Pendant paths and integral generalized sun graphs

Abstract

A graph is integral if the spectrum of its adjacency matrix consists entirely of integers. We prove that every simple graph having a pendant path with at least three edges has an eigenvalue in $(1,2\cos(\pi/9)]$ and one in $[-2\cos(\pi/9),-1)$, and hence is not integral. This settles a conjecture of Braga, Del-Vecchio and Rodrigues (2021) on integral generalized sun graphs. The argument is matrix-theoretic: adjoining a terminal path on three new coordinates to an arbitrary real symmetric matrix produces the same spectral obstruction, and the positive interval above is optimal in this generality. We then disprove a second conjecture of the same authors, which asserts that the cycle of an integral generalized sun graph other than a cycle has length divisible by four. The graph obtained from a hexagon by attaching $6,6,12,6,6$ pendant vertices to five of its six vertices is integral and has $42$ vertices. We show that it is the smallest member of an infinite family governed by the Pell equation $x^{2}-2k^{2}=-7$, and we compute in closed form the characteristic polynomial of the analogous graphs on an arbitrary even cycle. Integrality within this family forces the cycle to be a square or a hexagon, and the square case yields a second infinite family governed by the Pell equation $k^{2}-2c^{2}=1$.