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The Relativized Second Eigenvalue Conjecture of Alon
We prove a relativization of the Alon Second Eigenvalue Conjecture for all
-regular base graphs, , with : for any , we show that
a random covering map of degree to has a new eigenvalue greater than
in absolute value with probability .
Furthermore, if is a Ramanujan graph, we show that this probability is
proportional to , where
is an integer depending on , which can be computed by a finite algorithm for
any fixed . For any -regular graph, , is
greater than .
Our proof introduces a number of ideas that simplify and strengthen the
methods of Friedman's proof of the original conjecture of Alon. The most
significant new idea is that of a ``certified trace,'' which is not only
greatly simplifies our trace methods, but is the reason we can obtain the
estimate above. This estimate represents an
improvement over Friedman's results of the original Alon conjecture for random
-regular graphs, for certain values of
- β¦