Paper 1, Section II, 17G

Graph Theory | Part II, 2019

Let GG be a connected dd-regular graph.

(a) Show that dd is an eigenvalue of GG with multiplicity 1 and eigenvector

e=(111)Te=(11 \ldots 1)^{T}

(b) Suppose that GG is strongly regular. Show that GG has at most three distinct eigenvalues.

(c) Conversely, suppose that GG has precisely three distinct eigenvalues d,λd, \lambda and μ\mu. Let AA be the adjacency matrix of GG and let

B=A2(λ+μ)A+λμI.B=A^{2}-(\lambda+\mu) A+\lambda \mu I .

Show that if vv is an eigenvector of GG that is not a scalar multiple of ee then Bv=0B v=0. Deduce that BB is a scalar multiple of the matrix JJ whose entries are all equal to one. Hence show that, for ij,(A2)iji \neq j,\left(A^{2}\right)_{i j} depends only on whether or not vertices ii and jj are adjacent, and so GG is strongly regular.

(d) Which connected dd-regular graphs have precisely two eigenvalues? Justify your answer.

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