Cospectral constructions for several graph matrices using cousin vertices

Abstract

Graphs can be associated with a matrix according to some rule and we can find the spectrum of a graph with respect to that matrix. Two graphs are cospectral if they have the same spectrum. Constructions of cospectral graphs help us establish patterns about structural information not preserved by the spectrum. We generalize a construction for cospectral graphs previously given for the distance Laplacian matrix to a larger family of graphs. In addition, we show that with appropriate assumptions this generalized construction extends to the adjacency matrix, combinatorial Laplacian matrix, signless Laplacian matrix, normalized Laplacian matrix, and distance matrix. We conclude by enumerating the prevelance of this construction in small graphs for the adjacency matrix, combinatorial Laplacian matrix, and distance Laplacian matrix.

Keywords

• cospectral
• generalized characteristic polynomial
• similar matrices
• 05c50
• 05c12
• 15a18
• 15b57