integral graph
File:Integral and Non-Integral graphs.svg, is one of the only integral cycle graphs, whose adjacency matrix has eigenvalues . The red graph is not integral, as its eigenvalues are .]]
In the mathematical field of graph theory, an integral graph is a graph whose adjacency matrix's spectrum consists entirely of integers. In other words, a graph is an integral graph if all of the roots of the characteristic polynomial of its adjacency matrix are integers.{{MathWorld|urlname=IntegralGraph|title=Integral Graph|mode=cs2}}
The notion was introduced in 1974 by Frank Harary and Allen Schwenk.{{citation
| last1 = Harary | first1 = Frank | author1-link = Frank Harary
| last2 = Schwenk | first2 = Allen J.
| editor1-last = Bari | editor1-first = Ruth A. | editor1-link = Ruth Aaronson Bari
| editor2-last = Harary | editor2-first = Frank
| contribution = Which graphs have integral spectra?
| doi = 10.1007/BFb0066434
| mr = 0387124
| pages = 45–51
| publisher = Springer
| series = Lecture Notes in Mathematics
| title = Graphs and Combinatorics: Proceedings of the Capital Conference on Graph Theory and Combinatorics at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C., June 18–22, 1973
| volume = 406
| year = 1974}}
Examples
- The complete graph Kn is integral for all n.
- The only cycle graphs that are integral are , , and .
- If a graph is integral, then so is its complement graph; for instance, the complements of complete graphs, edgeless graphs, are integral. If two graphs are integral, then so is their Cartesian product and strong product; for instance, the Cartesian products of two complete graphs, the rook's graphs, are integral.{{citation
| last = Doob | first = Michael
| doi = 10.1016/0024-3795(70)90037-6
| journal = Linear Algebra and its Applications
| mr = 285432
| pages = 461–482
| title = On characterizing certain graphs with four eigenvalues by their spectra
| volume = 3
| year = 1970| doi-access = free
}} Similarly, the hypercube graphs, as Cartesian products of any number of complete graphs , are integral.
- The line graph of a regular integral graph is again integral. For instance, as the line graph of , the octahedral graph is integral, and as the complement of the line graph of , the Petersen graph is integral.
- Among the cubic symmetric graphs the utility graph, the Petersen graph, the Nauru graph and the Desargues graph are integral.
- The Higman–Sims graph, the Hall–Janko graph, the Clebsch graph, the Hoffman–Singleton graph, the Shrikhande graph and the Hoffman graph are integral.
- A regular graph is periodic if and only if it is an integral graph.
- A walk-regular graph that admits perfect state transfer is an integral graph.
- The Sudoku graphs, graphs whose vertices represent cells of a Sudoku board and whose edges represent cells that should not be equal, are integral.{{citation
| last = Sander | first = Torsten
| issue = 1
| journal = Electronic Journal of Combinatorics
| mr = 2529816
| page = Note 25, 7
| title = Sudoku graphs are integral
| url = https://www.combinatorics.org/Volume_16/Abstracts/v16i1n25.html
| volume = 16
| year = 2009}}