A combinatorial bound on the number of distinct eigenvalues of a graph

The smallest possible number of distinct eigenvalues of a graph $G$, denoted by $q(G)$, has a combinatorial bound in terms of unique shortest paths in the graph. In particular, $q(G)$ is bounded below by $k$, where $k$ is the number of vertices of a unique shortest path joining any pair of vertices in $G$. Thus, if $n$ is the number of vertices of $G$, then $n-q(G)$ is bounded above by the size of the complement (with respect to the vertex set of $G$) of the vertex set of the longest unique shortest path joining any pair of vertices of $G$. The purpose of this paper is to commence the study of the minor-monotone floor of $n-k$, which is the minimum of $n-k$ among all graphs of which $G$ is a minor. Accordingly, we prove some results about this minor-monotone floor.Comment: 33 page

Numerical semigroups generated by quadratic sequences

We investigate numerical semigroups generated by any quadratic sequence with initial term zero and an infinite number of terms. We find an efficient algorithm for calculating the Apéry set, as well as bounds on the elements of the Apéry set. We also find bounds on the Frobenius number and genus, and the asymptotic behavior of the Frobenius number and genus. Finally, we find the embedding dimension of all such numerical semigroups