A maximum matching based refinement of Brouwers conjecture

Abstract

Let $G$ be a simple graph on $n$ vertices and $e(G)$ edges. Let $\mu_1\geq \cdots \geq \mu_{n-1}\geq \mu_n=0$ be the Laplacian eigenvalues of $G$. For $k=1, \ldots, n$, let $S_k(G)=\sum_{i=1}^{k}\mu_i$. Brouwers conjecture asserts that for any $k\in\{1,\ldots, n\}$, $S_k(G)\leq e(G)+\binom{k+1}{2}$. In [Bounding the sum of the largest Laplacian eigenvalues of graphs, {\em Discrete Appl. Math.}, 170:95--103, (2014)], Rocha and Trevisan showed that the conjecture holds true for $1 \leq k \leq \lfloor g/5 \rfloor$, where $g$ denotes the girth of $G$. This bound on $k$ was later improved by Chen in [Improved results on Brouwers conjecture for sum of the Laplacian eigenvalues of a graph, {\em Linear Algebra Appl.}, 557:327--338, (2018)], who established that the conjecture holds for $1 \leq k \leq \lfloor g/4 \rfloor$. In this article, we further strengthen these results by proving that the Brouwers conjecture holds for $1\leq k\leq\left\lfloor \frac{m(G)}{2}\right\rfloor,$ where $m(G)$ denotes the matching number of $G$. Since $m(G)\geq \lfloor g/2\rfloor$, the case constitutes a genuine improvement over the aforementioned results. As an application, we show that if $G$ is a graph of order $n$ and with a perfect matching, then the Brouwers conjecture holds for $1\leq k\leq \left\lfloor \frac{n}{4}\right\rfloor$. Finally, we provide a new perspective on verifying Brouwers conjecture by proving that $G$ satisfies the Brouwers conjecture if and only if for a fixed positive integer $h$, $\mathcal{S}_h(\overline{G})\leq e(\overline{G})+\binom{h+1}{2}$ holds whenever $\mathcal{S}_h(G)\leq e(G)+\binom{h+1}{2}$, where $\overline{G}$ denotes the complement of $G$.