On the difference of energies of a graph and its complement graph (Q2306290)

The energy \(\mathcal{E}(G)\) of a graph \(G\) is defined as the sum of the absolute values of all eigenvalues of \(G\). \textit{V. Nikiforov} [ibid. 508, 133--145 (2016; Zbl 1346.05174)] studied the energy of a graph and its complement graph. Nikiforov posed the problem of finding the best possible upper bounds for \(\mathcal{E}(G)-\mathcal{E}(\overline{G})\) for general and for regular graphs. In this paper, the authors study the difference of energies of a (regular) graph \(G\) and its complement graph \(\overline{G}\), that is, \(\mathcal{E}(G)-\mathcal{E}(\overline{G})\). In particular, the authors provide the answer to Nikiforov's problem. Also, the authors give a lower bound for the energy of a regular graph in terms of the order and the clique cover number.