The spectra of generalized Paley graphs of qℓ+1q^\ell+1 powers and applications

We consider a special class of generalized Paley graphs over finite fields, namely the Cayley graphs with vertex set $\mathbb{F}_{q^m}$ and connection set the nonzero $(q^\ell+1)$-th powers in $\mathbb{F}_{q^m}$, as well as their complements. We explicitly compute the spectrum of these graphs. As a consequence, the graphs turn out to be (with trivial exceptions) simple, connected, non-bipartite, integral and strongly regular (of Latin square type in half of the cases). By using the spectral information we compute several invariants of these graphs. We exhibit infinite families of pairs of equienergetic non-isospectral graphs. As applications, on the one hand we solve Waring's problem over $\mathbb{F}_q^m$ for the exponents $q^\ell+1$, for each $q$ and for infinite values of $\ell$ and $m$. We obtain that the Waring's number $g(q^\ell+1,q^m)=1$ or $2$, depending on $m$ and $\ell$, thus tackling some open cases. On the other hand, we construct infinite towers of Ramanujan graphs in all characteristics.Comment: 27 pages, 3 tables. A little modification of the title. Corollary 4.8 removed. Added Section 6 on "Energy". Minor typos corrected. Ihara zeta functions at the end correcte

New spectral bounds on the chromatic number encompassing all eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix

The purpose of this article is to improve existing lower bounds on the chromatic number chi. Let mu_1,...,mu_n be the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix sorted in non-increasing order. First, we prove the lower bound chi >= 1 + max_m {sum_{i=1}^m mu_i / - sum_{i=1}^m mu_{n-i+1}} for m=1,...,n-1. This generalizes the Hoffman lower bound which only involves the maximum and minimum eigenvalues, i.e., the case $m=1$. We provide several examples for which the new bound exceeds the {\sc Hoffman} lower bound. Second, we conjecture the lower bound chi >= 1 + S^+ / S^-, where S^+ and S^- are the sums of the squares of positive and negative eigenvalues, respectively. To corroborate this conjecture, we prove the weaker bound chi >= S^+/S^-. We show that the conjectured lower bound is tight for several families of graphs. We also performed various searches for a counter-example, but none was found. Our proofs rely on a new technique of converting the adjacency matrix into the zero matrix by conjugating with unitary matrices and use majorization of spectra of self-adjoint matrices. We also show that the above bounds are actually lower bounds on the normalized orthogonal rank of a graph, which is always less than or equal to the chromatic number. The normalized orthogonal rank is the minimum dimension making it possible to assign vectors with entries of modulus one to the vertices such that two such vectors are orthogonal if the corresponding vertices are connected. All these bounds are also valid when we replace the adjacency matrix A by W * A where W is an arbitrary self-adjoint matrix and * denotes the Schur product, that is, entrywise product of W and A

Partitions of graphs into small and large sets

Let $G$ be a graph on $n$ vertices. We call a subset $A$ of the vertex set $V(G)$ \emph{$k$-small} if, for every vertex $v \in A$, $\deg(v) \le n - |A| + k$. A subset $B \subseteq V(G)$ is called \emph{$k$-large} if, for every vertex $u \in B$, $\deg(u) \ge |B| - k - 1$. Moreover, we denote by $\varphi_k(G)$ the minimum integer $t$ such that there is a partition of $V(G)$ into $t$ $k$-small sets, and by $\Omega_k(G)$ the minimum integer $t$ such that there is a partition of $V(G)$ into $t$ $k$-large sets. In this paper, we will show tight connections between $k$-small sets, respectively $k$-large sets, and the $k$-independence number, the clique number and the chromatic number of a graph. We shall develop greedy algorithms to compute in linear time both $\varphi_k(G)$ and $\Omega_k(G)$ and prove various sharp inequalities concerning these parameters, which we will use to obtain refinements of the Caro-Wei Theorem, the Tur\'an Theorem and the Hansen-Zheng Theorem among other things.Comment: 21 page