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Péter Csikvári
In this note I use some terminologies about graphs without defining them.
You can look them up at wikipedia: graph, vertex, edge, multiple edge, loop,
bipartite graph, tree, degree, regular graph, adjacency matrix, walk, closed
walk. In this note we never consider directed graphs and so the adjacency
matrix will always be symmetric for us.
We will use the fact many times that if A is a n × n real symmetric matrix
then there exists a basis of Rn consisting of eigenvectors which we can choose1
to be orthonormal. Let u1 , . . . , un be the orthonormal eigenvectors belonging
to λ1 ≥ · · · ≥ λn : we have Aui = λi ui , and (ui , uj ) = δij .
The third statement also follows from the fact T rAℓ is nothing else than the
number of closed walks of length ℓ.
1For the matrix I, any basis will consists of eigenvectors as every vectors are eigenvectors,
but of course they won’t be orthonormal immediately.
1
2
Using the next well-known statement, Proposition 1.2, one can refine the
previous statement such a way that the number of walks of length ℓ between
vertex i and j can be obtained as
∑
ck (i, j)λℓk .
k
Now assume that we have xT Ax = λ1 ||x||2 for some vector x. Assume that
λ1 = · · · = λk > λk+1 ≥ · · · ≥ λn , then in the above computation we only have
equality if αk+1 = · · · = αn = 0. Hence
x = α1 u1 + · · · + αk uk ,
and so
Ax = λ1 x.
Proposition 1.4. Let A be a non-negative symmetric matrix. There exists a
non-zero vector x = (x1 , . . . , , xn ) for which Ax = λ1 x and xi ≥ 0 for all i.
Proof. Let u1 = (u11 , u12 , . . . , u1n ). Let us consider x = (|u11 |, |u12 |, . . . , |u1n |).
Then ||x|| = ||u1 || = 1 and
xT Ax ≥ uT1 Au1 = λ1 .
Then xT Ax = λ1 and by the previous proposition we have Ax = λ1 x. Hence
x satisfies the conditions.
Proposition 1.5. Let G be a connected graph, and let A be its adjacency ma-
trix. Then
(a) If Ax = λ1 x and x ̸= 0 then no entries of x is 0.
(b) The multiplicity of λ1 is 1.
(c) If Ax = λ1 x and x ̸= 0 then all entries of x have the same sign.
(d) If Ax = λx for some λ and xi ≥ 0, where x ̸= 0 then λ = λ1 .
Proof. (a) Let x = (x1 , . . . , xn ) and y = (|x1 |, . . . , |xn |). As before we have
||y|| = ||x||, and
y T Ay ≥ xT Ax = λ1 ||x||2 = λ1 ||y||2 .
Hence
Ay = λ1 y.
4
Let H = {i |yi = 0} and V \ H = {i |yi > 0}. Assume for contradiction that
H is not empty. Note that V \ H is not empty either as x ̸= 0. On the other
hand, there cannot be any edge between H and V \ H: if i ∈ H and j ∈ V \ H
and (i, j) ∈ E(G), then
∑
0 = λ1 y i = aij yj ≥ yj > 0
j
(b) Assume that Ax1 = λ1 x1 and Ax2 = λ1 x2 , where x1 and x2 are independent
eigenvectors. Note that by part (a), the entries of x1 is not 0, so we can choose
a constant c such that the first entry of x = x2 − cx1 is 0. Note that Ax = λ1 x
and x ̸= 0 since x1 and x2 were independent. But then x contradicts part (a).
So part (c) enables us to recognize the largest eigenvalue from its eigenvector:
this is the only eigenvector consisting of only positive entries (or actually,
entries of the same sign).
Proposition 1.6. (a) Let H be a subgraph of G. Then λ1 (H) ≤ λ1 (G).
(b) Further, if G is connected and H is a proper subgraph then λ1 (H) < λ1 (G).
Proof. (a) Let x be an eigenvector of length 1 of the adjacency matrix of H
such that it has only non-negative entries. Then
λ1 (H) = xT A(H)x ≤ xT A(G)x ≤ max z T A(G)z = λ1 (G).
||z||=1
5
(b) Suppose for contradiction that λ1 (H) = λ1 (G). Then we have equality
everywhere in the above computation. In particular xT A(G)x = λ1 (G). This
means that x is eigenvector of A(G) too. Since G is connected x must be a
(or rather "the") vector with only positive entries by part (a) of the above
proposition. But then xT A(H)x < xT A(G)x, a contradiction.
