Spectra of digraphs

In this primarily expository paper we survey classical and some more recent results on the spectra of digraphs, equivalently, the spectra of (0,1)-matrices, with emphasis on the spectral radius.     

A Spectral Study of the Manhattan Networks

The multidimensional Manhattan networks are a family of digraphs with many appealing properties, such as vertex symmetry (in fact they are Cayley digraphs), easy routing, Hamiltonicity, and modular structure. From the known structural properties of these digraphs, we fully determine their spectra, which always contain the spectra of hypercubes. In particular, in the standard (two-dimensional) case it is shown that their line digraph structure imposes the presence of the zero eigenvalue with a large multiplicity.     

Multipartite Moore digraphs

We derive some Moore-like bounds for multipartite digraphs, which extend those of bipartite digraphs, under the assumption that every vertex of a given partite set is adjacent to the same number δ of vertices in each of the other independent sets. We determine when a multipartite Moore digraph is weakly distance-regular. Within this framework, some necessary conditions for the existence of a r-partite Moore digraph with interpartite outdegree δ > 1 and diameter k = 2m are obtained. In the case δ = 1, which corresponds to almost Moore digraphs, a necessary condition in terms of the permutation cycle structure is derived. Additionally, we present some constructions of dense multipartite digraphs of diameter two that are vertex-transitive.     

Ihara zeta functions of digraphs

After defining and exploring some of the properties of Ihara zeta functions of digraphs, we improve upon Kotani and Sunada’s bounds on the poles of Ihara zeta functions of undirected graphs by considering digraphs whose adjacency matrices are directed edge matrices.     

On digraphs with no two disjoint directed cycles

We obtain a result on configurations in 2-connected digraphs with no two disjoint dicycles. We derive various consequences, for example a short proof of the characterization of the minimal digraphs having no vertex meeting all dicycles and a polynomially bounded algorithm for finding a dicycle through any pair of prescribed arcs in a digraph with no two disjoint dicycles, a problem which is NP-complete for digraphs in general.     

Invariant subspace, determinant and characteristic polynomials

Making use of an elementary fact on invariant subspace and determinant of a linear map and the method of algebraic identities, we obtain a factorization formula for a general characteristic polynomial of a matrix. This answers a question posed in [A. Deng, I. Sato, Y. Wu, Characteristic polynomials of ramified uniform covering digraphs,European J. Combin. 28 (2007) 1099-1114]. The approach of this work can be used to supply alternative proofs of several other earlier results, including some results of [Y. Teranishi, Equitable switching and spectra of graphs, Linear Algebra Appl. 359 (2003) 121-131].     

Multiplicativity of acyclic local tournaments

A homomorphism of a digraph to another digraph is an edge-preserving vertex mapping. A digraphH is said to be multiplicative if the set of digraphs which do not admit a homomorphism toH is closed under categorical product. In this paper we discuss the multiplicativity of acyclic Hamiltonian digraphs, i.e., acyclic digraphs which contains a Hamiltonian path. As a consequence, we give a complete characterization of acyclic local tournaments with respect to multiplicativity.     

Posets with interval upper bound graphs

Competition graphs of transitive acyclic digraphs are strict upper bound graphs. This paper characterizes those posets, which can be considered transitive acyclic digraphs, which have upper bound graphs that are interval graphs. The results proved here may shed some light on the open question of those digraphs which have interval competition graphs.This material is taken from Chapter 3 of my (maiden name Diny) PhD Dissertation.     

On the connectivity of randomm-orientable graphs and digraphs

We consider graphs and digraphs obtained by randomly generating a prescribed number of arcs incident at each vertex. We analyse their almost certain connectivity and apply these results to the expected value of random minimum length spanning trees and arborescences. We also examine the relationship between our results and certain results of Erdős and Rényi.     

Highly Arc-Transitive Digraphs With No Homomorphism Onto <Emphasis Type="Bold">Z</Emphasis>

In an infinite digraph D, an edge e' is reachable from an edge e if there exists an alternating walk in D whose initial and terminal edges are e and e'. Reachability is an equivalence relation and if D is 1-arc-transitive, then this relation is either universal or all of its equivalence classes induce isomorphic bipartite digraphs. In Combinatorica, 13 (1993), Cameron, Praeger and Wormald asked if there exist highly arc-transitive digraphs (apart from directed cycles) for which the reachability relation is not universal and which do not have a homomorphism onto the two-way infinite directed path (a Cayley digraph of Z with respect to one generator). In view of an earlier result of Praeger in Australas. J. Combin., 3 (1991), such digraphs are either locally infinite or have equal in- and out-degree. In European J. Combin., 18 (1997), Evans gave an affirmative answer by constructing a locally infinite example. For each odd integer n >= 3, a construction of a highly arc-transitive digraph without property Z satisfying the additional properties that its in- and out-degree are equal to 2 and that the reachability equivalence classes induce alternating cycles of length 2n, is given. Furthermore, using the line digraph operator, digraphs having the above properties but with alternating cycles of length 4 are obtained. Received April 12, 1999 Supported in part by "Ministrstvo za šolstvo, znanost in šport Slovenije", research program PO-0506-0101-99.     

