Computing the maximal signless Laplacian index among graphs of prescribed order and diameter (Q2812615)

A bug \(\mathrm{Bug}_{p,r_1,r_2}\) is a graph obtained from a complete graph \(K_p\) by deleting an edge \(uv\) and attaching the paths \(P_{r_1}\) and \(P_{r_2}\) by one of their end vertices at \(u\) and \(v\), respectively. Let \(Q(G)\) be the signless Laplacian matrix of a graph \(G\) and \(q_1(G)\) be the spectral radius of \(Q(G)\). It is known that the bug \(B_0=\mathrm{Bug}_{n-d+2, \lfloor \frac{d}{2}\rfloor,\lceil \frac{d}{2}\rceil}\) maximizes \(q_1(G)\) among all graphs \(G\) of order \(n\) and diameter \(d\). For a bug \(B\) of order \(n\) and diameter \(d\), \(n-d\) is an eigenvalue of \(Q(B)\) with multiplicity \(n-d-1\). It is proved that remainder \(d+1\) eigenvalues of \(Q(B)\), among them \(q_1(B)\), can be computed as the eigenvalues of a symmetric tridiagonal matrix of order \(d+1\). It is also shown that \(q_1(B_0)\) can be computed as the largest eigenvalue of a symmetric tridiagonal matrix of order \(\frac{d}{2}+1\) if \(d\) is even.