Proposition 1.7. (a) We have |λn | ≤ λ1 .
(b) Let G be a connected graph and assume that −λn = λ1 . Then G is bipartite.
(c) G is a bipartite graph if and only if its spectrum is symmetric to 0.
Proof. (a) Let x = (x1 , . . . , xn ) be a unit eigenvector belonging to λn , and let
y = (|x1 |, . . . , |xn |). Then
∑ ∑
|λn | = |xT Ax| = | aij xi xj | ≤ aij |xi ||xj | = y T Ay ≤ max z T Az = λ1 .
||z||=1
(Another
∑ ℓ solution can be given based on the observation ∑ that 0 ≤ T rAℓ =
λi . If |λn | > λ1 then for large enough odd ℓ we get that λℓi < 0.)
(b) Since λ1 ≥ · · · ≥ λn , the condition can only hold if λ1 ≥ 0 ≥ λn .
Again let x = (x1 , . . . , xn ) be a unit eigenvector belonging to λn , and let
y = (|x1 |, . . . , |xn |). Then
∑ ∑
λ1 = |λn | = |xT Ax| = | aij xi xj | ≤ aij |xi ||xj | = y T Ay ≤ max z T Az = λ1 .
||z||=1
Proposition 1.8. Let ∆ be the maximum degree, and let d denote the average
degree. Then
√
max( ∆, d) ≤ λ1 ≤ ∆.
v T Av 2e(G)
λ1 ≥ = = d.
||v||2 n
Hence λ1 ≤ ∆.
Proof. The first statement already follows from the previous propositions, but
it also follows from the second statement so let us prove this statement. Let x
be an eigenvector belonging to d. We show that it is constant on a connected
component. Let H be a conncted component, and let c = maxi∈V (H) xi , let
Vc = {i ∈ V (H) | xi = c} and V (H) \ Vc = {i ∈ V (H) | xi < c}. If V (H) \ Vc
were not empty then there exists an edge (i, j) ∈ E(H) such that i ∈ Vc ,
j ∈ V (H) \ Vc . Then
∑ ∑
dc = dxi = xk ≤ xj + xk < c + (d − 1)c = dc,
k∈N (i) k∈N (i),k̸=j
(b)
xT Ax
max = λ2 .
x⊥u1 ||x||2
Proof. (a) Let x = α1 u1 + · · · + αn un . Then
∑
n ∑
n
T
x Ax = λi αi2 ≥ λn αi2 = λn ||x||2 .
i=1 i=1
On the other hand, uTn Aun = λn ||un ||2 . This proves part (a).
(b) Again let x = α1 u1 + · · · + αn un . Since x ⊥ u1 we have α1 = (x, u1 ) = 0.
Then
∑n ∑ n ∑
n
T
x Ax = 2
λi αi = λi αi ≤ λ2
2
αi2 = λ2 ||x||2 .
i=1 i=2 i=1
On the other hand, T
u2 Au2 = λ2 ||u2 || . This proves part (b).
2
8
Proof of the theorem. Let |S| = s and |T | = t. Let us consider the vector x
which takes the value t on the vertices of S and the value −s on the vertices
of T . Then x is perpendicular to the all 1 vector, indeed |S|t − |T |s = 0. Note
that u1 = √1n 1 so x is perpendicular to u1 . Let us consider
∑ ∑
n ∑
(xi − xj ) = d
2
x2i − 2 xi xj = d||x||2 − xT Ax.
(i,j)∈E(G) i=1 (i,j)∈E(G)
Note that
||x||2 = ts2 + st2 = st(s + t) = stn.
Hence
(d − λ2 )nst ≤ e(S, T )n2 ≤ (d − λn )nst.
In other words,
st st
(d − λ2 ) ≤ e(S, T ) ≤ (d − λn ) .
n n
Definition 2.3. Let S ⊆ V (G). The set of neighbors of S is
N (S) = {u ∈ V (G) \ S | ∃v ∈ S : (u, v) ∈ E(G)}.
