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We give a complete characterisation of the cubic graphs with no eigenvalues in the open interval $(-1,1)$. There are two infinite families, one due to Guo and Mohar [Linear Algebra Appl. 449:68--75] the other due to Koll\'ar and Sarnak [Communications of the AMS. 1,1--38], and $14$ "sporadic" graphs on at most $32$ vertices. This allows us to show that $(-1,1)$ is a maximal spectral gap set for cubic graphs. Our techniques including examination of various substructure and an application of the classification of generalized line graphs.

Quantum walks on graphs are fundamental to quantum computing and have led to many interesting open problems in algebraic graph theory. This review article highlights three key classes of open problems in this domain; perfect state transfer, instantaneous uniform mixing, and average mixing matrices. In highlighting these open problems, our aim is to stimulate further research and exploration in this rapidly evolving field., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures

The energy of a graph $G$ is the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of $G$. Let $s^+(G), s^-(G)$ denote the sum of the squares of the positive and negative eigenvalues of $G$, respectively. It was conjectured by [Elphick, Farber, Goldberg, Wocjan, Discrete Math. (2016)] that if $G$ is a connected graph of order $n$, then $s^+(G)\geq n-1$ and $s^-(G) \geq n-1$. In this paper, we show partial results towards this conjecture. In particular, numerous structural results that may help in proving the conjecture are derived, including the effect of various graph operations. These are then used to establish the conjecture for several graph classes, including graphs with certain fraction of positive eigenvalues and unicyclic graphs.

A discrete-time quantum walk is the quantum analogue of a Markov chain on a graph. Zhan [J. Algebraic Combin. 53(4):1187-1213, 2020] proposes a model of discrete-time quantum walk whose transition matrix is given by two reflections, using the face and vertex incidence relations of a graph embedded in an orientable surface. We show that the evolution of a general discrete-time quantum walk that consists of two reflections satisfies a Chebyshev recurrence, under a projection. For the vertex-face walk, we prove theorems about perfect state transfer and periodicity and give infinite families of examples where these occur. We bring together tools from algebraic and topological graph theory to analyze the evolution of this walk., Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures

Given a graph $G$, we let $s^+(G)$ denote the sum of the squares of the positive eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of $G$, and we similarly define $s^-(G)$. We prove that \[\chi_f(G)\ge 1+\max\left\{\frac{s^+(G)}{s^-(G)},\frac{s^-(G)}{s^+(G)}\right\}\] and thus strengthen a result of Ando and Lin, who showed the same lower bound for the chromatic number $\chi(G)$. We in fact show a stronger result wherein we give a bound using the eigenvalues of $G$ and $H$ whenever $G$ has a homomorphism to an edge-transitive graph $H$. Our proof utilizes ideas motivated by association schemes., Comment: 11 pages

We study pseudo-geometric strongly regular graphs whose second subconstituent with respect to a vertex is a cover of a strongly regular graph or a complete graph. By studying the structure of such graphs, we characterize all graphs containing such a vertex, and use our characterization to find many new strongly regular graphs. Thereby, we answer a question posed by Gardiner, Godsil, Hensel, and Royle. We give an explicit construction for q new, pairwise non-isomorphic graphs with the same parameters as the collinearity graph of generalized quadrangles of order $(q,q)$ and a new non-geometric graph with the same parameters as the collinearity graph of the Hermitian generalized quadrangle of order $(q^2, q)$, for prime powers $q$. Using our characterization, we computed 135478 new strongly regular graphs with parameters (85,20,3,5) and 27 039 strongly regular graphs with parameters (156, 30, 4, 6)., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures

Free Fermions on vertices of distance-regular graphs are considered. Bipartition are defined by taking as one part all vertices at a given distance from a reference vertex. The ground state is constructed by filling all states below a certain energy. Borrowing concepts from time and band limiting problems, algebraic Heun operators and Terwilliger algebras, it is shown how to obtain, quite generally, a block tridiagonal matrix that commutes with the entanglement Hamiltonian. The case of the Hadamard graphs is studied in details within that framework and the existence of the commuting matrix is shown to allow for an analytic diagonalization of the restricted two-point correlation matrix and hence for an explicit determination of the entanglement entropy.

