No label defined (Q4358936)

The authors consider the upper and lower bounds of the \(k\)th generalized primitive exponents \(\exp(D,k)\) [\textit{R. A. Brualdi} and \textit{B. Liu}, J. Graph Theory 14, No. 4, 483-499 (1990; Zbl 0714.05028)] in a primitive digraph \(D\) of order \(n\). Let \(L(D)\) be the set in \(D\) of class numbers of different cycles in length. The authors prove some inequalities about \(\exp(D,k)\). For example, if \(n\geq 6\) and \(|L(D)|\geq 3\), then \(\exp(D,k)\leq\lfloor(n- 2)^2/2\rfloor+ k\); if \(L(D)= \{p,q\}\) such that \(p+q\leq n\), then \(\exp(D,k)\leq\lfloor(n- 2)^2/4\rfloor+ k\). In the case \(D\) is nonsymmetric, they prove that \[ p(q-1)- n+k\leq \exp(D, k)\leq(p- 1)(q- 1)+ n-p+ k-1, \] when \(L(D)= \{p,q\}\) and \(p<q\). Furthermore, using these results they obtain a new gap of \(\exp(D,k)\), that is, for arbitrary positive integers \(n\), \(t\) and \(k\) with \(1\leq k\leq n\) and \(n\geq 6\), there exists no \(D\) satisfying \[ n^2- tn+\textstyle{{1\over 4}}(t+ 1)^2+ k-2<\exp(D, k)< n^2-(t- 1)n+ t+k- 3. \]