Definition 2.4. A graph G is called (n, d, c)-expander if |V (G)| = n, it is
d–regular and
|N (S)| ≥ c|S|
for every set S satisfying |S| ≤ n/2.
Intuitively, the larger the c, the better your network (your graph G) is: if
you have a gossip then it spreads in a fast way in a good expander.
Theorem 2.5. A d–regular graph G on n vertices is an (n, d, c)–expander with
c = d−λ
2d
2
.
Proof. Let S ⊆ V (G) with |S| ≤ n/2. Let T = V (G) \ S, not that |T | ≥ n/2.
Then
e(S, T ) = e(S, N (S)) ≤ d|N (S)|.
9
( )
Note that the Kneser-graph is n−k k (
–regular, and according to the previous
)
theorem, its smallest eigenvalue is − k−1 . Then by the Hoffman-Delsarte
n−k−1
Hence (n−k−1)(n) ( ) ( )
k n n−1
(n−k) k−1
(n−k−1
k
) = = .
k
+ k−1
n k k−1
Voilá! Honestly this is probably the most complicated proof of the Erdős-Ko-
Rado theorem, but there are some similar theorems where the only known
proof goes through the eigenvalues of some similarly defined graph.
Now let us turn back to estimating e(S, T ) for d–regular graphs. The fol-
lowing theorem is called the expander mixing lemma.
Theorem 2.9 (Expander mixing lemma). Let G be a d–regular graph on n ver-
tices with eigenvalues d = λ1 ≥ λ2 ≥ · · · ≥ λn . Let λ = max(|λ2 |, . . . , |λn |) =
max(|λ2 |, |λn |). Let S, T ⊆ V (G), then
√
e(S, T ) − d |S||T | ≤ λ |S||T |.
n
Proof. Let χS and χT be the characteristic vectors of the sets S and T : so
χS (u) = 1 if u ∈ S and 0 otherwise. Observe that
e(S, T ) = χTS AχT .
Let us write up χS and χT in the orthonormal basis u1 , . . . , un of eigenvectors.
Note that we can choose u1 to be √1n 1. Let
∑
n
χS = αi ui
i=1
and
∑
n
χT = βi ui .
i=1
Then
∑
n
χTS AχT = λi αi βi .
i=1
|S| |T |
Note that α1 = (χS , u1 ) = √ , and similarly β1 = (χT , u1 ) = √ . Hence
n n
|S| |T | |S||T |
λ1 α 1 β1 = d √ √ = d .
n n n
Hence
|S||T | ∑
n
e(S, T ) − d = λi αi βi .
n i=2
12
Then ∑
∑
|S||T | n
n
e(S, T ) − d = λi α i βi ≤ λ |αi ||βi |.
n
i=2 i=2
Now let us apply a Cauchy-Schwartz inequality:
( n )1/2 ( n )1/2
∑n ∑ ∑
|αi ||βi | ≤ |αi |2 |βi |2 .
i=2 i=2 i=2
10 9 1
12 13 14
1
5 8 125 126 149
2 3
1256 1498
6 7
We would be able to determine r2k explicitly, but for our purposes, it is better
to give a lower bound with which we can count easily. Such a lower bound is
(2k)
1 √
r2k ≥ k
d(d − 1)k−1 > 2
(2 d − 1)2k .
k+1 (k + 1)
The second inequality comes from Stirling’s formula, so we only need to un-
derstand the first inequality. Every closed walk in the tree can be encoded
as follows: we write a 1 if we step down (so away from the root) and −1 if
we step up (towards the root), additionally we choose a direction d − 1 or d
ways if we step down. More precisely, we can choose our step in d ways if we
are in the root and d − 1 ways otherwise. (The lower bound d − 1 would be
sufficient for us.) Note that we have to step down exactly k times, and step
up exactly k times to get a closed walk. So the sequence of "directions" is at
least d(d − 1)k−1 . The sequence of ±1 has two conditions: (i) there must be
exactly k 1’s and exactly k −1’s, (ii) the sum of the first few elements cannot
be negative (we cannot go higher than the root): s1 + s2 + · · · + si ≥ 0 for all
1 ≤ i ≤ 2k, where si = ±1 according to the i-th step goes down or up. Such
(2kk)
sequences are counted by the Catalan-numbers: k+1 . In this proof we simply
accept this fact, later we will revisit this counting problem at 2 × k standard
Young tableauxs.
