Spectral distances of graphs (Q665961)

For a simple graph \(G\) on \(n\) vertices, the eigenvalues of \(G\) are defined as the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix, say, \(\lambda_1(G)\geq \lambda_2(G) \geq\dots\geq \lambda_n(G)\). Then the spectral distance between two \(n\)-vertex graphs \(G_1\) and \(G_2\) is defined by \[ \sigma(G_1,G_2) = \sum_{i=1}^n |\lambda_i(G_1)-\lambda_i(G_2)|. \] The authors prove some initial results around this concept and compute the distances in some particular cases. For example, they prove the identity \(\sigma(P_n,C_n)=2\) for paths and cycles of order \(n\geq 3\) and other identities (or estimates) concerning complete graphs, wheels, etc., with results conveniently summarized in a table. In later sections, further notions are introduced, such as a cospectrality measure for subsets common to a family of graphs, and the paper concludes with several conjectures and open questions.