An Alon-Boppana--type bound for very dense graphs, with applications to max-cut

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Zhang, Shengtong
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Zhang, Shengtong
author_facet Zhang, Shengtong
contents For any $ε> 0$, we show that if $G$ is a regular graph on $n \gg_ε1$ vertices that is $ε$-far (differs by at least $εn^2$ edges) from any Turán graph, then its second eigenvalue $λ_2$ satisfies $$λ_2 \geq n^{1/4 - ε}.$$ The exponent $1/4$ is optimal. Our result generalizes an analogous bound, independently obtained by Balla, Räty -- Sudakov-Tomon, and Ihringer, which only applies to graphs with density at most $\frac{1}{2}$. Up to a lower-order factor, this confirms a conjecture of Räty, Sudakov and Tomon. Our spectral approach has interesting applications to max-cut. First, we show that if a graph $G$, on $n \gg_ε1$ vertices and $m$ edges, is $ε$-far from a disjoint union of cliques, then it has a max-cut of size at least $$\frac{m}{2} + n^{1.01}.$$ Our result improves upon a classical result of Edwards by a non-trivial polynomial factor, making progress towards another conjecture of Räty, Sudakov and Tomon. As another application of our method, we show that if a graph $G$ is $H$-free and has $m$ edges, then $G$ has a max-cut of size at least $$\frac{m}{2} + c_H m^{0.5001}$$ where $c_H > 0$ is some constant depending on $H$ only. This result makes progress towards a conjecture of Alon, Bollobás, Krivelevich and Sudakov, and answers recent questions by Glock-Janzer-Sudakov and Balla-Janzer-Sudakov.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_10037
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Alon-Boppana--type bound for very dense graphs, with applications to max-cut
Zhang, Shengtong
Combinatorics
Spectral Theory
For any $ε> 0$, we show that if $G$ is a regular graph on $n \gg_ε1$ vertices that is $ε$-far (differs by at least $εn^2$ edges) from any Turán graph, then its second eigenvalue $λ_2$ satisfies $$λ_2 \geq n^{1/4 - ε}.$$ The exponent $1/4$ is optimal. Our result generalizes an analogous bound, independently obtained by Balla, Räty -- Sudakov-Tomon, and Ihringer, which only applies to graphs with density at most $\frac{1}{2}$. Up to a lower-order factor, this confirms a conjecture of Räty, Sudakov and Tomon. Our spectral approach has interesting applications to max-cut. First, we show that if a graph $G$, on $n \gg_ε1$ vertices and $m$ edges, is $ε$-far from a disjoint union of cliques, then it has a max-cut of size at least $$\frac{m}{2} + n^{1.01}.$$ Our result improves upon a classical result of Edwards by a non-trivial polynomial factor, making progress towards another conjecture of Räty, Sudakov and Tomon. As another application of our method, we show that if a graph $G$ is $H$-free and has $m$ edges, then $G$ has a max-cut of size at least $$\frac{m}{2} + c_H m^{0.5001}$$ where $c_H > 0$ is some constant depending on $H$ only. This result makes progress towards a conjecture of Alon, Bollobás, Krivelevich and Sudakov, and answers recent questions by Glock-Janzer-Sudakov and Balla-Janzer-Sudakov.
title An Alon-Boppana--type bound for very dense graphs, with applications to max-cut
topic Combinatorics
Spectral Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10037