Spectral ordering of trees with small index (Q2419071)

Three ordering relations for indices of certain families of trees are established confirming several conjectures. In particular, the first 8 trees of even order with largest index are described. The main tool is a specific diagonalization algorithm for the matrix \(A(T)+\alpha I\), where \(A(T)\) is the adjacency matrix of a tree \(T\) and \(\alpha\in\mathbb{R}\).