The spectra of some families of digraphs

Let G be a digraph (or a graph, when seen as a symmetric digraph) with adjacency matrix A, having the eigenvalue λ with associated eigenvector v. As it is well known, the entries of v can be interpreted as charges in each vertex. Then, the linear transformation v ? Av corresponds to a natural displacement of charges, where each vertex sends a copy of its charge to its in-neighbors and absorbs a copy of the charges of its out-neighbors, so the resulting charge distribution is just λv. In this work we use this approach to derive some old and new results about the spectral characterization of G. More precisely, we show how to obtain the spectra of some families of (di)graphs, such as the partial line digraphs and the line graphs of regular or semiregular graphs.     

Eigenvalues and colorings of digraphs

Wilf’s eigenvalue upper bound on the chromatic number is extended to the setting of digraphs. The proof uses a generalization of Brooks’ Theorem to digraph colorings.     

Exponents of 2-coloring of symmetric digraphs

A 2-coloring (G₁,G₂) of a digraph is 2-primitive if there exist nonnegative integers h and k with h+k>0 such that for each ordered pair (u,v) of vertices there exists an (h,k)-walk in (G₁,G₂) from u to v. The exponent of (G₁,G₂) is the minimum value of h+k taken over all such h and k. In this paper, we consider 2-colorings of strongly connected symmetric digraphs with loops, establish necessary and sufficient conditions for these to be 2-primitive and determine an upper bound on their exponents. We also characterize the 2-colored digraphs that attain the upper bound and the exponent set for this family of digraphs on n vertices.     

Connected graphs containing a given connected graph as a unique greatest common subgraph

Those connected graphsG are determined for which there exist nonisomorphic connected graphs of equal size containingG as a unique greatest common subgraph. Analogous results are also obtained for weakly connected and strongly connected digraphs, as well as for induced subgraphs and induced subdigraphs.This research was supported by a Western Michigan University faculty research fellowship.This research was supported in part by a Western Michigan University research assistantship from the Graduate College and the College of Arts and Sciences.     

Upward planarity testing

Acyclic digraphs, such as the covering digraphs of ordered sets, are usually drawn upward, i.e., with the edges monotonically increasing in the vertical direction. A digraph is upward planar if it admits an upward planar drawing. In this survey paper, we overview the literature on the problem of upward planarity testing. We present several characterizations of upward planarity and describe upward planarity testing algorithms for special classes of digraphs, such as embedded digraphs and single-source digraphs. We also sketch the proof of NP-completeness of upward planarity testing.Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-9423847.     

A lower bound for the recognition of digraph properties

The complexity of a digraph property is the number of entries of the adjacency matrix which must be examined by a decision tree algorithm to recognize the property in the worst case, Aanderaa and Rosenberg conjectured that there is a constant such that every digraph property which is monotone (not destroyed by the deletion of edges) and nontrivial (holds for some but not all digraphs) has complexity at leastv ² wherev is the number of nodes in the digraph. This conjecture was proved by Rivest and Vuillemin and a lower bound ofv ²/4–o(v ²) was subsequently found by Kahn, Saks, and Sturtevant. Here we show a lower bound ofv ²/2–o(v ²). We also prove that a certain class of monotone, nontrivial bipartite digraph properties is evasive (requires that every entry in the adjacency matrix be examined in the worst case).     

A note on the girth of digraphs

Behzad, Chartrand and Wall conjectured that the girth of a diregular graph of ordern and outdegreer is not greater than [n /r]. This conjecture has been proved forr=2 by Behzad and forr=3 by Bermond. We prove that a digraph of ordern and halfdegree ≧4 has girth not exceeding [n / 4]. We also obtain short proofs of the above results. Our method is an application of the theory of connectivity of digraphs.     

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.     

Homomorphisms to oriented cycles

We discuss the existence of homomorphisms to oriented cycles and give, for a special class of cyclesC, a characterization of those digraphs that admit, a homomorphism toC. Our result can be used to prove the multiplicativity of a certain class of oriented cycles, (and thus complete the characterization of multiplicative oriented cycles), as well as to prove the membership of the corresponding decision problem in the classNPcoNP. We also mention a conjecture on the existence of homomorphisms to arbitrary oriented cycles.     

Infinite highly arc transitive digraphs and universal covering digraphs

A digraph (that is a directed graph) is said to be highly arc transitive if its automorphism group is transitive on the set ofs-arcs for eachs0. Several new constructions are given of infinite highly arc transitive digraphs. In particular, for a connected, 1-arc transitive, bipartite digraph, a highly arc transitive digraphDL() is constructed and is shown to be a covering digraph for every digraph in a certain classD() of connected digraphs. Moreover, if is locally finite, thenDL() is a universal covering digraph forD(). Further constructions of infinite highly arc transitive digraphs are given.The second author wishes to acknowledge the hospitality of the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford, and the University of Auckland, during the period when the research for this paper was doneResearch supported by the Australian Research Council