Spectral characterizations of dumbbell graphs (Q2380476)

Summary: A dumbbell graph, denoted by \(D_{a,b,c}\), is a bicyclic graph consisting of two vertex-disjoint cycles \(C_a\), \(C_b\) and a path \(P_{c+3}\) \((c\geq -1)\) joining them having only its end-vertices in common with the two cycles. In this paper, we study the spectral characterization w.r.t. the adjacency spectrum of \(D_{a,b,0}\) (without cycles \(C_4\)) with \(\text{gcd}(a, b)\geq 3\), and we complete the research started in [\textit{J. F. Wang}, \textit{Q. X. Huang}, \textit{F. Belardo} and \textit{E. M. Li Marzi}, Linear Algebra Appl. 431, No. 10, 1707--1714 (2009; Zbl 1175.05089)]. In particular we show that \(D_{a,b,0}\) with \(3\leq\text{gcd}(a, b)< a\) or \(\text{gcd}(a, b)= a\) and \(b\neq 3a\) is determined by the spectrum. For \(b= 3a\), we determine the unique graph cospectral with \(D_{a,3a,0}\). Furthermore we give the spectral characterization w.r.t. the signless Laplacian spectrum of all dumbbell graphs.