A strong nullity parameter for rooted graphs

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Abiad, Aida, Flagg, Mary, Hall, H. Tracy, Lin, Jephian C. -H., Shader, Bryan
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Abiad, Aida
Flagg, Mary
Hall, H. Tracy
Lin, Jephian C. -H.
Shader, Bryan
author_facet Abiad, Aida
Flagg, Mary
Hall, H. Tracy
Lin, Jephian C. -H.
Shader, Bryan
contents The inverse eigenvalue problem of a graph $G$ studies the possible spectra of matrices associated with $G$, including as an important subproblem the possible nullities of such a matrix. Much research in this area to date has focused only on the spectrum of the matrix itself, but there are applications of inverse eigenvalue problems that also involve the interaction between that spectrum and the spectrum of some maximal proper principal submatrix, or in other words the interlacing spectrum that results from crossing out any one row and the same column. Motivated by this refined information, given a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with a designated root vertex, we investigate all possible nullity pairs where the first nullity is that of an $n \times n$ symmetric matrix associated to $G$ and the second nullity is that of the principal submatrix of size $(n - 1) \times (n - 1)$ that results from deleting the row and column associated to the root vertex. We define a new parameter $ξξ(G,i)$ for rooted graphs $(G,i)$ equipped with the strong nullity interlacing property that coordinates the two values of a nullity pair, and we show that this graph parameter is minor monotone. Moreover, we prove a bifurcation lemma for the strong nullity interlacing property. We use these new tools to characterize the rooted graphs with $ξξ(G,i) \geq s$ for $s \in \{ 0,1,2,3,4, 5\}$ by finding the minimal minors for each of these families. These families turn out to have strong connections to the minimal minors for $ξ(G) \geq k$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_00899
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A strong nullity parameter for rooted graphs
Abiad, Aida
Flagg, Mary
Hall, H. Tracy
Lin, Jephian C. -H.
Shader, Bryan
Combinatorics
05C50, 05C83, 15A03, 15B57, 65F18
The inverse eigenvalue problem of a graph $G$ studies the possible spectra of matrices associated with $G$, including as an important subproblem the possible nullities of such a matrix. Much research in this area to date has focused only on the spectrum of the matrix itself, but there are applications of inverse eigenvalue problems that also involve the interaction between that spectrum and the spectrum of some maximal proper principal submatrix, or in other words the interlacing spectrum that results from crossing out any one row and the same column. Motivated by this refined information, given a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with a designated root vertex, we investigate all possible nullity pairs where the first nullity is that of an $n \times n$ symmetric matrix associated to $G$ and the second nullity is that of the principal submatrix of size $(n - 1) \times (n - 1)$ that results from deleting the row and column associated to the root vertex. We define a new parameter $ξξ(G,i)$ for rooted graphs $(G,i)$ equipped with the strong nullity interlacing property that coordinates the two values of a nullity pair, and we show that this graph parameter is minor monotone. Moreover, we prove a bifurcation lemma for the strong nullity interlacing property. We use these new tools to characterize the rooted graphs with $ξξ(G,i) \geq s$ for $s \in \{ 0,1,2,3,4, 5\}$ by finding the minimal minors for each of these families. These families turn out to have strong connections to the minimal minors for $ξ(G) \geq k$.
title A strong nullity parameter for rooted graphs
topic Combinatorics
05C50, 05C83, 15A03, 15B57, 65F18
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00899