The maximum spectral radius of non-bipartite graphs forbidding short odd cycles (Q2094864)

Summary: It is well-known that eigenvalues of graphs can be used to describe structural properties and parameters of graphs. A theorem of Nosal and Nikiforov states that if \(G\) is a triangle-free graph with \(m\) edges, then \(\lambda (G)\leqslant \sqrt{m}\), equality holds if and only if \(G\) is a complete bipartite graph. Recently, \textit{H. Lin} et al. [Comb. Probab. Comput. 30, No. 2, 258--270 (2020; Zbl 1466.05121)] proved a generalization for non-bipartite triangle-free graphs. Moreover, \textit{M. Zhai} and \textit{J. Shu} [Discrete Math. 345, No. 1, Article ID 112630, 10 p. (2022; Zbl 1476.05130)] presented a further improvement. In this paper, we present an alternative method for proving the improvement by Zhai and Shu. Furthermore, the method can allow us to give a refinement on the result of Zhai and Shu for non-bipartite graphs without short odd cycles.