Most Laplacian eigenvalues of a tree are small (Q2221915)

Given a tree of order \(n\), its average vertex degree is \(d_n = 2-\frac{2}{n}\). In [Appl. Math. Lett. 24, No. 6, 918--923 (2011; Zbl 1216.05010)], \textit{V. Trevisan} et al. conjectured that in any tree, at least half of the Laplacian eigenvalues were less than this average. The purpose of this paper is to prove the conjecture, which is stated as the following result: Theorem. For any tree \(T\) of order \(n\), we have \[ m_T [0, d_n) \ge \left\lceil\frac{n}{2} \right\rceil, \] where \(m_T [0, d_n)\) denotes the number of Laplacian eigenvalues of \(T\) in the interval \([0, d_n)\), counting multiplicities.