Spectral arbitrariness for trees fails spectacularly

MaRDI QIDQ6424461zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Shaun M. Fallat, H. Tracy Hall, Rupert H. Levene, Seth A. Meyer, S. Nasserasr, Polona Oblak, Helena Šmigoc

Publication date 26 January 2023

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Graphs and linear algebra (matrices, eigenvalues, etc.) (05C50) Eigenvalues, singular values, and eigenvectors (15A18) Inverse problems in linear algebra (15A29)

Abstract: If $G$ is a graph and $mathbfm$ is an ordered multiplicity list which is realizable by at least one symmetric matrix with graph $G$, what can we say about the eigenvalues of all such realizing matrices for $mathbfm$? It has sometimes been tempting to expect, especially in the case that $G$ is a tree, that any spacing of the multiple eigenvalues should be realizable. In 2004, however, F. Barioli and S. Fallat produced the first counterexample: a tree on 16 vertices and an ordered multiplicity list for which every realizing set of eigenvalues obeys a nontrivial linear constraint. We extend this by giving an infinite family of trees and ordered multiplicity lists whose sets of realizing eigenvalues are very highly constrained, with at most 5 degrees of freedom, regardless of the size of the tree in this family. In particular, we give the first examples of multiplicity lists for a tree which impose nontrivial nonlinear eigenvalue constraints and produce an ordered multiplicity list which is achieved by a unique set of eigenvalues, up to shifting and scaling.

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