle and total graph of any (regular or irregular) covering of G in terms of the characteristic polynomial of the covering. Also, the complexities of the line, middle and total graph of any (regular or irregular) covering of G are computed. Furthermore, we discuss the L-functions of the line, middle and total graph of a regular graph G.     

Large faces in 4-critical planar graphs with minimum degree 4

We prove that the size of the largest face of a 4-critical planar graph with 4 is at most one half the number of its vertices. Letf(n) denote the maximum of the sizes of largest faces of all such graphs withn vertices (n sufficiently large). We present an infinite family of graphs that shows .All three authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

On the existence of semifields of prime power order admitting free automorphism groups

The purpose of this paper is to prove the existence of semifields of order q ⁴ for any odd prime power q = p^r, q > 3, admitting a free automorphism group isomorphic to Z ₂ × Z ₂.     

The number of harmonic frames of prime order

Harmonic frames of prime order are investigated. The primary focus is the enumeration of inequivalent harmonic frames, with the exact number given by a recursive formula. The key to this result is a one-to-one correspondence developed between inequivalent harmonic frames and the orbits of a particular set. Secondarily, the symmetry group of prime order harmonic frames is shown to contain a subgroup consisting of a diagonal matrix as well as a permutation matrix, each of which is dependent on the particular harmonic frame in question.     

The minimum rank problem over the finite field of order 2: Minimum rank 3

Our main result is a sharp bound for the number of vertices in a minimal forbidden subgraph for the graphs having minimum rank at most 3 over the finite field of order 2. We also list all 62 such minimal forbidden subgraphs. We conclude by exploring how some of these results over the finite field of order 2 extend to arbitrary fields and demonstrate that at least one third of the 62 are minimal forbidden subgraphs over an arbitrary field for the class of graphs having minimum rank at most 3 in that field.     

The energy of random graphs

In 1970s, Gutman introduced the concept of the energy E(G) for a simple graph G, which is defined as the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of G. This graph invariant has attracted much attention, and many lower and upper bounds have been established for some classes of graphs among which bipartite graphs are of particular interest. But there are only a few graphs attaining the equalities of those bounds. We however obtain an exact estimate of the energy for almost all graphs by Wigner’s semi-circle law, which generalizes a result of Nikiforov. We further investigate the energy of random multipartite graphs by considering a generalization of Wigner matrix, and obtain some estimates of the energy for random multipartite graphs.