A generalization of zero divisor graphs associated to commutative rings (Q1754555)

The zero-divisor graph for a ring \(R\) is given by taking \(R\setminus\{0\}\) as the vertex set, and defining \(x \sim y\) if and only if \(xy=0\). In this short paper, the authors suggest a generalisation of this definition, by taking \(R^n \setminus\{0\}\) as vertices, and defining \(\vec{x} \sim \vec{y}\) if and only if there is a lower triangular matrix \(A\) with nonzero diagonal entries such that either \(\vec{x}^T A \vec{y}=0\), or \(\vec{y}^T A \vec{x}=0\). Without the ``or'', this generalisation of the 1-dimensional relation would not be symmetric, which makes this definition of an undirected graph (as opposed to a directed graph) a bit artificial. It is not clear why the authors introduce the matrix \(A\); a similar adjacency relation could be defined without the matrix \(A\), but would result in fewer edges in the graph. These graphs are rich with edges, and the authors use the fact that edges always exist (or in some cases, don't exist) between specific edges, to investigate a number of graph-theoretic properties of these graphs, including diameter, girth, genus, clique number, valency, and the existence of Hamilton cycles.