Spectral radius of graphs with given size and odd girth (Q6194258)

Summary: Let \(\mathcal{G}(m,k)\) be the set of graphs with size \(m\) and odd girth (the length of shortest odd cycle) \(k\). In this paper, we determine the graph maximizing the spectral radius among \(\mathcal{G}(m,k)\) when \(m\) is odd. As byproducts, we show that, there is a number \(\eta(m,k)>\sqrt{m-k+3}\) such that every non bipartite graph \(G\) with size \(m\) and spectral radius \(\rho\ge \eta(m,k)\) must contain an odd cycle of length less than \(k\) unless \(m\) is odd and \(G\cong SK_{k,m}\), which is the graph obtained by subdividing an edge \(k-2\) times of the complete bipartite graph \(K_{2,\frac{m-k+2}{2}}\). This result implies the main results of \textit{M. Zhai} and \textit{J. Shu} [Discrete Math. 345, No. 1, Article ID 112630, 10 p. (2022; Zbl 1476.05130)] and settles a conjecture of \textit{Y. Li} and \textit{Y. Peng} [Electron. J. Comb. 29, No. 4, Research Paper P4.2, 27 p. (2022; Zbl 1503.05078)] as well.