n √
p2k ≥ (2 d − 1)2k
(k + 1)2
16
where t is a positive integer that we will choose later. Note that 0 ≤ d+λi ≤ 2d,
hence
∑n
√
(d + λi )2t ≤ m(2d)2t + (n − m)(d + (2 − ε) d − 1)2t .
i=1
On the other hand, by the binomial theorem we have
2t ( ) 2t ( )
( n )
∑n ∑n ∑
2t ∑ 2t ∑
(d + λi )2t = dj λ2t−j
i = dj λ2t−j
i .
i=1 i=1 j=0
j j=0
j i=1
∑n k √
i=1 λi ≥ 0 if k is odd and p2k ≥ (k+1)2 (2 d − 1) .
n 2k
We know that pk =
Hence ( n ) ( n )
∑2t ( ) t ( )
2t j ∑ 2t−j ∑ 2t j ∑ 2t−2j
d λi ≥ d λi ≥
j=0
j i=1 j=0
2j i=1
∑t ( ) ∑ t ( )
2t j n √ n 2t j √
≥ d (2 d − 1) 2t−2j
≥ d (2 d − 1)2t−2j =
j=0
2j (t − j + 1) 2 (t + 1) 2
j=0
2j
n ( √ √ ) n √
= (d + 2 d − 1)2t
+ (d − 2 d − 1) 2t
≥ (d + 2 d − 1)2t .
2(t + 1)2 2(t + 1)2
Hence we have
√ n √
m(2d)2t + (n − m)(d + (2 − ε) d − 1)2t ≥ 2
(d + 2 d − 1)2t .
2(t + 1)
This means that
√ √
m
1
2(t+1)2
(d+ 2 d − 1)2t − (d + (2 − ε) d − 1)2t
≥ √ .
n (2d)2t − (d + (2 − ε) d − 1)2t
Note that √
( )2t
d+2 d−1
√
d + (2 − ε) d − 1
grows much faster than 2(t + 1)2 , so we can choose a t0 for which
1 √ √
(d + 2 d − 1) 2t0
− (d + (2 − ε) d − 1)2t0 > 0,
2(t0 + 1)2
17
then √ √
1
2(t0 +1)2
+ 2 d − 1)2t0 − (d + (2 − ε) d − 1)2t0
(d
c(ε, d) = √
(2d)2t0 − (d + (2 − ε) d − 1)2t0
satisfies the conditions of the theorem.
Remark 2.14. √ A d–regular non-bipartite graph G is called Ramanujan if
λ√2 , |λn | ≤ 2 d − 1. If G is bipartite then it is called Ramanujan if λ2 ≤
2 d − 1. It is known that for any d there exists infinitely many d–regular
bipartite Ramanujan-graph, this is a result of A. Marcus, D. Spielman and N.
Srivastava. On the other hand, if G is non-bipartite then our knowledge is much
more limited: for d = pα + 1, where p is a prime there exists construction for
infinite family of d–regular Ramanujan-graphs. It is conjectured that a random
d–regular graph is Ramanujan with positive probability independently of the
number of vertices.
{1,2}
{3,5}
{1,3} {2,5}
{4,5} {3,4}
{1,4} {2,4}
{2,3} {1,5}
Recall that for a simple graph G, the entries of A2 can be understood very
easily. In the diagonal of A2 we have the degrees of the vertices, in our case,
there will be d everywhere. On the other hand, for i ̸= j, (A2 )ij counts the
number of common neighbors of vertex i and j which is a or b according to i
and j are adjacent or not. So in A2 + (b − a)A we have d’s in the diagonal and
b’s everywhere else. Hence
A2 + (b − a)A − (d − b)I = bJ,
where J is the all 1 matrix.
Now let us assume that Ax = λx, where x = (x1 , . . . , xn ). Then
(A2 + (b − a)A − (d − b)I)x = (λ2 + (b − a)λ − (d − b))x,
while
∑n
bJx = b( xi )1.
i=1
19
seen that the 5-cycle and the Petersen-graph are such graphs with d = 2 and
d = 3. Actually, K2 is also such graph with d = 1, but it’s a bit cheating since
the fourth parameter hasn’t any meaning, not to mention K1 with d = 0...