If $v$ is an eigenvector for eigenvalue $\lambda$ of a graph $X$ and $\alpha$ is an automorphism of $X$, then $\alpha(v)$ is also an eigenvector for $\lambda$. Thus it is rather exceptional for an eigenvalue of a vertex-transitive graph to be simple. We study cubic vertex-transitive graphs with a non-trivial simple eigenvalue, and discover remarkable connections to arc-transitivity, regular maps and Chebyshev polynomials., Comment: 23 pg, 6 figures

We explore the interplay between algebraic combinatorics and algorithmic problems in graph theory by defining a polynomial with connections to correspondence colouring (also known as DP-colouring), a recent generalization of list-colouring, and the Unique Games Conjecture. Like the chromatic polynomial of a graph, we are able to evaluate this polynomial at a point, despite the complexity of computing this polynomial. We construct a cover of a graph $X$ by blowing up each vertex to a set of $r$ vertices and joining each pair of sets corresponding to adjacent vertices by a matching with $r$ edges. To each cover $Y$ of $X$ we associate a polynomial $\xi(Y,t)$, called the transversal polynomial. The coefficient $t^k$ of $\xi(Y,t)$ is the number of $k$-edge induced subgraphs of $Y$ whose vertex set is a transversal of the set system given by the blown-up vertices. We show that $\xi(Y,t)$ satisfies a contraction-deletion formula, and that if $n=|V_X|$ and the cover has index $r$, then $\xi(Y,-(r-1)) \equiv 0 \mod r^n$., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

We study the diagonal entries of the average mixing matrix of continuous quantum walks. The average mixing matrix is a graph invariant; it is the sum of the Schur squares of spectral idempotents of the Hamiltonian. It is non-negative, doubly stochastic and positive semi-definite. We investigate the diagonal entries of this matrix. We study the graphs for which the trace of the average mixing matrix is maximum or minimum and we classify those which are maximum. We give two constructions of graphs whose average mixing matrices have constant diagonal., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables

We determine the exact value of the biclique covering number for all grid graphs., Comment: 9 pages, 15 figures

We determine (partly by computer search) the chromatic index (edge-chromatic number) of many strongly regular graphs (SRGs), including the SRGs of degree $k \leq 18$ and their complements, the Latin square graphs and their complements, and the triangular graphs and their complements. Moreover, using a recent result of Ferber and Jain it is shown that an SRG of even order $n$, which is not the block graph of a Steiner 2-design or its complement, has chromatic index $k$, when $n$ is big enough. Except for the Petersen graph, all investigated connected SRGs of even order have chromatic index equal to their degree, i.e., they are class 1, and we conjecture that this is the case for all connected SRGs of even order., Comment: 10 pages

Let $G$ be a simple $n$-vertex graph and $c$ be a colouring of $E(G)$ with $n$ colours, where each colour class has size at least $2$. We prove that $(G,c)$ contains a rainbow cycle of length at most $\lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil$, which is best possible. Our result settles a special case of a strengthening of the Caccetta-H\"aggkvist conjecture, due to Aharoni. We also show that the matroid generalization of our main result also holds for cographic matroids, but fails for binary matroids., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures

A tree T is invertible if and only if T has a perfect matching. Godsil considers an invertible tree T and finds that the inverse of the adjacency matrix of T has entries in {0, 1, -1} and is the signed adjacency matrix of a graph which contains T. In this paper, we give a new proof of this theorem, which gives rise to a partial ordering relation on the class of all invertible trees on 2n vertices. In particular, we show that given an invertible tree T whose inverse graph has strictly more edges, we can remove an edge from T and add another edge to obtain an invertible tree T' whose median eigenvalue is strictly greater. This extends naturally to a partial ordering. We characterize the maximal and minimal elements of this poset and explore the implications about the median eigenvalues of invertible trees., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

In 1984, Wilson proved the Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado theorem for $t$-intersecting families of $k$-subsets of an $n$-set: he showed that if $n\ge(t+1)(k-t+1)$ and $\mathcal{F}$ is a family of $k$-subsets of an $n$-set such that any two members of $\mathcal{F}$ have at least $t$ elements in common, then $|\mathcal{F}|\le\binom{n-t}{k-t}$. His proof made essential use of a matrix whose origin is not obvious. In this paper we show that this matrix can be derived, in a sense, as a projection of $t$-$(n,k,1)$ design., Comment: 6 pages

Quantum walks, an important tool in quantum computing, have been very successfully investigated using techniques in algebraic graph theory. We are motivated by the study of state transfer in continuous-time quantum walks, which is understood to be a rare and interesting phenomenon. We consider a perturbation on an edge $uv$ of a graph where we add a weight $\beta$ to the edge and a loop of weight $\gamma$ to each of $u$ and $v$. We characterize when for this perturbation results in strongly cospectral vertices $u$ and $v$. Applying this to strongly regular graphs, we give infinite families of strongly regular graphs where some perturbation results in perfect state transfer. Further, we show that, for every strongly regular graph, there is some perturbation which results in pretty good state transfer. We also show for any strongly regular graph $X$ and edge $e \in E(X)$, that $\phi(X\setminus e)$ does not depend on the choice of $e$., Comment: 25 pages

We investigate the rank of the average mixing matrix of trees, with all eigenvalues distinct. The rank of the average mixing matrix of a tree on $n$ vertices with $n$ distinct eigenvalues is upper-bounded by $\frac{n}{2}$. Computations on trees up to $20$ vertices suggest that the rank attains this upper bound most of the times. We give an infinite family of trees whose average mixing matrices have ranks which are bounded away from this upper bound. We also give a lower bound on the rank of the average mixing matrix of a tree., Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables

