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arXiv · 2304.01281

The limit points of the top and bottom eigenvalues of regular graphs

Noga Alon·Fan Wei
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Abstract

We prove that for each $d \geq 3$ the set of all limit points of the second largest eigenvalue of growing sequences of $d$-regular graphs is $[2\sqrt{d-1},d]$. A similar argument shows that the set of all limit points of the smallest eigenvalue of growing sequences of $d$-regular graphs with growing (odd) girth is $[-d, -2 \sqrt{d-1}]$. The more general question of identifying all vectors which are limit points of the vectors of the top $k$ eigenvalues of sequences of $d$-regular graphs is considered as well. As a by product, in the study of discrete counterpart of the "scarring" phenomenon observed in the investigation of quantum ergodicity on manifolds, our technique provides a method to construct $d$-regular almost Ramanujan graphs with large girth and localized eigenvectors corresponding to eigenvalues larger than $2\sqrt{d-1}$, strengthening a result of Alon, Ganguly, and Srivastava.

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Noga Alon, Fan Wei. 2023-04-03. The limit points of the top and bottom eigenvalues of regular graphs. https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.01281

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