First of all, note that our first proposition implies that n = d2 + 1. Indeed,
d(d−1−a) = (n−d−1)b with a = 0, b = 1 immediately implies that n = d2 +1.
Theorem 3.4 (Hoffman–Singleton). Let G be a strongly regular graph with
parameters (d2 + 1, d, 0, 1), where d ≥ 2. Then d ∈ {2, 3, 7, 57}.
Proof. The eigenvalues of the graph G are d and
√
−1 ± 4d − 3
λ± =
2
and its multiplicities are
( )
1 2d − d2
m± = d ∓√
2
.
2 4d − 3
If 2d − d2 = 0, then d = 0 or 2. (For d = 0, the definition works, but we don’t
consider it as a strongly regular
√ graph. We simply excluded it by requiring
d ≥ 2.) If 2d − d2 ̸= 0, then 4d − 3 is a rational number. This can only
happen if 4d − 3 is a perfect square. Hence 4d − 3 = s2 . Then
( ) ( )2
( 2 )2 2 s2 +3 − s2 +3
1 s +3 4 4
m± = ∓ .
2 4 s
Hence
s5 + s4 + 6s3 − 2s2 + 9s − 15
m+ = .
32s
Since 32m+ is an integer, we get that s | 15. Hence s ∈ {1, 3, 5, 15}. If s = 1
then d = 1 which we excuded. So s ∈ {3, 5, 15} whenced ∈ {3, 7, 57}. Together
with d = 2 we get that d ∈ {2, 3, 7, 57}.
Remark 3.5. One might wonder whether there is such a graph for d = 7 and
d = 57. For d = 7 there is such a graph: it is called the Hoffman-Singleton
graph. It is the unique strongly regular graph with parameters (50, 7, 0, 1) just
as the Petersen-graph and the 5-cycle are the unique strongly regular graphs
with parameters (10, 3, 0, 1) and (5, 2, 0, 1). It is not known whether there is a
strongly regular graph with parameters (3250, 57, 0, 1).
Remark 3.6. The following statement is true in general: the eigenvalues of a
strongly regular graph are integers or the parameters of the strongly regular
graph satisfies that (n, d, a, b) = (4k + 1, 2k, k − 1, k) for some k, the latter
graphs are called conference graphs, for instance the 5–cycle is a conference
21
Similarly, r2 and r3 are connected by a blue edge to exactly one of the vertices
of b1 , b2 , b3 . This means that there are exactly 3 blue edges between b1 , b2 , b3
and r1 , r2 , r3 . By repeating this argument to b1 , b2 , b3 , we find that there are
exactly 3 red edges between b1 , b2 , b3 and r1 , r2 , r3 . This means that there are
exactly 3 green edges between b1 , b2 , b3 and r1 , r2 , r3 .
Now let us consider the green Petersen–graph. If we delete the vertices
v, g1 , g2 , g3 from this graph, the green edges induce a 6-cycle on the remaining
vertices. According to the previous paragraph, there is a cut of this 6-cycle
which contains exactly 3 edges. But this is impossible: a cut of a 6-cycle
always contains even number of edges! Indeed, if we walk around the 6-cycle
we need to cross the cut even number of times to get back to the original side
of the cut from where we started our walk.
4. Cayley graphs
Let Γ be a finite group and S ⊆ Γ such that g ∈ S if and only if g −1 ∈ S,
and 1 ∈/ S. Then we can define the Cayley-graph G = Cay(Γ, S) as follows.
Its vertex set is the elements of Γ and (g, h) ∈ E(G) if and only if gh−1 ∈ S.
Note that if (g, h) ∈ E(G) then (h, g) ∈ E(G) since hg −1 = (gh−1 )−1 and if
gh−1 ∈ S then (gh−1 )−1 ∈ S by our assumption on S. Finally, note that G
does not contain loop since 1 ∈/ S.
In this section we try to understand the spectrum of a Cayley-graph for an
abelian group Γ. We will need the notion of character.
Definition 4.1. Let Γ be an abelian group. A χ : Γ → C is a character if it
is a homomorphism from Γ into the multiplicative group of C. In other words,
χ(gh) = χ(g)χ(h) and χ(1) = 1.