We consider the continuous-time quantum walk defined on the adjacency matrix of a graph. At each instant, the walk defines a mixing matrix which is doubly-stochastic. The average of the mixing matrices contains relevant information about the quantum walk and about the graph. We show that it is the matrix of transformation of the orthogonal projection onto the commutant algebra of the adjacency matrix, restricted to diagonal matrices. Using this formulation of the average mixing matrix, we find connections between its rank and automorphisms of the graph., Comment: 14 pages

We study a continous-time quantum walk on a path graph. In this paper, we show that, for any odd prime $p$ and positive integer $t$, the path on $2^t p - 1$ vertices admits pretty good state transfer between vertices $a$ and $n+1-a$ for each $a$ that is a multiple of $2^{t-1}$ with respect to the quantum walk model determined by the XY-Hamiltonian. This gives the first examples of pretty good state transfer occurring between internal vertices on a path, when it does not occur between the extremal vertices.

The cycle space of a graph corresponds to the kernel of an incidence matrix. We investigate an analogous subspace for digraphs. In the case of digraphs of graphs, where every edge is replaced by two oppositely directed arcs, we give a combinatorial description of a basis of such a space. We are motivated by a connection to the transition matrices of discrete-time quantum walks., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures

The spectra of digraphs, unlike those of graphs, is a relatively unexplored territory. In a digraph, a separation is a pair of sets of vertices X and Y such that there are no arcs from X and Y . For a subclass of eulerian digraphs, we give an bound on the size of a separation in terms of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix., Comment: 14 pages

We study the transition matrix of a quantum walk on strongly regular graphs. It is proposed by Emms, Hancock, Severini and Wilson in 2006, that the spectrum of $S^+(U^3)$, a matrix based on the amplitudes of walks in the quantum walk, distinguishes strongly regular graphs. We probabilistically compute the spectrum of the line intersection graphs of two non-isomorphic generalized quadrangles of order $(5^2,5)$ under this matrix and thus provide strongly regular counter-examples to the conjecture., Comment: 5 pages

The paper gives a thorough introduction to spectra of digraphs via its Hermitian adjacency matrix. This matrix is indexed by the vertices of the digraph, and the entry corresponding to an arc from $x$ to $y$ is equal to the complex unity $i$ (and its symmetric entry is $-i$) if the reverse arc $yx$ is not present. We also allow arcs in both directions and unoriented edges, in which case we use $1$ as the entry. This allows to use the definition also for mixed graphs. This matrix has many nice properties; it has real eigenvalues and the interlacing theorem holds for a digraph and its induced subdigraphs. Besides covering the basic properties, we discuss many differences from the properties of eigenvalues of undirected graphs and develop basic theory. The main novel results include the following. Several surprising facts are discovered about the spectral radius; some consequences of the interlacing property are obtained; operations that preserve the spectrum are discussed -- they give rise to an incredible number of cospectral digraphs; for every $0\le\alpha\le\sqrt{3}$, all digraphs whose spectrum is contained in the interval $(-\alpha,\alpha)$ are determined., Comment: 35 pages, submitted to JGT

We consider the representation of a continuous-time quantum walk in a graph $X$ by the matrix $\exp(itA(X))$. We provide necessary and sufficient criteria for distance-regular graphs and, more generally, for graphs in association schemes to have perfect state transfer. Using these conditions, we provide several new examples of perfect state transfer in simple graphs., Comment: 32 pages

A recent result of one of the authors says that every connected subcubic bipartite graph that is not isomorphic to the Heawood graph has at least one, and in fact a positive proportion of its eigenvalues in the interval [-1,1]. We construct an infinite family of connected cubic bipartite graphs which have no eigenvalues in the open interval (-1,1), thus showing that the interval [-1,1] cannot be replaced by any smaller symmetric subinterval even when allowing any finite number of exceptions. Similar examples with vertices of larger degrees are considered and it is also shown that their eigenvalue distribution has somewhat unusual properties. By taking limits of these graphs, we obtain examples of infinite vertex-transitive r-regular graphs for every r\ge3, whose spectrum consists of points $\pm1$ together with intervals [r-2,r] and [-r,-r+2]. These examples shed some light onto a question communicated by Daniel Lenz and Matthias Keller with motivation in relation to the Baum-Connes conjecture., Comment: Corrected Figure 1 and made minor changes

We study the transition matrix of a quantum walk on strongly regular graphs. It is proposed by Emms, Hancock, Severini and Wilson in 2006, that the spectrum of $S^+(U^3)$, a matrix based on the amplitudes of walks in the quantum walk, distinguishes strongly regular graphs. We find the eigenvalues of $S^+(U)$ and $S^+(U^2)$ for regular graphs.