Note that there is a trivial character χ0 : χ0 (g) = 1 for all g ∈ Γ. Recall
that g |Γ| = 1 for any g ∈ Γ. This means that for a character χ we have
1 = χ(1) = χ(g |Γ| ) = χ(g)|Γ| . This means that χ(g) is a root of unity of order
|Γ|. Note that since χ(g) is a root of unity, we have χ−1 = χ.
It turns out that there are exactly |Γ| characters for an abelian group and
they form a group with the multiplication χ1 χ2 (g) := χ1 (g)χ2 (g) where χ0 is
the identity element. It is trivial to check that χ1 χ2 is also a character and
χ−1 is also a character. This group is called the dual group, and is denoted by
Γ̂. It turns out that Γ̂ is isomorphic to Γ.
Now we are ready to give the eigenvalues of the Cayley-graph G = Cay(Γ, S).
Theorem 4.2. Let Γ be an abelian group with S ⊆ Γ such that g ∈ S if and
only if g −1 ∈ S, and 1 ∈
/ S. Then the eigenvalues of G = Cay(Γ, S) are the
23
with eigenvector (χ(g))g∈Γ . These eigenvectors are pairwise orthogonal for the
scalar product
∑n
⟨x, y⟩ = xi yi .
i=1
Let h ∈ Γ such that χ(h) ̸= 1. Such an h exists because χ is not the identity.
Then ∑ ∑ ∑
χ(h) χ(g) = χ(hg) = χ(g).
g∈Γ g∈Γ g∈Γ
Example 4.3. Let Γ = (Zn2 , +), we will use additive notation everywhere:
the identity element is 0, and g −1 is denoted by −g. Observe that for any
g we have −g = g, so we only need to require that 0 ∈ / S. Let S = {ei =
(0, . . . , 0, 1, 0, . . . , 0) | 1 ≤ i ≤ n}, then G = Qn = Cay(Γ, S) will exactly be
the n-dimensional cube.
24
This means that( if) x contains k 1’s and n−k 0’s then λx = (n−k)−k = n−2k.
Since there are nk such vectors x, the spectrum of the n-dimensional cube Qn
n
is {n − 2k ((k )) | 0 ≤ k ≤ n}.
We could have obtained the same result if we used the solution of prac-
tice problem P2 of Problem set 1 with the additional observation that Qn =
K2 K2 . . . K2 , and the fact that spectrum of K2 is {1, −1}. Recall that the
solution of problem P2 asserts that if the eigenvalues of G are λ1 ≥ · · · ≥ λn
and the eigenvalues of H are µ1 ≥ · · · ≥ µm then the eigenvalues of GH are
λi + µj , where 1 ≤ i ≤ n, 1 ≤ j ≤ m.
Note that for an S ⊆ Zn2 we can define the map ΦS as follows
∑
ΦS f (v) = f (v + s).
s∈S
This is called the (discrete or finite) Radon-transform of f (on the group Zn2
with respect to S). Hence we actually determined the spectrum of the Radon-
transform.
Example 4.4. Let Γ = (Zn , +), we will use multiplicative notation every-
where: so if g is a generator of Zn then Zn = {1, g, g 2 , . . . , g n−1 }. (It might
be a bit counter intuitive to use multiplicative notations, but when we will
use characters, it will be a bit more convenient.) One particular Cayley-graph
25
Yeees! This will be one of the homework problems, and it will give a new proof
√
to the fact that the absolute value of the Gauss-sum is p.
One funny observation is that Pp is isomorphic to its complement Pp . Indeed,
if n is a quadratic non-residue then the map fn (u) = nu gives an isomorphism
between Pp and Pp since if a − b is a quadratic residue then na − nb = n(a − b)
is a quadratic non-residue.
What about non-abelian groups? Without proof we mention one result.
If you did not learn representation theory of finite groups then you won’t
understand the claim, but don’t worry about it.
Theorem 4.6. Let Γ be a finite group and let S ⊆ Γ be a set which is a union
of some conjugate classes of Γ. Then the eigenvalues of G = Cay(Γ, S) are
1 ∑
λχ = χ(s),
χ(1) s∈S
χ is an irreducible character, the multiplicity of λχ is χ(1)2 . Since
where ∑
|Γ| = χ χ2 (1), where the sum runs over all irreducible characters, we have
found all eigenvalues.